CLEMSON — Last year, ESPN and the ACC approached Clemson about moving its home game with rival South Carolina to Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

Clemson, led by head football coach Dabo Swinney, quickly shot it down. He said, at the time, he had no problems with South Carolina hosting the game on Black Friday, but at Clemson that will not be the case.

“Our (students) go home for Thanksgiving and they get a chance to travel back on Friday and create a great environment and atmosphere for us on Saturday, as opposed to having to leave on Thanksgiving Day and not be with their families if they want to come back and go to the game,” Swinney said before last year’s game. “So, there are a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons for me is what is best for this community and what’s best for our program when it comes to recruiting and getting people here and all of those things.”

A report surfaced on Monday that South Carolina added a clause in the teams’ two-year contract that gives USC the option to host the Clemson game in 2027 on Black Friday. So, we will see if that happens.

My question, especially if the administrators at Clemson and South Carolina want to move the game away from being played on Saturday, is why don’t they think outside the box a little.

Instead of playing the game on Black Friday, when traditionally Ole Miss-Mississippi State and Georgia-Georgia Tech play their games, why not do something no one else does.

Are you reading this ESPN? Are you reading this SEC. Are you reading this ACC?

Instead of Clemson-Carolina being just another game on ESPN or ABC on Black Friday, why not make it the only game being shown on October 21, 2027.

Why not bring back “Big Thursday?”

Yep!

Let’s play on Big Thursday, again. Keep it home-and-home, like it is now, but let’s play this game when no one in the Power Conferences are playing. I know, some people will argue they will go up against the NFL and it will not work.

Trust me, people in the South and Midwest will watch a college football game between two big-time rivals way before watching some watered-down NFL game, where the home team wins 80 percent of the time.

Yes, most of the country will pick the NFL over Clemson-South Carolina, but I am pretty confident every major college football fan would rather watch the Tigers and Gamecocks.

Think about the publicity the game will create for the rivalry. The old Big Thursday used to do it.

I remember my mom telling me, when my family lived in Los Angeles in the late 1950s, how Big Thursday was on the front of the Los Angeles Times sports section one year. As a Greenville, S.C., native and Clemson fan, it made her proud to see how the state’s biggest game was getting that kind of national exposure.

Big Thursday was a big deal in South Carolina back in the day. It can be again. The state of South Carolina can make it a state holiday again, like it was back in the day. The schools can make it special by playing it up and reconnecting the great history of the rivalry.

There are a lot of positives that can come out of moving the game back to Big Thursday. If you are going to move the Clemson-South Carolina game, why not think outside the box. Why not think bigger than Black Friday?