By Will Vandervort.
By Will Vandervort
ATLANTA — It’s only fitting that Clemson is playing in the Chick-fil-A Bowl against another Southeastern Conference team. When the 13th-ranked Tigers take on No. 7 LSU in the Georgia Dome on New Year’s Eve, it will mark the third different SEC team they have played this year and the ninth such matchup versus a team from the SEC since 2009.
Clemson has posted a 3-5 record in the previous eight contests. The Tigers will open the 2013 football season against Georgia in Death Valley.
“In a span of 12 months starting this past August, we will have played Auburn, South Carolina, now LSU and then Georgia to open up the season,” Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney said during Friday’s press conference from the Sheraton in downtown Atlanta . “So we might as well be in the SEC. Heck, that’s a pretty full schedule right there. But we’re excited about having the opportunity.
“If you want to be the best, you want to put yourself in those situations to play the teams that are considered the best.”
Clemson (10-2) is the only Atlantic Coast Conference team to beat an SEC opponent this year, as it took down Auburn 26-19 in the Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic on Sept. 1 in the same building it will be playing LSU in. But after that, the ACC dropped the next four and is 1-5 overall against the big bullies from the SEC.
No conference in college football has been as dominant as the SEC. In the last seven years alone, the conference has produced the last six national champions and it will have a chance for a seventh when Alabama plays Notre Dame in the BCS Championship game.
Swinney says it all goes back to the big television contract the SEC inked with ESPN and CBS Sports in 2008.
“I think just their TV contract has been huge,” he said. “I think that’s probably been one of the things that impacted them tremendously. Recruiting, they have great coaches, great tradition and it’s a great area to recruit college football players here in the southeast.
“I think they have maximized every opportunity and every resource that they’ve had available to them through their conference.”
Whatever the reason, the SEC has produced some pretty dominate teams over the years. Last year, Alabama and LSU squared off for the national championship. This year Alabama went 12-1, Florida went 11-1, Georgia is 11-2, South Carolina is 10-2 and so is Texas A&M and of course LSU.
“So for whatever the reason (the ACC has) really not produced that dominant team. We have been very competitive from top to bottom and much more balanced in that regard,” Swinney said. “The SEC has been really heavy on the top end and has had some very, very dominant teams that have been 12-0 or 11-1 pretty consistently.
“I think it all goes back to, first of all, great programs, great coaches, the area they are in, great TV contract exposure, all that stuff and recruiting at a high level.”
That’s why LSU defensive back Eric Reid says SEC teams always get the other teams’ best shot when they play in these types of games.
“I could see how a team outside the SEC could play with a chip on their shoulder because a lot of people say we’re the best conference,” he said. “I know (Clemson) is going to come out with that sort of intensity from the jump and we’re going to have to match it. We want to represent our conference well and hopefully we can get a victory.”
When the ball is kicked off at 7:30 p.m. Monday, will any of this SEC vs. ACC stuff matter?
“At the end of the day, football is still football,” Clemson center Dalton Freeman said. “We play some great competition in the ACC. We also play South Carolina, Auburn and other teams in the SEC. So we’re used to seeing this kind of stuff. I don’t think the SEC varies that much in style from the ACC.
“It’s all great competition.”