How has Clemson football fared against the SEC?

The past few months have seen talk turn to legal action as both Clemson and Florida State are attempting to leave the Atlantic Coast Conference for a more lucrative conference, that being either the Southeast Conference or the Big 10 Conference.

Financially, the tv money would be better in either conference than the ACC. Historically though, how has Clemson fared against the schools in the SEC in football? 

Obviously, games long ago carry far less meaning and bearing on modern contests so we’ll also look at how current Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney has done against SEC teams as well as what Clemson fans may expect when they make some of those marquis SEC road trips which have been a lot more frequent than Big 10 road trips.

ALABAMA – From January 11, 2016, to January 7, 2019, the Clemson Tigers faced the Crimson Tide four times, three times to decide the national champion for the 2015, 2016 and 2018 seasons. Clemson would win the national championship for 2016 and 2018 by the scores of 35-31 and 44-16 and lose 45-40 in the 2015 national title game. The other meeting was a 24-6 win for Alabama in the 2018 Sugar Bowl.

Clemson won the first three meetings between the two schools back in 1900, 1904 and 1905. From 1909 to 2008, Alabama won the next 12 regular season match-ups. Overall, Alabama has a 14-5 edge over Clemson but under Dabo Swinney the series is tied 2-2.

ARKANSAS – Clemson has never faced the Arkansas Razorbacks.

AUBURN – In a battle of Tiger mascots, Auburn has been a semi-regular opponent for Clemson having met 51 times with Auburn leading the series 34-15-2 with the first meeting in 1899, an Auburn 34-0 win in Auburn, and Clemson winning the last meeting 14-6 at Clemson in 2017. Swinney is 4-1 against Auburn having won the last four meetings. 

FLORIDA – It’s been longer than a half-century since Clemson played Florida with the last meeting between the Florida Gators and the Clemson Tigers being a 21-17 Florida win in Gainesville in 1961. The Gators won the first match-up between these two schools in 1911 as well. Clemson has not fared well against the Gators having a 3-9-1 series record, and no trip to the Swamp is an easy one.

GEORGIA – Clemson opens the 2024 season on August 31^st with a game against the mighty Bulldogs in Atlanta. Georgia won the last meeting 10-3 in Charlotte in 2021 and the first meeting back in 1897 24-0. Georgia leads the series 43-18-4. Swinney’s record against the Bulldogs is 1-2 with a 38-35 win at Clemson in 2013.  

KENTUCKY – The Wildcats hold an 8-6 series edge over the Tigers, however since Swinney has been coaching Clemson, the Tigers have won the two meetings with the most recent being the exciting 38-35 comeback victory in the 2023 Gator Bowl and a 21-13 win in the 2009 Music City Bowl. The first time Clemson faced Kentucky was in 1925 as the Wildcats would win the first four games between the two schools.

LSU – In a battle of Tigers and Death Valleys, on August 30^th, 2025, LSU will visit Clemson’s Death Valley. It will be the first time the two schools will have faced each other in the regular season, and on September 5^th, 2026, Clemson will visit LSU’s Death Valley and one of the great atmospheres in college football.   

The moniker of Death Valley was attached to Clemson’s Memorial Stadium in 1948 by Presbyterian College Head Coach Lonnie McMillian because his teams couldn’t win there. Shortly thereafter, Clemson players, coaches and fans began referring to it as Death Valley, and in 1966, head coach Frank Howard was given a rock (Howard’s Rock), which sits atop The Hill from Death Valley, California.

Tiger Stadium has been referred to as Death Valley after the 1959 Sugar Bowl in the two schools first meeting when LSU beat Clemson 7-0 at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans. Prior to that, Tiger Stadium had been referred to as Deaf Valley because of how loud it got inside of the college football stadium.

The most recent meeting between Clemson and LSU was for the 2019 national championship and LSU came away with a 42-25 win. The only other time Swinney faced LSU was in the 2012 Peach Bowl that Clemson won 25-24. The two also met in the 1996 Peach Bowl that LSU won 10-7.

