Clemson didn’t resemble an ACC football team throughout the 1980s – not to Steve Spurrier, who was a Duke assistant and later its coach during that decade. The Tigers won the ACC five times in the ’80s.
“When I coached at Duke, Clemson was actually like an SEC school in the ACC,” Spurrier said. “That was before FSU, Syracuse and Virginia Tech (joined the ACC). When you played Clemson, they looked like SEC guys.”
Spurrier’s South Carolina tenure came to mind when asking him whether Clemson would be a good fit for the SEC, if the conference desires more expansion. Spurrier’s time with the Gamecocks overlapped with rival Clemson’s ascent under Dabo Swinney.
But the Head Ball Coach’s up-close examination of Clemson’s bona fides dates to Danny Ford leading the Tigers to their first national championship in 1981.
STAY UP-TO-DATE: Subscribe to our Sports newsletter now!
“Their defensive guys were a little bit bigger, a little bit faster,” Spurrier said of Clemson’s ’80s teams. “They just lined up and tried to smash you. That was their style of offense.
“They certainly could slide right into the SEC.”
Decades later, the Tigers still fit the SEC profile.
Conference realignment and expansion are ingrained in college sports. While Spurrier was Florida’s coach, the SEC added Arkansas and South Carolina. Spurrier particularly approved of that round of expansion, which allowed the SEC to split into divisions and host a conference championship game. Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league while Spurrier was at South Carolina.
The SEC will grow to 16 teams by 2025 with the additions of Oklahoma and Texas, and the Big Ten will counter with Southern Cal and UCLA in 2024.
The SEC and Big Ten raids are aided by industry-leading media rights deals.
OPINION: Envisioning what a 20-team future for SEC football could look like
MORE EXPANSION TALK: What South Carolina football stands to gain (or lose) if Clemson joins SEC
While the Big Ten hasn’t allowed geography to hinder its expansion quest – the conference will stretch from Piscataway, New Jersey, to Los Angeles – the SEC mostly has adhered to its Southern brand.
Clemson and Florida State are two ACC programs that would fit that culture.
The SEC eyed FSU during its early ’90s expansion, but the Seminoles chose the ACC, leaving an…