I had the distinct pleasure of meeting new South Carolina head basketball coach Frank Martin at the Atlanta Gamecock Club meeting tonight.  While he was as pleasant and engaging as I had heard, he wasn’t as tall as I thought.

Maybe his wide-shouldered three-button suits threw me off.

Or maybe his voice wasn’t as tall as it sounded.  I’m not sure.

But I fully expected to meet a 7′ 6″ giant of a man who could wrap his hand around my head like a small cantaloupe (only if he wanted to, of course).

Instead here was this guy who measured in at maybe…MAYBE…6′ 2″.

I feel deceived, and my hopes for the future of Carolina basketball are just a little less as I lay me down to sleep tonight.

Frustrated by the North Carolina-centric nature of the conference, and what was seen as uncompetitive academic standards, South Carolina bolted from the ACC in 1971.  After wandering in the wilderness as an independent, and then as a member of the now-defunct Metro Conference, we were in the right place at the right time when the SEC was looking to expand in 1990.  As a lifelong Gamecock fan who came of age during the putrid Metro days, I can recall many who bemoaned our departure from the ACC as a stupid move by the USC administration at the time.  Well, guess who look like geniuses now?

Paul Dietzel and Frank McGuire, that’s who.

McGuire’s teams were the bad boys of the ACC.  They were street toughs from NYC who didn’t take crap from the “whine” and cheese crowd in the Tar Heel state.  After getting jobbed repeatedly by the conference powers, McGuire thought that enough was enough and lobbied to get his boys out of the ACC.

In football, a guy named Freddie Solomon was as dominant a high school player as anyone had ever seen.  But due to the ACC’s academic standards, which were more stringent that those of the NCAA, Freddie could not play at USC.  We all know what happened to Freddie. After a guy named Rice, he’s probably the next best receiver to ever play for the San Francisco 49ers.

When USC pulled out of the ACC, the strong rumor was that Clemson would also be leaving.  Supposedly it was a pact.  Turns out that CTU left us high and dry; instead, deciding to stay in the ACC after USC boldly (foolishly some say) stepped out as an independent.  I can remember some USC folks speaking with bitterness about the perceived double cross pulled off by CTU.  For years, you can bet that CTU thought they had really screwed us.  I hope they had a lot of fun while it lasted, because we are doing all, and I mean ALL the laughing now.

Sure, we sucked for the first few years we were in the SEC.  No doubt about it.  We weren’t ready to compete with the big boys and it was painfully obvious to just about anyone who watched.  We won a game or two here and there, but overall, we were overmatched.  But guess what else was happening while we took our lumps?  The Gamecocks were getting paid, and paid well.

The SEC, unlike some other conferences, is basically an equal pay out league.  While UT, Bama, and LSU were winning championships and raking in the dough for the conference, Carolina was building its war chest.  The SEC also brought credibility.  With credibility came coaches like Ray Tanner, Lou Holtz and Steve Spurrier.  And now, after a long period of paying dues, some success has started to roll in (See Buck Sweep, Golden Age Edition).  No more are we the throw-in team needed to get the SEC to 12.  Now we are legit.

During our time in the SEC, the national landscape has changed considerably.  The SEC is now the unquestioned powerhouse conference in America.  And there’s a HUGE gap between first and second.  Oh, and where does our former conference, the ACC, now rank?  Maybe 5th.  And that’s on a good day.

With conference realignment in full swing, the SEC just strengthened its brand by bringing in TAMU and Missouri.  The ACC?  They now proudly call Syracuse and Pittsburgh members.  That’s right, the ACC is now looking a lot like the former Big East of a few years ago.  And we all know that the Big East (Least) sucks, big time.

Last week’s announcement of the new SEC/BIG 12 Champions Bowl is yet another crushing blow to everyone not a member of the four power conferences.  The message sent by the SEC to the ACC football schools was loud and clear:  we have the ball and we ain’t kicking it to you.  Meanwhile, CTU and its fans desperately want OUT of the ACC and into the Big 12 (or the SEC).  They used to whisper about this while still singing the praises of the ACC in public.

Well, no more.  Visit a CTU message board sometime for your viewing pleasure.  Those guys are now openly begging for a chance to bolt from the ACC.  While publicly stating that they still have the upper hand in football, they are now privately admitting that the power ($$) of the SEC has taken its toll.  They cringe when they think about the losses to USC and how those losses have occurred – old-style SEC beat downs.

So, I want to take this opportunity to thank Coach Dietzel and Coach McGuire.  Without their guts and vision, we might still be in the ACC and might (like CTU) be on the outside looking in as the world of college athletics is remade.

Because of these men, we have a seat at the table – and the food is tasting pretty darn good.

Can you think of a better time to be a fan of Gamecock athletics?  You really don’t have to think about it very hard.  It doesn’t matter if you’re 2 years old or 82 years old, odds are you can’t come up with a time where there has been so much success in a short period of time at USC.  It’s not even close.