MISSISSIPPI – Of all the SEC schools Clemson has faced, Mississippi is the only one the Tigers haven’t defeated. Clemson is 0-2 against Ole Miss with both games in Mississippi, a 26-7 loss in 1928 and a 13-0 loss in 1933.  The Grove at Ole Miss is one of the legendary tailgating traditions and sites in college football.

MISSISSIPPI STATE – I don’t imagine any visiting head coach to Starkville exclaims, “Needs more cowbell.” Clemson’s last meeting against Mississippi State was a 17-7 loss in the 1999 Peach Bowl. Clemson has a 1-1-1 record against the Bulldogs. The first meeting was a 21-7 win on the road for Clemson in 1948 and a 7-7 tie in 1949 at Clemson.

MISSOURI – In another battle of Tiger mascots, Clemson holds a 3-1 series edge against Missouri with the last match-up taking place in 2000 that resulted in a 62-9 home win for Clemson. The first meeting was in the 1949 Gator Bowl that resulted in a 24-23 Clemson victory.

OKLAHOMA – Clemson holds a 3-2 series record against the Sooners with Swinney having a 2-0 record defeating the Sooners 37-17 in the 2015 Orange Bowl and 40-6 in the 2014 Russell Athletic Bowl. The Sooners won both games in Norman in 1963 and in 1972. In 1989, Clemson defeated Oklahoma for the first time 13-6 in the 1989 Florida Citrus Bowl.

SOUTH CAROLINA – Obviously, the SEC school Tiger fans are most familiar with is in-state rival South Carolina. Clemson has a 73-43-4 record against the Gamecocks winning nine of the last 15 meetings since Dabo Swinney has been head coach. Clemson won the last meeting in 2023 in Columbia by the score of 16-7.  

The first 57 meetings between the two schools from 1896-1958 were all in Columbia and then finally, in 1960, they faced each other for the first time at Clemson.

TENNESSEE – Every year, when USC and UCLA face each other on the gridiron, they both agree to wear their home color jerseys and it looks great. If Clemson and Tennessee both wore their orange jerseys, imagine the chaos.

Clemson is 6-12-2 versus the Volunteers with Tennessee winning the most recent match-up 31-14 that took place in the 2022 Orange Bowl. The first time the Tigers and Volunteers faced off resulted in a 6-6 tie in 1901 in Knoxville. The Volunteers have won the last seven meetings in Knoxville before Clemson beat Tennessee 27-14 in the 2004 Peach Bowl.  

TEXAS – The burnt Orange Texas Longhorns have never gone against the Clemson Tiger’s Orange on the gridiron.

TEXAS A&M – Home of the 12^th man, the series between the Aggies and Tigers is all tied at three-all with Clemson winning the last three meetings and most recently 24-10 in 2019. Swinney is 2-0 vs Texas A&M. The first time these two schools faced each other was in 1973 and the Aggies came away with a 30-15 victory in Clemson. Texas A&M won the next two games held in College Station and it’s been all Clemson since then.

VANDERBILT – Perhaps shockingly, Vanderbilt holds a 3-1 edge against Clemson with the last meeting in 1960, a 22-20 victory for the Commodores. The first game between the two schools was in 1905 which Vanderbilt won 41-0.

Having faced Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Tennessee in recent years, Clemson fans know how passionate SEC fans are about their teams and college football.

All told, Clemson is 132-178-14 against current SEC schools and under Dabo Swinney since 2008, the Tigers are 23-13 against the SEC.   

The addition of Oklahoma and Texas certainly made the SEC even a stronger football conference and the Big 10 got stronger adding Oregon, USC and Washington. The SEC would provide shorter road trips for Clemson fans to make and not have to worry about taking a winter coat for those games unlike games in November against Big 10 schools. Either conference will be a financial boost for Clemson but also a much tougher schedule than playing in the ACC. In the SEC, it just means more.

