AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. — In the Southeastern Conference, Alabama plays Tennessee on the third Saturday in October every year. Georgia vs. Florida is always played on the last Saturday in October. Georgia vs. Auburn is always on the same weekend, and then there are other rivalry games such Ole Miss vs. Mississippi State and Alabama vs. Auburn in the regular season finale.

When it comes to conference games, the Atlantic Coast Conference doesn’t feel the same way about its rivalries. The conference’s traditional games such as Florida State vs. Miami, Clemson vs. Georgia Tech, North Carolina vs. Duke and UNC vs. NC State don’t always fall on the same dates. The only one that does is Virginia vs. Virginia Tech as the two always conclude their regular season against each other.

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher has brought this point up at prior meetings, such as this week’s ACC Spring Meetings in Amelia Island, Fla. He feels setting dates for the ACC’s traditional rivalry games would be good for the conference and its television partner, ESPN. In other words, it will perhaps get people talking about the ACC more or give the conference more exposure.

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney did not disagree with Fisher’s idea, but he said it something that really does not affect Clemson as much as it does some other program’s inside the ACC, whose traditional rivals are inside the conference as well.

Of course Clemson’s biggest rival is South Carolina, who since 1960 has traditionally played the Tigers in the last game of the regular season.

“I did have more of an opinion when I was at Alabama. I was stronger in that because when I was growing up the Tennessee (game) was always the third week in October. That’s just the way it was. We played Auburn at the end of the year. That’s just the way it has always been,” Swinney said to The Clemson Insider and others at the ACC Spring Meetings. “I still feel that way about South Carolina. I think it ought to be an end-of-the-year (game). I don’t think it should be a beginning-of-the-year or middle-of-the-year game.

“I’m a traditionalist in that regard. But as far as the other games that we play, I’m sure there are other dynamics from other schools that have more mitigating factors than what I have. Do Clemson and Georgia Tech always play on a certain day or Clemson-Florida State, I don’t know?”

Swinney sees how it can help the conference, but he pointed out there are games in the SEC that move around as well and it does not seem to have an affect one way or the other.

“When does Florida State and Miami play? Should there be a set time? Like I said, there are probably more circumstances at other schools than what we necessarily have at Clemson,” he said.