Friday, November 13, 2009

Clemson knows how to throw a recruiting party

*The Tigers had almost 100 recruits in town—on official and unofficial visits—for their victory over Florida State last weekend, according to CUTigers.com. The 40-24 win probably didn’t hurt their chances with many of them. Sounds like a weekend roundup of prime beef, and now they can (metaphorically speaking) start culling the herd.

*The SEC continues to pound the ACC and almost everyone else (The Big 12, with Oklahoma and Texas ranked Nos. 1 and 2 by Scout.com, might take offense). The problem for the ACC is that it competes on a regular basis with the SEC for players—the Southeastern U.S. is home base for much of each league.

So far, the SEC is winning those battles with regularity; it has collected 22 of Scout’s Top 100 players in the Class of 2010, while the ACC has five. That shows in the overall rankings—the SEC is No.1; the ACC is fifth, also trailing the Big 12, the Big Ten and the Pac-10.

*Just my two cents here, but the SEC should swap South Carolina to the ACC for Miami. Can you imagine placing the Gamecocks in the same division with Clemson? And South Carolina might finally win that elusive division title. The bottom line, though, is that it makes so much geographical sense.

--Stan Olson

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stan, as a Gamecock fan, I think that is a great idea. The SEC is a great conference but bottom line its hard for us to compete with a lot of those teams. But, I am under no impression, that USC would win the ACC in football. The ACC is a little down right now but have the teams to be a great conference. My biggest reason to go to the ACC is basketball. The ACC is THE conference in basketball and it would be a lot more exciting to play Duke, UNC, Maryland, GT and the rest of those guys instead Mississippi State, Georgia, Vanderbilt....its just a boring basketball conference. I'm sure it will never happen, but I think it would be cool.

Anonymous said...

Geographically, Miami @ Kentucky or Miami @ Arkansas isn't much better than Miami @ BC. Isn't Fayetteville near the Oklahoma state line?

I'd rather take Penn State or West Virginia for the ACC, but I doubt that would happen.

Also, South Carolina football does not equal Miami football. Miami hasnt been a powerhouse lately, but they could field a national championship team recruiting only from Dade county if they keep a solid coaching staff in place. South Carolina typically fields a good 500 team. I think Miami just shows more promise.

Anonymous said...

There's only one problem with that idea Stan. Wouldn't South Carolina presumably have to beat Clemson to win that division? That's something they've proven consistently unable to do for the better part of 100 years. Actually, this might have the opposite effect. Clemson might finally be able to win the division with the guaranteed win against South Carolina every year. Steven Bowers

Anonymous said...

Yeah, Steven theres no arguing Clemson has had USC's number however teams like Maryland, BC and Georgia Tech have your number. With the conference as weak as it is, if you dont win it this year, you're never gonna win it because Miami and FSU won't remain the dogs they currently are.

Anonymous said...

doesn't anyone remember S.Carolina WAS in the ACC, and left! Biggest mistake they ever made. They made their bed, now they can lie in it. The ACC is a much better conference without SC.

Stan Olson said...

Guys, I agree that it wouldn't be an even trade football-wise. But I like SC's long time ACC tradition, their rivalries with Clemson, UNC, N.C. State and Georgia Tech (they could still play Georgia out of conference). I just think it's a better fit.

And Fayetteville is near the Oklahoma line. Arkansas used to be in the Southwest Conference, in fact.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, we'll lie in our bed of cash from the SEC/ESPN deal....thanks. Enjoy that $75 you get from Raycom every week. The ACC is the 5th best football conference in the country and thats undisputed, you have inferior teams in an inferior conference.

The Reid said...

I liked what Anonymous 11:31 said. The ACC should go and get West Virginia. That way they could renew their rivalries with Virginia, Virginia Tech, and Maryland. However, I think the ACC should also try and convince South Florida to join the conference as well because they'd need another team in that scenario to make sure there was an even number of teams. Can you imagine the ACC having 3 of the 4 major college teams in the state of Florida? That would be huge.

Anonymous said...

When in recent history has geography, or common sense, dictated anything in big-time collegiate sports? Fact is, University of South Carolina brings no new money to the ACC as the ACC affiliates already have deals throughout the state. Losing Miami would lose many affiliates throughout south Florida.

Therefore, the ACC would be throwing away money and reach, and the SEC would gladly swap everything in the state of S Carolina for a stronghold on south Florida.