John Baranowski is a sports historian and contributor to newspapers, sports publications, and sports websites. This and other articles written by him can be found on his blog: https://johnbaranowski.wordpress.com/

Clemson/Auburn Program Photo Credit:  Clemson Digital Library on VisualHunt

Georgia Sanford Stadium Photo Credit: ikwildrpepper on Visualhunt.com

LSU Tiger Stadium Photo credit: Sean Davis on Visualhunt.com

Clemson/South Carolina Program Photo Credit: Clemson Digital Library on VisualHunt

Tennessee Neyland Stadium Photo Credit:  kmoliver on Visualhunt

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Pitt football fans, it’s time to take off those blue and gold glasses

Let’s get right to the facts shall we. If you are a Pitt football fan, age 40 or younger, Pitt has not finished in the top 10 at the end of any season nor won a major bowl game in your lifetime.

The last time Pitt finished a season ranked in the top 10 was 1982 and the last major bowl game Pitt won was the 1982 Sugar Bowl against Georgia.

After the 2022 football season on Pitt message boards, some Pitt fans went so far as to think Pitt was elite because they won 20 football games total in 2021 and 2022. Elite! Pitt fans need to take off those myopic blue and gold glasses and face reality.

When you haven’t finished in the top 10, nor won a major bowl game in more than 40 years, you are as far from elite as elite is to zyzzyva in the dictionary.

This is a list of some schools that have finished in the top 10 at a season’s end since Pitt last did in 1982: Air Force, Arizona (3x), Arizona State (2x), Arkansas, Baylor (2x), Boise State (4x), Boston College (2x), Brigham Young (3x), California (2x), Cincinnati (3x), Colorado (6x), East Carolina, Georgia Tech (2x), Houston, (2x), Illinois (2x), Iowa (7x), Iowa State, Kansas (2x), Kansas State (7x), Louisville (2x), Marshall, Michigan State (5x), Minnesota, Mississippi (3x), Mississippi State, Missouri (3x), North Carolina (2x), Northwestern (2x), Oklahoma State (3x), Oregon State, South Carolina (3x), SMU, Stanford (5x), Syracuse (2x), TCU (7x), Tulane, UCF (2x), UCLA (6x), Utah (4x), Virginia Tech (7x), Washington State (5x), and West Virginia (3x).

How many of those schools do you consider a football power? How many of those schools do you feel have a more successful football program than Pitt? Yet they all managed to finish at least once ranked in the top 10 since the last time Pitt did it, 41 years ago. Even the University of Nevada has finished ranked higher than Pitt in more than 40 years when they were ranked 11^th in 2020.

Not enough evidence for you to re-evaluate how good Pitt’s football program is? Here is a list of some schools that have won a major bowl game since Pitt last won their major bowl game, the 1982 Sugar Bowl versus Georgia. Some of these football “powers” may surprise you: Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas (2x), Baylor, Boise State (3x), Boston College, Brigham Young, Colorado (3x), Georgia Tech, Houston, Kansas, Kansas State (2x), Iowa, Iowa State, Louisville (3x), Michigan State (4x), Mississippi (5x), Missouri (3x), Oklahoma State (2x), Oregon State, SMU, Stanford (3x), Syracuse, Texas A&M (4x), Tulane, UCF (2x), UCLA (5x), Utah (2x), Virginia Tech (2x), and West Virginia (3x).

Again, ask yourself, how many of those schools do you consider a football power? How many of those schools do you feel have a more successful football program than Pitt? Yet they all managed to win a major bowl game at least once, if not multiple times, since the last time Pitt won one 41 years ago. Puts Pitt’s football program in a better perspective, doesn’t it? It should.

Is it then any wonder why when there’s discussion of a future 28 or 32-team super league of college football, that Pitt is not listed as one of those schools?

Want more proof? Pitt has played in just three major bowl games since they last won a major bowl game. Those three bowl games were: the 1983 Cotton Bowl – a 7-3 loss to SMU; the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, a blowout 35-7 loss to Utah; and the December 2021 Peach Bowl – a 31-21 loss to Michigan State. That averages out to making a major bowl game appearance once every 13 years or so.

