If you're into podcasts, there's a relatively new one from Larry Williams of Tiger Illustrated called the Clemson Dubcast. He's had some outstanding guests, including an interview with legendary Whitey Jordan that is out of this world. It contains some great historical information on the program and the ACC (hint: USCjr left the ACC because of academic requirements on football players. We stayed but it hurt our program for over a decade).
Check it out. It's on all of the standard platforms.
Maybe they had multiple reasons for leaving? I'm just quoting what Whitey Jordan said during the interview. Perhaps he's overly football (and golf) centric in his views.