Shane Beamer weighs in on whether or not South Carolina, Clemson should play on Black Friday
The ACC and their TV partner, ESPN, had hopes of moving this year’s South Carolina-Clemson showdown to Black Friday.
Ultimately, Clemson passed.
“I was against it for several reasons,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said earlier this month. “I’m happy to do it in Columbia if that’s what they want to do. I don’t think it’s best for this town or this community. The people in this town, they make their hay on Saturdays.”
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Last week, during this year’s annual Birdies with Beamer media golf outing, Shane Beamer was asked where he stands on the matter.
“It’s one of the best rivalries in all of the nation,” said Beamer. “I like the idea of being able to create even more exposure for it. I can remember the night before we beat Clemson two years ago sitting at the hotel in Greenville and watching Florida-Florida State play on a Friday night and just thinking to myself, man the whole country is watching this game right now and that’s great exposure for this rivalry.”
With this year’s game set to take place on Saturday, Nov. 30, Beamer shared that there were talks between the two universities about the idea of moving the game up a day.
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“I always want to do what’s best for the fans… In this instance, the one that you’re referring to, I had some conversations with Dabo about it. I think coach (Ray) Tanner had some conversations with Graham Neff, the Clemson Athletic Director, about it. Them as the home team, that’s the direction that it ended up going.”
At the end of the day though, Beamer wants to do what’s best for not only South Carolina’s fanbase but for the Gamecocks as a program as well.
“I think there’s some positives to it and some things that aren’t maybe positive about it. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it… Let’s do what’s best for us to win the game but also for our fans, for sure.”
