Why Steve Spurrier thinks Clemson would be a fit for the SEC
With rumors and reports swirling in previous weeks about conference realignment, several teams are most often mentioned as potential expansion targets for the SEC or Big Ten. Clemson is one of them.
Dabo Swinney’s Tigers program has been considered a hot commodity for years, with several recent reports saying Clemson is being strongly considered by the SEC and Big Ten to join the respective conferences.
Ex-Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden told The State last week that if Clemson leaves the ACC, a move to the SEC makes the most sense. Former South Carolina head coach Steve Spurrier echoed the sentiment in comments published Wednesday.
“They certainly could slide right into the SEC,” Spurrier told USA Today SEC columnist Blake Toppmeyer.
Spurrier, who was the head coach at Duke from 1987 to 1989, said the Clemson teams he faced during his time in the ACC played like SEC-level teams.
“When I coached at Duke, Clemson was actually like an SEC school in the ACC,” Spurrier told Toppmeyer. “That was before FSU, Syracuse and Virginia Tech (joined the ACC). When you played Clemson, they looked like SEC guys.”
In those three years as head coach of the Blue Devils, Spurrier was 1-2 against Clemson, allowing 83 points across three games and losing as badly as 49-17 in the 1988 matchup.
“Their defensive guys were a little bit bigger, a little bit faster,” Spurrier told Toppmeyer. “They just lined up and tried to smash you. That was their style of offense.”
At South Carolina, Spurrier had better fortune against Clemson, going 6-4 during his 10 years at the helm of the program in Columbia. And Spurrier and Swinney were known to publicly trade comments regarding the in-state rivalry.
A potential move for Clemson to the SEC, for now, is still just a hypothetical. Saturday Down South reported Monday that the SEC does not have a desire to expand beyond 16 teams.
“We’re positioned at 16 (teams) for a robust future,” an SEC athletic director told Saturday Down South under the condition of anonymity. “The need just isn’t there.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2022 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Why Steve Spurrier thinks Clemson would be a fit for the SEC."
