SB Nation Conference Re-Draft Makes Georgia Bulldogs and Clemson Tigers Conference Rivals
by T Kyle King on Jul 1, 2011 8:05 AM EDT
in Georgia Bulldogs Football
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PrintWith the first pick of the seventh round of SB Nation’s Conference Re-Draft Project, the 12 Pack has selected the Clemson Tigers.
As you could probably tell from reading the announcement of the selection linked to above, I heavily lobbied for the Country Gentlemen with the 12 Pack’s conference commissioner, BC Interruption. The Georgia Bulldogs have a long and storied rivalry with the Jungaleers featuring some epic contests and classic moments, so much so that someone ought to write a book about the series. (Oh, wait . . . someone has.)
The transcontinental 12 Pack continues to form a ring around the country, as Clemson adds yet another state that borders a national boundary, an ocean, or both. As an academic institution, Clemson University has improved steadily from its earliest days as a small provincial school best known for its military, agricultural, and textile education, rising to the point that Clemson, like the other six members of the newly-formed league, ranks in the top 65 nationally.
The Tigers have been on the upswing in men’s basketball, winning more than 20 games in each of the last five seasons and making it to four straight NCAA Tournaments since Clemson’s runner-up finish in its third consecutive NIT to wrap up the 2006-’07 campaign. In football, the Orange and Purple have won more ACC championships than any other program in the history of the league, capped off by their 1981 national championship.
Georgia and Clemson continue to meet twice annually on the diamond, and the Tiger baseball team has failed to make the NCAA Regional field just once since 1986. During that quarter-century of sustained success, the Country Gentlemen have claimed a dozen regional championships and four super-regional titles en route to seven College World Series appearances, including two trips to Omaha in the last six seasons. Also, for those who like that sort of thing, Clemson added men’s soccer as a varsity sport in 1924, before most Americans had ever heard of soccer, and the Jungaleers have two NCAA national titles in the sport.
The 12 Pack, which started in the Southwest with the Texas Longhorns and proceeded to pluck top-tier overall athletics programs with excellent academics from the West (UCLA Bruins), Pacific Northwest (Washington Huskies), and Midwest (Wisconsin Badgers), has circled back around to the Southeast to pick up a former ACC foil for the Duke Blue Devils and restore a traditional rivalry for the Red and Black by putting Georgia and Clemson in the same conference for the first time since 1932. (Actually, there is a technical sense in which the Bulldogs and the Tigers squared off in conference contests in the mid-1960s, but I’ll leave it to a knowledgeable commenter to explain how this is so. My money’s on NCT, but, if you get to it before he does, by all means, knock yourself out.)
We warmly welcome our blood rivals from Lake Hartwell into the 12 Pack. Are you ready for some football? It sure sounds like they are.
Go ‘Dawgs!
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Glad to see us get Clemson
I’ll admit that I have scoured the internet in search of this 1960s quirk you mentioned regarding conferences. Haven’t found anything, someone smarter than me drop some knowledge on us please.
Dawg fan by birth,
no longer in Beaumont by the grace of God.
by Dawg in Beaumont on Jul 1, 2011 8:19 AM EDT reply actions
Clemson as an SEC rival
I’m not an expert on the era, because I was born in the middle of it, but the general gist of how Clemson briefly was a conference rival should be common knowledge among Georgia fans.
Bobby Dodd yanked the Yellow Jackets out of the SEC somewhat abruptly, causing potential scheduling difficulties for a few years. Because Tech was no longer an SEC school beginning in 1964, the conference had to figure out a way to determine conference standings for a few years for those programs who thought they had a conference game with Tech on the schedule but suddenly no longer did. Rather than continue to count the Tech games, certain non-conference match-ups were designated as official conference games to count toward the standings.
I believe this method lasted for four years. In 1964 and 1965, Georgia’s wins over Clemson counted as SEC games for Georgia. In 1966 and 1967, it was our contests with North Carolina that filled in for the Tech game.
As far as I can tell, this temporary adjustment of conference-game designation affected only UGA and Tulane, the latter of which had a game against the University of Miami count as an SEC game in 1964. Bama and Auburn played Tech in 1964, but the Tide and Plainsmen had extra games on their SEC slates and didn’t need to find non-SEC substitutes.
grr.
There was nothing potential about the difficulties, but those difficulties weren’t so much with scheduling as they were with standings determination.
