Clemson was slated to host Ole Miss on Oct. 3, 2015 and travel to face the Rebels on Sept. 10, 2016. The Tigers were also tentatively scheduled to play a home-and-home series against Oklahoma State in 2019 and 2020.
“We didn’t want to get out of that series,” Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips told OrangeandWhite.com. “It’s a good series. We did save the Georgia series (in 2013-14), and that was extremely important. But given the realities of other universities at our level, we need to play seven home games.”
“A home-and-home situation, we just can’t do it. I hate it. I’d like to keep the series. But reality demands in the long term that we keep seven home games every year, with the Georgia series being the exception.”
With Syracuse now set to join the ACC in 2013 and Pittsburgh likely as well, the ACC will begin a nine-game conference schedule. That means each team will only have four home conference games every other year. In those years, teams such as Clemson will want to have three non-conference home games to bring in revenue.
That means less home-and-home series and more one-game contracts against schools such as South Carolina State and Wofford. It’s not the ideal situation for fans who want to see big-time non-conference games. But most schools want that seventh home game if they can get it.
Clemson will likely have to cancel a non-conference game in 2013 and 2014 as well. The Tigers currently have four games scheduled for each of those seasons. Since Georgia and South Carolina are both safe, either Kent State or The Citadel will be nixed in 2013 and either Central Michigan or Coastal Carolina in 2014.
Here is a look at Clemson’s future non-conference schedules after the cancellation of both Oklahoma State and Ole Miss:
- 2013 – Georgia, Kent State, The Citadel, at South Carolina
- 2014 – at Georgia, Coastal Carolina, Central Michigan, South Carolina
- 2015 – Wofford, at South Carolina
- 2016 – South Carolina State, South Carolina