Ad Disclosure
Dabo Swinney and Clemson weren’t budging this summer when the ACC and ESPN requested that it move its rivalry game against South Carolina to Black Friday.
And on Monday night, the Tigers head coach — who’s never shy with his words — had a little fun at ESPN’s expense with the South Carolina game fast approaching.
“It’s the highest-ranked rivalry game in the country — how cool is that? You’d think (ESPN’s College) GameDay would be here, but I think they’re mad at me for not moving the game to Friday,” said Swinney on his radio show on Monday night.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney on his radio show tonight, talking the South Carolina game: "It's the highest ranked rivalry game in the country — how cool is that? You'd think GameDay would be here, but I think they're mad at me for not moving the game to Friday"
— Chapel Fowler (@chapelfowler) November 26, 2024
The 2024 version of South Carolina-Clemson at Death Valley won’t just be a rivalry game. It will be full of College Football Playoff implications, with the surging Gamecocks at 8-3 and the Tigers at 9-2. South Carolina was ranked 16th and Clemson sat at No. 12 in Sunday’s AP Poll, with the latest Playoff rankings being released on Tuesday night.
Had Clemson agreed to move the game back in the summer, it would have been played in primetime on Friday. Instead, the showdown will be a noon ET kickoff on Saturday on ESPN, just not with the College GameDay pregame craziness preceding it on Saturday morning.
The popular pregame show will instead be in College Station on Saturday morning for the titanic Texas-Texas A&M primetime matchup.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
