Like at most Southern Schools, football is the dominant sport at Clemson.
Clemson fans love their football. To some fans, it’s really all that matters. Growing up in the state of South Carolina, and as a son to a Clemson graduate, I understand that better than anyone.
Clemson football is their passion. It always has been, and it always will be. And that is okay.
There is a reason why Memorial Stadium is one of the largest on-campus stadiums in the country. There is a reason why the Allen Reeves Football Complex is considered by many to be the best football facility in college football. There’s a reason why IPTAY is the one of the largest fundraising organizations in college athletics. There’s a reason why Dabo Swinney now owns the largest contract in the history of college football.
Clemson fans love their football and what the football team is doing is truly all that matters.
Case in point, Clemson just wrapped up its 2018-’19 academic year on Sunday, which happened to be its worst, from an overall on-the-field performance, in the history of the Directors Cup. However, you would not know this if I was not reporting it to you.
There are no fans charging the athletic department or getting on the radio and message boards and demanding there be changes.
The Directors Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in college athletics. Points are awarded to each school based on their order of finish in NCAA sponsored championships or, in the case of the FBS, media-based polls.
Clemson finished ranked 73rd overall in the Directors Cup standings this past year, which began in 1993-’94.
Obviously, Clemson is not going to report these standings when it finished with its worst overall performance. Clemson finished 13th overall in the ACC, only beating out Boston College (87) and Pittsburgh (137).
Clemson dropped drop 21 spots from the 2017-’18 athletic year, when it was ranked No. 52. Clemson also ranked No. 52 during the 2016-’17 year.
Granted, Clemson is likely never going to finish extremely high in these rankings because it has 17 NCAA sponsored sports programs. Most schools have more than 20 and some as high as 28.
Clemson’s highest finish is No. 16, which goes back to the 1993-’94 academic year. Since 2003-’04, Clemson has finished no higher than 36 in the standings and that came in 2007.
The Clemson Athletic Department’s best finish since Dan Radakovich became the school’s director of athletics in 2012 is No. 42, which came in the 2015-’16 academic year.
Besides Clemson football, only five other sports at Clemson had any moderate success on both the men’s and the women’s side of things in 2018-’19.
The men’s golf team led the way and finished tied for 8th in the NCAA Tournament. The next most successful sport was the women’s basketball team, which advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament. The women’s soccer team lost in the first round of the NCAAs, while the women’s golf and baseball teams failed to advance out of the NCAA Regionals.
For the first time in a long time, the women’s tennis team did not make it to the NCAA Tournament, while the men’s soccer team also failed to advance to the tournament for the first time in several years.
But luckily for Clemson, football heals all wounds. As we all know, Dabo Swinney’s Tigers won their second national championship in three years and it was the only Clemson athletic program to win an ACC Championship in 2018-’19.
And in the eyes of some Clemson fans that seems to be all that matters. That’s always been the case.