I do not know as fact the reason why the league did not simply continue counting GT games to determine conference standings, but I have a strong suspicion.
If anyone (including fans of other programs — Kleph, are you there?) with better and/or more knowledge can add anything, I’d love to hear it.
by NCT on Jul 1, 2011 8:58 AM EDT up reply actions
booo
there was better value on the board. Clemson’s like a 12th, maybe 15th round pick. Horrible reach at that level.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
I had Clemson
between 3-7 on my best available list (they weren’t my first choice).
Thus, it’s not a reach, for I doubt Clemson would’ve dropped 12 spots to the end of the 8th round…If this is the team we wanted (yes, we*), then why not?
*It’s funny, for I’m starting to take this too seriously!
"Insert witty and/or funny quote here" ~ The Person Who Spoketh Said Quote.
Re: *
What are you gonna do? Nice college boy, didn’t want to get mixed up in the family business. Now you want to gun down a police captain. Why? Because he slapped you in the face a little? What do you think this like the Army where you can shoot ‘em from a mile away? No you gotta get up like this and, badda-bing, you blow their brains all over your nice Ivy League suit. C’mere. You’re taking this very personal. Tom, this is business and this man is taking it very, very personal
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
If a school is 3-7 on the board, then they aren’t a reach.
Did we draft Washington a bit high? Sure, but U-Dub was our last best shot of putting the PNW on lock, plus it added a strong regional brand and a school that isn’t an academic slouch. And it’s difficult to explain the value of a program like Washington to those from outside the West Coast.
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
Clemson doesn't come back around again at 8/9
If football is the tail that wags the dog, then there’s no reason to sniff at picking up the largest football stadium left on the board (on-campus, too), a team with a passionate fan base and an institutional commitment to football. Plus quality academics and an awesome destination.
You don’t get that at a lot of other schools left on the board.
BC Interruption, SBN's Boston College Eagles blog
And, as UGA fans,
I welcome a weekend where I’m not traveling to L.A. or Seattle!
"Insert witty and/or funny quote here" ~ The Person Who Spoketh Said Quote.
“Plus quality academics and an awesome destination”
Just to be clear, we’re talking about Clemson?
/has degrees from South Carolina and Georgia
//out of respect for our host’s family friendly environs, fornicate Clemson
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
As destinations, though, Clemson and Columbia are not comparable.
Clemson has the prettier campus and the superior stadium, hands down.
In terms of the U.S. News & World Report rankings, it’s no comparison, either. Clemson ranks 64th. South Carolina is somewhere in the neighborhood of 111th.
So, yeah, as compared to South Carolina, Clemson clearly provides “quality academics and an awesome destination.”
Go 'Dawgs!
That's like saying Burglecutt was taller than Willow, Kyle
as compared to South Carolina, Clemson clearly provides "quality academics and an awesome destination."
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
Granted.
However, we are in the seventh round. The “home run” draft choices already are off the board.
Go 'Dawgs!
To use a basketball term, there was still "upside"
UConn, South Florida, Oklahoma St, TCU, Central Florida, Utah, Mizzou, Colorado, among others represent a much higher potential than Clemson. Let’s face it, their current levels in football, basketball, TV market share, are probably as good as they’ll ever get. While Missouri and Colorado represent larger TV shares amongst established programs and room for growth to possibly big boy status in both major sports. The first mentioned 6 represent programs on the rise with a seemed upside to become elite programs.
At least by drafting Clemson, we now have our Mississippi St. A decent enough school by every measure, but also an established marker for all the conference’s major programs to judge when a coach is doing poorly enough to be fired.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
True, . . .
. . . but there’s still plenty of “upside” left on the board for the later rounds.
I’m not sure some of those teams qualify, though. Texas Christian hardly represents a school with untapped potential; it just happened to be at its best in the Southwest Conference in the 1930s. Likewise, Colorado and Missouri have “potential” in the same sense that Dippin’ Dots is “the ice cream of the future.” Once you’ve been the ice cream of the future for 20 years, it’s pretty clear you’re never going to be the ice cream of the present.
Go 'Dawgs!
Good point on Colorado and Missouri...
although I think some of that failed potential can come from not having the right leaders in charge.
And TCU I say as “untapped” because it seems like they just recently decided to invest the resources to join big boy programs. The market is there, the funding is there, and now that that desire is there, I think they could see a quick rise in prominence.
http://sportsandgrits.blogspot.com/
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