Carolina/Clemson Hateweek: Monday - Pace Yourself

Happy Monday, campers. Probably won't have time to deal with politics this week, because there are more important things to argue about. Today, we begin the hateweek with a slow simmering. 

On Saturday, Carolina travels up to take on the Clemson Tigers on Saturday. For those of you who might have been asleep for the past five years, Carolina has won the last five games against Clemson, or as the Augusta Chronicle puts it, "Clemson has lost to South Carolina five  years in a row."Either way, really.

Accordingly, the Clemson fans are really, really hoping that they don't continue to lose to Carolina. Clemson has a few reasons to be optimistic. First, the game is up at their place, so they'll have the home field advantage. Second, the Clemson team has been playing pretty well, while Carolina has been struggling, especially on defense. Third, all the Clemson players are going to be motivated to win because...well...that's what happens when you lose five in a row. So there is reason for Clemson fans to be optimistic. In fact, Vegas even has Clemson favored by a few points.

On the other hand....

College Football This Weekend

So....who had Auburn Missouri in the SEC Championship Game? I mean anyone besides Biff Tannen and his sports almanac.

First, the Alabama-Auburn Game ended like this:

Roll Tears.

In other news, South Carolina beat Clemson. The difference in the game was the grindingly sold performance of Connor Shaw vs. the let down performance of Tajh Boyd. Shaw goes down in USC history as probably the best QB in USC history. He's got the most wins, the most rushing yards, and never lost to Clemson. Not bad.

For Tajh Boyd, he's going to have a weird legacy at Clemson. He took them to an ACC Championship, and he's broken all kinds of records, but he's going to have "he never beat South Carolina" grumbled after his name is mentioned.

One problem was that Clemson had last night was that they turned over the ball a few times. Well, more that a few. How many turnovers did Clemson have?

Six.  Six of them. One less than seven. By the way, this would make an excellent Christmas Gift for any Clemson fan on your list.

What a crazy game this is.

Clemson to Offer Swinney a Six-Year Deal

Per ESPN's Joe Shad, it looks like the Clemson Tigers are going to go "All In" for Dabo Swinney and give him a six year deal. Even with Clemson's ACC title last year, I'm a little surprised that Clemson is giving him six years.

Swinney has a record of 25-10 over three full seasons, and he's had some big wins (and a title), but I'm just not sold on him. I also know plenty of Tiger fans who aren't 100% sold on Swinney.

But hey, I'm a Gamecock Fan, so if Clemson wants to roll the dice and write a big check for six years...that's cool with me. I love that he gets really fired up when Spurrier whoops his team's ass, and I'm looking forward to year number four and the ensuing Swinney press conference.

Oh, and just for fun, let's listen to this again (skip to 1:50 mark):

Oh, Dabo...I hope you never leave Clemson.

The Importance of the Rose Bowl

Rachel Bachman likes the Rose Bowl. How much does she like it? Apparently, she likes the Rose Bow so much that she is advocating for the Big Ten and the Pac 12 to secede from the NCAA (and form their own little football league) in the face of a playoff system, because a playoff system might hurt the prestige of the Rose Bowl. How quaint.

I like the Rose Bowl, too. It has a great tradition. But let's be serious here. If the Big Ten and the Pac 12 decided to leave the rest of the college football world, literally taking their ball and going home, they're going to be missed. But not that much.

They need to renew their vows and pledge themselves to serve the greater glory of the best thing about college football: the Rose Bowl.

The Rose Bowl is great, but it isn't the "best thing about college football". It's one piece of the puzzle. There's so much that's great about college football, you could abolish the Rose Bowl today, and college football would survive. You would still have Army/Navy game, Notre Dame's Irish Guard, Alabama would still have the Bear, Florida would still have memories of Spurrier, Clemson and Carolina would still be feuding, Texas would still have Bevo and huge egos, Ole Miss would still have the Grove, and that's just to name a few. I could go on all day. College football is bigger than one bowl game: even the Rose.

So what would happen if the Big Ten and the Pac 12 packed it in to save their precious Rose Bowl?

The Rose Bowl would become a joke. It would be HEY THERE'S A PLAYOFF SYSTEM, and "Oh yeah, they still have the Rose Bowl". Rather than be part of the system, the Rose would be all alone. The Big Ten and the Pac 12 can say goodbye to getting any good recruits, they can say goodbye to the millions of dollars that come from the TV deals revolving around the new playoff system, and they can say goodbye to legitimacy in the college football world. This may be news to Ms. Bachman, but the TV networks don't care about basking in the greater glory of the Rose Bowl. They care about basking in the greater glory of MONEY. It's all about the money.

Also, I don't accept the premise that the playoff system would diminish the Rose Bowl. I went to the Capital One Bowl in Orlando last year to watch my Gamecocks trounce the Cornhuskers. It didn't bother me that there were other games to be played later that would determine the champion. Having a playoff system won't really marginalize any other bowls to the extent they aren't already marginal games anyway. In fact, we should probably eliminate some bowl games. (PapaJohns.com Bowl, I'm looking in your direction.)

I'm not sure what Ms. Bachman thinks she knows about college football, but she's seriously misguided. Seceding from the larger union of college football would have disastrous effects on the Big Ten, the Pac 12, and the Rose Bowl. Let's all get on the same page and get a playoff system. And maybe we can toss in relegation. That would be fun.

Word of the Day (Orange Bowl Edition)

Clemson loses to West Virginia in the Orange Bowl, 70-33

Word of the day to describe how Gamecock Nation is feeling today: schadenfreude