The last time Pitt football had a season that it didn’t lose three games was 1981. That was 42 seasons ago! FORTY-TWO! Only these P5 “football powers” have a longer streak of consecutive three-loss-or-more seasons than Pitt: Duke, Indiana, Iowa State, Kentucky, North Carolina State, Purdue, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest. None of those schools is thought of as a football power. Pitt managed to keep that ignominious streak going after just week four in 2023.

But, but, 2021 Pitt fans will say. Well, in Pitt’s ACC championship season of 2021, the Panthers did not face a ranked opponent until the ACC Championship Game against 18^th-ranked Wake Forest. That’s how weak the ACC was in 2021.

One would be hard pressed to find schools that went from a 11-win conference championship season to only three wins in two years, but not surprisingly Pitt did just that. Both are outlier seasons for Pitt as the Panthers usually do manage to win six to eight games a year.

The last time Pitt was even ranked in the top 10 during a football season was in 2009 at number eight late in the season. The last time Pitt was involved in a game between two top 10 teams was in 1989 when Pitt was ranked seventh and traveled to South Bend, Indiana, to face number-one ranked Notre Dame and Pitt lost 45-7.

It’s amazing the lack of overall success the Pitt football program has experienced since 1983 despite producing not only NFL stars, but players that have gone on to be amongst the best to have ever played their position, such as Aaron Donald, Larry Fitzgerald and Darrelle Revis. 

If you picked an all-time Pitt NFL team, it would be in the top 10 that any school has produced and look something like this: https://johnbaranowski.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/updating-the-pittsburgh-panthers-all-time-football-team/

It is truly an enigma that despite producing some of the greatest players in NFL history, that Pitt, unlike so many other schools, hasn’t been able to catch lightning in a bottle for a season, even once, or manage to lose less than three games in a year, or finish ranked in the top 10, or win a major bowl game in more than 41 years.

However, that’s the reality of Pitt’s football program when you take off those blue and gold glasses.

John Baranowski is a sports historian and contributor to newspapers, sports publications, and sports websites. This and other articles written by him can be found on his blog: https://johnbaranowski.wordpress.com/

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Has playing football off-campus helped Pitt football?

Has playing football off-campus helped Pitt football? There’s no denying playing on the North Shore has its advantages in terms of parking, traffic and accessibility more so than playing in Oakland, but the gameday experience just isn’t the same off campus. Alumni love to visit where they spent their college years and all that rekindled, feel good nostalgia is lost by playing off campus. You can’t even see the Cathedral of Learning from the North Shore.

Do you think college students prefer to wait in line to ride a school bus, like an elementary student in grade school, to and from Acrisure Stadium as opposed to being able to walk to a nearby on-campus stadium not long before and after a game?

A selling point to the Pitt community on moving to an off-campus stadium shared with the Pittsburgh Steelers was that football recruiting would improve with the belief that new facilities shared with the Steelers would help sell Pitt to high school recruits. Better recruiting should result in increased winning and better results. Recruits certainly aren’t drawn to poor, outdated and non-maintained facilities, such as Pitt Stadium was, but how many Top 25 recruiting classes has Pitt football had since playing off campus? Just two since 2002. Two. Playing off-campus in shared facilities with an NFL team has not attracted the country’s best recruits as promised.

In the past 22 years that recruiting classes have been ranked, Pitt’s recruiting has averaged 41^st in the country. Pitt’s 2023 recruiting class according to Rivals is ranked 52^nd. Pitt had only five recruiting classes finish in the top 30 of Rivals’ recruiting rankings with the highest being ranked 21^st in 2006 and also in 2021, and had three top-30 recruiting classes from 2006 through 2008. 

The promised notion that sharing a stadium with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers would be a huge recruiting advantage has been proven to not be true.

