As Clemson and South Carolina prepare for the latest rendition of the Palmetto Bowl, Dabo Swinney on Wednesday shared his thoughts on the future of the longstanding rivalry.
The in-state rivals will meet for the 119th time Saturday when the Tigers host Carolina at Memorial Stadium. Clemson, which improved to 10-1 with its win over Miami last week, jumped to No. 8 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings while South Carolina is already bowl-eligible and coming off a beatdown of then-No. 5 Tennessee last week.
As for the game’s future beyond this season, Swinney said he doesn’t know exactly what that entails given the reported preference the SEC has to increase the number of conference games its teams play in the near future.
“I have no idea what they’re going to do as far as conference,” Swinney said.
According to ESPN, there is some favor among SEC schools to go to a nine-game conference schedule once Oklahoma and Texas join the league, which could happen as soon as 2024. SEC teams currently play an eight-game league schedule.
Should that happen, that would leave one less non-conference game for South Carolina to play. Swinney said he will “let everybody else figure that out,” but he added he has a hard time believing the matchup with Clemson would be the one that’s scratched from the Gamecocks’ non-conference slate in that scenario.
“I can’t imagine Clemson-South Carolina going away after 100-something years,” he said.
The Palmetto Bowl has been played every year since 1909 with one exception. The team’s scheduled meeting in 2020 was canceled after the SEC went to a conference-only schedule that season in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Clemson has won the last seven meetings with Carolina.
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