All Aggies calls Clemson a ‘crown jewel’ in potential SEC realignment

All Aggies writer Cole Thompson called Clemson a potential ‘crown jewel‘ for the SEC in conference realignment talks — which are currently ongoing and have already seen the Big Ten poach the Pac-12’s Los Angeles presence via USC and UCLA and could also see the Big 12 pick the Pac-12’s bones and absorb Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado, Oregon, Utah, and Washington to form a conference that clearly needs a new name.

They all do, although the SEC has the chance to absorb a handful of programs that are geographically considered in the southeast–we’ve already stretched the term with Missouri and Texas A&M–from an increasingly obsolete ACC. Undoubtedly, Clemson would be the best possible addition. Thompson was as on point as the Midnight Yell leaders during TAMU’s definitely-not-a-cult choreographed activities.

Clemson is the most prevalent among the possible SEC additions due to one simple reason: rings. Dabo Swinney and the QB pair of Deshaun Watson (2016) and Trevor Lawrence (2018) put those Tigers on the map. The College Football Playoff wins put Clemson in an elite CFP group of titlists that is almost exclusively comprised of SEC teams. Ohio State puts the Big Ten in that conversation.

Speaking of the Big Ten, they must be fought off (or rather, Fox needs to be) for all of the schools the SEC is in the mix for. That group is rumored to include Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia. 

Reports of Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia joining the SEC are conflicting right now

While SwimSwam’s Braden Keith has intel that talks of Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia joining the SEC are active, CBS Sports’ Barrett Sallee has called those rumors ‘silly’. That’s a Great Plains-sized gap between what the two parties believe.

As Thompson points out, the in-state rivalry with the South Carolina Gamecocks already exists, and the CFP rivalry that formed with Alabama could lead to epic rivalry games. More battles for Tiger supremacy with a fourth team bearing that name in the conference is welcomed on the Plains and elsewhere.

Clemson and the SEC is the best fit that doesn’t yet exist between conference and university. Once it does, the money will follow en masse.