In football the legitimacy Steve Spurrier has brought the program cannot be denied.  We’ve been perpetually mired in the middle to bottom half of the SEC standings since 1992, but in the last two years have an SEC East title, an 11-win season, and two straight wins over our neighbors to the north (to make it three total). Plus we have top recruits that genuinely want to play for us and give hope that we can be a contender for years to come.  USC will no doubt be a Top 10 program heading into the 2012 season, and I dare say given a few good bounces could be a BCS team come January.

In baseball we have back-to-back national titles, a current top 3 ranking (depending on the poll, one has us at #1), and a better than average shot at getting back to Omaha for a third consecutive year.

In basketball…uh, ok, you got me, the hoopsters have sucked for a couple of years now.  But a guy named Frank Martin saw something at USC that both challenged and encouraged him, and he has the fan base as excited about basketball as we’ve been in a while. And on the women’s side, Dawn Staley could have her team contending for a Final Four birth in the not-too-distant future.

The non-revenue sports aren’t setting the world on fire, but we appear to be competitive in just about every sport these days (with the exception of softball, I have no idea what’s happened there).  And with the promise of increased revenues (thank you SEC) and improved facilities across the board, the future has never been brighter for Carolina athletics.

And as we contrast our recent success with what’s going on with our neighbors to the north, it makes things that much sweeter.

The Clemson (aka CTU) football team is coming off an ACC Championship, and two championship appearances in three years.  Yes, congratulations on that guys, nice work.  But I would be remiss if I did not mention a couple of other things that have happened…

Like a third straight blowout loss to the University of South Carolina.  CTU fans love to throw out the all-time record (yawn) and state that we “won’t catch them in this lifetime”.  Well, at this rate, I’m beggining to wonder.  I’m pretty old, but maybe if I live long enough…

There was also one of the most humiliating defeats in the history of bowl games.  You just cannot wash the stench of 70-33 off of you in one offseason.

Then, recently, there was the arrest of All-American wide receiver Sammy Watkins, the face of the CTU program.  Weed and a couple of pills should, and I believe will, get him suspended for at least one game, probably the opener against Auburn.  The questions about his character and off-field decision making will continue beyond September 1 (we promise).

And last night we found out that five-star phenom running back Mike Bellamy had been dismissed from the Tiger football team due to academics.  This was not a shock to anyone who has followed the brief career of Bellamy, a rumored malcontent with a rumored fondness for green, leafy substances.

Want to talk about coaching?  I have one word for you – Dabo.

Underneath all this is apparently a crumbling athletic foundation called the Atlantic Coast Conference.  After adding a couple of basketball semi-powers (Pittsburgh, Syracuse) the ACC leadership was hoodwinked into about as crappy a television contract as can be imagined with ESPN.  This led the chairman of Florida State’s Board of Trustees to openly, and forcefully, declare an interest in joining the Big XII.  FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher then lightly broached the subject, stating the university needed to do “what’s in its best interests”, before the FSU President had to step in and pledge allegiance to the ACC.

The storm this creates is that, if FSU leaves for the Big XII, then surely another ACC school will follow so the conference can have the championship game it needs to be fully legitimized.  This would lead to a mad scramble among Virginia Tech, Miami, Clemson and possibly Georgia Tech or NC State depending on which blogger you believe.

The problem with CTU is that the only people mentioning them are…well, them.  Oh, and this guy, who makes a solid case that CTU to the Big XII is already a done deal.  (Spoiler alert: he makes no case at all.  “West Virginia blogger” pretty much kills his credibility from the outset.)

Editor’s Note:  the “done deal” is only an “agreement in principle”, and “The Dude” adds some more detail here. 

Meanwhile, most CTU fans are dying, DYING, to get out of the ACC into a conference that values football above all.  Unfortunately for them, it ain’t going to happen, and soon they’ll have to start spinning why the ACC is the best place for them (The Carrier Dome is so beautiful in the fall!).

This is so much fun, folks.  We’re in an uber-enviable position in the SEC, and it’s driving our rivals up a wall.  They don’t know how this can be happening, and they don’t know how to change it.

If you are a big fan of the Gamecocks (and a big fan of schadenfreude), then soak it all in.

We are indeed in the midst of the Golden Age of Gamecock athletics.

 

Reads, Options, and Pitches from around the college football world (ok, mainly the south, but it’s basically the same thing, right?):

– A chart of gross revenues and net profits for the 51 biggest college athletic departments.  Compiled by Year2 on Team Speed Kills, the key should say: green is good, red is bad, right is rich, and up is awesome.  (shorter version:  SC beats CTU . . . AGAIN!)

– One unintended consequence of SEC expansion:  Hoover hired another complete crew of football officials.  Stop and let that sink in for a minute:  We now employ guys that previously couldn’t get hired over Mike Washington.

