Clemson defeated SMU in the ACC Championship Game and, with the win, vaulted itself into the College Football Playoff as the No. 12 seed. The Tigers will travel to Texas to take on the No. 5-seeded Longhorns at Darrell K. Royal Stadium.
With that win, the Tigers escaped the Holiday Bowl, which is now being played in 35,000-seat Snapdragon Stadium, the home of the San Diego St. Aztecs.
It’s been a bit of a weird season – the powers that be moved up the early National Signing Day, and we had press conferences about recruiting and a championship game in the same week. And now it gets a little bit stranger.
If you’re used to bowl trips, you know that teams take advantage of that postseason “reward” and travel to a bowl site for events and big meals and bowl gifts and several nights in (in some cases) resort hotels. When Clemson was in the Orange Bowl two years ago, it was at a beachside resort. When the Tigers were in the Gator Bowl last year, the team spent a few nights at an Amelia Island resort. Add in those bowl gifts, and it’s a pretty sweet deal.
When a team is in the College Football Playoff, or when it was a four-team playoff, the team once again arrived early and enjoyed an expanded (and richer) bowl experience of more than a few days.
The first round under the new format is different. All of the examples listed above are bowl trips, even in the playoffs. This first round is no bowl trip. It’s a business trip, pure and simple, with the reward of a bowl trip if you win.
Clemson will travel to Austin the day before the game, arriving around 24 hours before kickoff, and bide its time in the hotel until time to head to the stadium. No parties. No gifts to speak of. Just another away game on a bigger scale. And the losing team? That’s it, the season is over, well before the majority of the lesser bowl games get underway. The winner gets all the trimmings with the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, just like a regular bowl trip. The loser gets Christmas at home with the family (which isn’t a bad thing. Family is great).
That doesn’t take into account the payouts for playing in the Playoff. The Tigers took home $4 million (not to be shared with the other teams in the ACC) with the win over SMU. According to Forbes, a win over the Longhorns adds another $4 million to Graham Neff’s coffers, and a win in the Peach Bowl would add another $6 million. If you want to dream big, another win in the semi-finals pockets another $6 million.
Different times to be sure. Possibly lucrative times as Clemson endeavors to keep up with the big-money programs. But next week? Not a bowl trip. It’s a business trip, with a potential payday at the end.
