Saturday was the first game I made it to this year. My parking spot was at the Hendrix Center, so we had a little bit of a walk going and coming.
As someone was a student from 1995-1999, it is almost hard to describe how much Clemson has grown, improved aesthetically, and modernized since I graduated.
Once in the stadium, there were constant reminders during seemingly every dead ball of how the money from football has underwritten everything from a women’s gymnastics team to an ACC Championship in men’s track.
And, of course, there is literally nothing the same inside the stadium except for the field itself and the steel and conrete of the stadium.
And as much as the Pro-Dabo and the Anti-Dabo (or perhaps “frustrated with Dabo”) camps love to wage war on here, only an idiot would argue that Dabo didn’t build (or at least underwrite) this golden age of Clemson.
I don’t know the Powers Family or the Brown Family, but I find it unlikely that they donate a combined 125-ish million without the Dabo Era.
Then there are the thousands of people now giving upwards of 5K-25K a year to IPTAY. That’s real money. Clemson Football effectively wants for nothing, save for a few millionaires or billionaires to make our NIL offerings equal to a Texas.
But, and there is always a but, therein lies the very real problem for Clemson Football going forward: it feeds the money printing machine that Clemson University has become very dependent upon.
Therefore, what do the powers that be at Clemson do if the Football Program falls off? I do not think they can afford to let it happen (again).
And that is before you even consider that a return to the mediocrity we saw from 1992 until Dabo arrived would likely result in the Big Ten and/or SEC looking elsewhere for new members.
Consequently, I am not as worried that we are about to experience a major slide. Dabo won’t change at the pace I might prefer, but this comedy of errors we have seen these last ten games won’t last much longer.
I have faith that golden goose just needs to be seen for a veterinary checkup and not plucked and boiled just yet…
As someone was a student from 1995-1999, it is almost hard to describe how much Clemson has grown, improved aesthetically, and modernized since I graduated.
Once in the stadium, there were constant reminders during seemingly every dead ball of how the money from football has underwritten everything from a women’s gymnastics team to an ACC Championship in men’s track.
And, of course, there is literally nothing the same inside the stadium except for the field itself and the steel and conrete of the stadium.
And as much as the Pro-Dabo and the Anti-Dabo (or perhaps “frustrated with Dabo”) camps love to wage war on here, only an idiot would argue that Dabo didn’t build (or at least underwrite) this golden age of Clemson.
I don’t know the Powers Family or the Brown Family, but I find it unlikely that they donate a combined 125-ish million without the Dabo Era.
Then there are the thousands of people now giving upwards of 5K-25K a year to IPTAY. That’s real money. Clemson Football effectively wants for nothing, save for a few millionaires or billionaires to make our NIL offerings equal to a Texas.
But, and there is always a but, therein lies the very real problem for Clemson Football going forward: it feeds the money printing machine that Clemson University has become very dependent upon.
Therefore, what do the powers that be at Clemson do if the Football Program falls off? I do not think they can afford to let it happen (again).
And that is before you even consider that a return to the mediocrity we saw from 1992 until Dabo arrived would likely result in the Big Ten and/or SEC looking elsewhere for new members.
Consequently, I am not as worried that we are about to experience a major slide. Dabo won’t change at the pace I might prefer, but this comedy of errors we have seen these last ten games won’t last much longer.
I have faith that golden goose just needs to be seen for a veterinary checkup and not plucked and boiled just yet…