– Completely ridiculous and yet somehow informing, a look at the relationship between SEC spring games, 2012 prospects, and random Tom Waits lyrics via the guys at GABA.

– What I’m hating on right now:  not really cfb related, but hate, hate, HATE, HATE!

– What’s the dumbest, most smh, thing Dabo Swinney said yesterday?  How about this little bite of word-salad, on the continued non-punishment of Sammy Watkins:

“I think he’s responded very well, but as far as any other comments at this time I’m still in the process, like my statement said, of gathering everything, all my thoughts and all the facts, and meeting with everybody involved, and then making a decision of where we will go from there as far as type of discipline we’ll put in place.”

–  Today’s worst thread on what is an otherwise excellent college sports message board.

–  Today’s best thread on the college football subreddit:  Where did Andy from Toy Story go to college?

Our first installment of what we hope will be a recurring feature, we interview the statue of Thomas Green Clemson, located just in front of Tillman Hall in beautiful Clemson, South Carolina:

TRC:   So, Mr. Clemson, can we call you Tommy?

Clemson:  You may NOT!  Please call me Tom.  I will also accept Mr. Ambassador, Mr. Secretary, or as my father-in-law, John C. Calhoun, called me, Mister Carpetbagging Yankee Fancy Britches.

TRC:   Alright, let’s just go with Tom.  How are things today in Clemson?

Clemson:  Well, at present, things are particularly bad.

TRC:  Losing streak to Carolina getting you down?

Clemson:  Oh, nothing like that, I rather enjoy that.  With all the losses to Carolina piling up, there’s a strange little man that comes around here at night sobbing, and I find the dour company somehow uplifting, actually.

TRC:   Strange man?

Clemson:  Ah yes – he talks about his mother a significant amount of time.  Wears pressed khakis and has a rather severe part to his hair.

TRC:   Wait, is it Dabo Sweeney?

Clemson:  No idea – although now that you mention it he does keep referring to a “Dabo.”  I thought it might be a modern local idiom for “a portion of” something because he always seems dissatisfied.  But if he is Dabo, then he is referring to himself in the third person a frighteningly frequent amount of time.  He also has an equally shocking limit to his vocabulary:  it’s mainly a series of grunts and silent screams.  He also slaps himself rather more than I care for.  As I said, strange little fellow.

TRC:   Um, ok, you mentioned that you were upset – what’s got you down?

Clemson:  It’s a particularly large and menacing bird that keeps – ah – relieving himself on me as of late.  Not quite so charming as a pigeon.  It strangely claims to be my deceased father.

TRC:  The bird talks?

Clemson:  Yes, yes it does – but why the soul of my long-dead father would haunt me all the way from our home in Philadelphia is beyond me.

TRC:   Why do you think the bird is your father?

Clemson:  He says so himself.  I hear a rustling of feathers, the jangle of spurs, and just before a large and pungent deposit is made upon my features I hear the unmistakable query of “who’s your daddy?” coming from the monster.  It is unbearable.

TRC:   Sounds awful.

Clemson:  It is!  Although in all honesty it is far better than when the local denizens tie their livestock to my lower legs.

TRC:  Livestock?  Why are they tying them to your legs?

Clemson:  I haven’t the foggiest notion.  They are always particularly smelly and appear ill-bred. I am referring here to both the locals and the livestock.   Flashing wads of cash around and yelling for people named Sammy, Bellamy, or (and let me make sure I’m pronouncing this correctly) Louteek.  These local gentry leave their pigs and goats tied up while they apparently search for these cash-starved gentlemen.

TRC:  This sounds annoying, but I don’t really see what so bad about it, really.

Clemson:  Oh you don’t do you?  Well you haven’t seen what the locals do to the livestock, obviously.  Let’s just say they don’t just milk those goats, friend [shudders].

TRC: [also shudders]  Eh, let’s change the subject, shall we?  Have you heard any of the rumors of Clemson bolting for the Big 12?

Clemson: [slightly raises his voice]  I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to never raise that subject with me again, sir!

TRC:  Well it is widely rumored . . .

Clemson:  Perhaps so!  But I do not see how my marital difficulties are any-

TRC:  Wait, marital difficulties?

Clemson: Yes!  Perhaps my wife, the former Miss Calhoun, Now Mrs. Clemson, is threatening to leave me again for her former paramour, but I will not discuss it with you of all people!

TRC:  No disrespect intended, Mr. Clemson.  But if I might ask, what does the Big 12 have to do with your wife?

Clemson:  I wish I knew!  But for reasons that have never been expounded to me, that is the nickname that Mrs. Clemson uses for him!

TRC: /quietly departs.

Its time for the biannual TRC fishing Trip/Corporate Retreat/Inspiration for the major motion picture, The Hangover.

As such, there will be very little activity here on the blog – but follow us on twitter (@rubrchickens) for updates on our upstate outtakes.

Oh, and if you are hurting for cfb coverage, you can always check out the College Football Reddit, our favorite source for nonsense and news.