Social media has changed the way sports fans consume content.
Facebook, X (formerly known as Twitter), Instagram and TikTok are some of the largest platforms, and there have been a lot of positives to come with the advent of these social media sites. However, with the good also comes some bad.
We currently live in the hot take era. Who can have the hottest one? Over the years, I have seen some whoppers. Just some outrageous opinions, predictions and such. It’s one of the reasons I spend very little time on X, if we’re being honest.
What I saw on Friday while scrolling X would fall into that category. It might even fall into the category of downright silly. Just to be clear, it’s far from the most outrageous take I’ve seen on the social media platform, but it ranks up there. It actually felt more like rage bait.
David Cone, of the Crain and Cone podcast on the On3 network, predicted his top five upsets for the upcoming college football season. At the top of the list, he listed Georgia Southern coming into Death Valley and knocking off Clemson in the Tigers’ home opener on September 12.
Full disclosure, I had never heard of the podcast before today. After doing some digging, this is not the former MLB pitcher David Cone. It is the one who played quarterback for Michigan from 2006-09. He appeared in five games during his career and attempted six passes.
Of the five upsets he picked, the other four include one Power-4 team beating another. He’s got Oklahoma State taking down Oregon, Virginia Tech knocking off Miami, Southern Cal beating Ohio State and SMU getting by Notre Dame. Some of those are, no doubt, bold, but none are as extreme as his pick of Georgia Southern to knock off the Tigers.
In fact, all three hosts picked their top five upsets, and of the 15 total picks, Clemson was the only team predicted to lose to a Group of 6 school.
The Eagles winning that game would be an upset of epic proportions, seeing as the Tigers have never lost to a team in the Sunbelt Conference. The Eagles don’t even rank inside the Top 100 of ESPN’s FPI heading into the season, so Dabo Swinney’s team will likely be more than a 25-point favorite by the time that game rolls around.
We are talking about a Sunbelt team that is currently in rebuild mode and might have five new starters along the offensive line. I mean, what are we doing here?
We get it. Clemson isn’t what it was during the Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence eras. The program has definitely taken a step back, evidenced by the 7-6 campaign last season. And Dabo Swinney is a lightning rod for controversy with some of his unfiltered opinions. But say what you will, one thing the program doesn’t do is lose to non-Power Conference teams.
The prediction screams of attention-seeking, and yes, I am giving him the attention he is certainly after. Certainly, some hot takes are worse than others. Then there are the ones that are so bad, they need to be called out, and this one certainly fits that criteria.