(10-02-2016 11:38 PM)tj_2009 Wrote: Just a question about some of the other responses in this thread. Since i do not know ACC history. Is there some friction between the North Carolina schools and Clemson?
Clemson was at odds with the majority of the Southern Confernece when VT's president instiututed a bowl ban on Clemson and MD in the early 50's due in part to a huge cheating scandal at William and Mary. MD pulled out with Clemson and Duke to form the ACC and SC was with them as well. MD and Duke wanted UNC and NC State and Duke, UNC, and NC State wanted Wake Forest. MD had already made arrangemetns to bring UVa (who left in 1936) into the ACC. Everything was hunky dory until Eddie Cameron and the folks at Duke realzied taht to stay on top in football (2 Rose Bowls, 2 Orange Bowls, 1 Sugar, and 1 Cotton plus 19 top 20 rankings in 25 years) would require them to recruit grossly substandard students.
While MD was declared national champions during the SoCon years, and Clemson is more recognized as the football school, it was Duke that was the SoCon football power until 1962 when the 800 SAT was passed and Duke football was mothballed for 50 years.
Clemson and SC felt betrayed by Duke and UNC on the matter. SC left the ACC in 1971 over that and Frank McGuire in 1971. Clemson almost left but stayed. Clemson football did not recover until the late 1970's. Danny Ford football at Clemson was SEC style football with SEC style management. Clemson got caught making cash payments. They accused NC State of turning them in but the NC State story is that we did not turn them in but we were asked about our knowledge of it. The conference socked Clemson with an extra year of probation over the NCAA and many at Clemson attribute that to UNC and Swofford, but in reality Swofford was too new to orchestrate that. That does not mean Cobey did not orchestrate that. UNC has always been good at getting someone else on probation.
Losing Danny Ford at Clemson was similar to NC State losing Jim Valvano - a god hounded out of town by outside forces.
Clemson's basketball teams have been on the receiving end of some interesting **** over the years but that would take it;s own thread. The conference took the baseball tournament from Clemson over the Confederate Flag and the Mustard Bar B Que guy in Columbia.
The reality though is that most of this is structural not personal. The little guy gets **** on, the weaker guy gets **** on, etc., etc. Clemson was a cultural outlier in the ACC from an academic standpoint for many years. It had a military component and was all male until the late 1960's iirc.
Many Clemson fans see Duke, UNC, and UVa as hypocrites and see NC State and WF as weak and subservient to those three.
The main issue with Clemson is that football is their thing and that to compete where they are located, they had to use SEC tactics that are kosher in the SEC, but looked down upon by some in the ACC.
For the most part, Clemson was in the right on many of these issues. Even their cheating was most honest and honorable than the insidious things related to fake classes.
That's my take - a lot of Clemson feel stabbed in the back and feel it was personal. I know they were stabbed from time to time, but I think it would have happened to anyone focusing on football at that time.
When you hear someone bitching from Clemson today, you are usually hearing a 50-75 year old male who is still mad over things that happened in the 1980's leading to the demise of Ford and the hiring of Ken Hatfield and Tommy Bowden.