Pitt football broke attendance records for the city of Pittsburgh playing off-campus first against Penn State in 2016 at Heinz Field with 69,983 spectators and then again against West Virginia in 2022 at Acrisure Stadium with 70,622, but that’s largely due to a larger stadium capacity and who they played and those visiting fan bases being so close to travel. In comparison, the highest attendance at Pitt Stadium was 68,918 back in 1938 against Fordham.

Despite having one of the lower priced season tickets among Power 5 schools through the years, Pitt had attendance issues playing both on and off-campus.

In terms of attendance, perhaps playing in a larger stadium in a more accessible location has upped fan attendance, but has it helped where it matters most, in wins and losses? Creating a positive atmosphere for Pitt and a disruptive negative one for opponents certainly adds to a team’s chances of winning.

In terms of wins and losses, how has Pitt playing off-campus compared to when Pitt played on-campus? Pitt has played off-campus 24 seasons since the year 2000 playing in Three Rivers Stadium, Heinz Field and now Acrisure Stadium. Let’s compare how Pitt has fared in those 24 seasons playing off-campus (2000-2023) to the previous 24 years playing on-campus (1976-1999) at Pitt Stadium.

Since 1976, Pitt has an overall record of 323-249-7 for a winning percentage of .564. Pitt’s record at Pitt Stadium from 1976-1999 was 87-55-2 for a winning percentage of .611. Pitt’s record at the North Shore stadiums is 104-55 for a winning percentage of .654. In case you’re curious, Pitt’s record away from home since 1976 is 132-139-5 for a winning percentage of .487.

Pitt’s record at the North Shore stadiums includes the 1976 game against Penn State as well as the 1982 game against North Carolina and the 1999 game versus West Virginia. In 2000, Pitt played all their home games at Three Rivers Stadium before playing at Heinz Field.

As one would expect, Pitt has a better record at home than on the road. It would be troubling if they didn’t. Pitt has a better winning percentage in their first 24 seasons off-campus as compared to their last 24 seasons on-campus, a difference of .043.

In looking at how Pitt has fared against top 20 teams, how has playing off-campus compared to when Pitt played on-campus?

Since 1976, Pitt’s overall record against top 20 teams at home is 18-39 for a winning percentage of .316. Pitt’s record against top 20 teams on the road is 16-47-2 for a winning percentage of .262. As one would expect, Pitt has a better winning percentage against top 20 teams at home than on the road. The numbers bear out that playing at home in front of the home crowd is a definite advantage.

Pitt’s record in their last 24 seasons at Pitt Stadium against top 20 teams was 9-22 for a winning percentage of .290. Pitt’s record against top 20 teams at the North Shore stadiums is 9-17 for a winning percentage of .346. Playing at the North Shore Stadiums has increased Pitt’s winning percentage against top 20 teams as compared to the last 24 seasons at Pitt Stadium.

As the won-loss records show, Pitt has fared better playing at the North Shore stadiums against top 20 teams in using a 48-year data set for playing on-campus versus playing off-campus.

As for expenditures and revenue, I’ll leave that to the financial bean counters, but one would think there are financial reasons, for highly-educated professional administrators at colleges and universities such as the University of Cincinnati, Minnesota, Tulane, and the University of South Florida to decide to forego sharing a professional stadium in their city and build a new on-campus stadium and/or renovate their current on-campus stadium rather than play football off-campus in a professional football stadium.

Has playing off-campus the past 24 seasons significantly improved Pitt’s football program? This year’s 3-9 season certainly doesn’t help that argument any, but the won-loss record comparison would indicate Pitt has improved playing at the newer, more modern North Shore stadiums as compared to a poorly-maintained Pitt Stadium.

However, the last time Pitt football finished ranked in the top 10, Pitt football played on-campus. The last time Pitt football didn’t lose three games in a season, Pitt football played on-campus. The last time Pitt football won a major bowl game, Pitt football played, you guessed it, on campus. Could that all be just a coincidence?

John Baranowski is a sports historian and contributor to newspapers, sports publications, and sports websites. This and other articles written by him can be found on his blog: https://johnbaranowski.wordpress.com/

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