By William Qualkinbush.

By William Qualkinbush.

July 1 is always a pretty solid day.

Independence Day is right around the corner. The dog days of summer are upon us. Pennant races in baseball are taking shape. Annual vacations, day-long trips to watery places, and weekend getaways make this a laid-back time of year for many people.

For a lot of businesses, it marks the beginning of the fiscal year—a chance to turn the page, start over, and do better than the previous 12 months. In athletics, this phenomenon exists as well.

In June, there are still some remnants of the previous school year’s worth of collegiate athletics. The College World Series closes out the baseball season, while track and field holds its national championships for the outdoor season. Players are still being named to honorary teams and lists.

As much as we would love to turn the page, we must wait. The calendar dictates it.

But now, on July 1, a new athletic calendar year officially begins. Louisville is now officially in the ACC, meaning the newest version of conference realignment is in place and ready for analysis. Maryland is gone, so we never have to consider them again.

I set a strange goal for myself this year: I decided to respect the athletic calendar. I vowed to talk as little football as possible until July 1. This way, I could give the old athletic calendar adequacy while saving up to hit the new one with guns blazing.

Well, the day is finally here. A new athletic fiscal year is upon us, and we can officially start to celebrate it. Newness is all over college football. Now it’s fair game.

The past is now actually in the past, and the future has come. We are living in day one of a 365-day ride that is sure to both shake and uphold our commonly held assertions about Clemson athletics and beyond.

Football season is always exciting because of the run-up to it. There is so much time between the end of competition and the beginning of the next cycle that we can beat the conversation into the ground. Now, that process can begin in earnest.

Over the next few weeks, many of us will be diving head-over-heels into college football however we can—magazines, video games, predictions, betting lines, and on and on and on it goes.

Why do we do this? Because it’s new every year. Actually, its new every year on July 1. Today is a special day.

Beat Belgium.

God Bless!

WQ