Update on future of South Carolina-Clemson football game

Clemson and South Carolina leaders spent last week preaching the importance of playing their football rivalry game.

Now, they’ve put pen to paper to formally keep it going.

The schools will play each other in Clemson in 2024 and Columbia in 2025 in their usual game slot, the Saturday after Thanksgiving, according to a contract obtained Monday by The State via a public records request.

In a widely expected continuation of the Palmetto Bowl series, Clemson will host South Carolina on Nov. 30, 2024, in Memorial Stadium, and USC will host Clemson on Nov. 29, 2025, at Williams-Brice Stadium, according to the contract.

The contract was created Oct. 5, 2023, and signed by the schools’ respective athletic directors days before Thanksgiving and last Saturday’s rivalry game, which Clemson won 16-7 in Columbia. South Carolina AD Ray Tanner signed the contract Nov. 21 and Clemson AD Graham Neff signed it Nov. 22.

The contract includes language that allows for the schools to change the date of the game “pending the mutual written agreement of the participating institutions.” That’s a standard part of every game contract.

An excerpt of the liquidated damages section also states that “if either party’s governing conference reduces the number of nonconference games or if due to conference realignment nonconference games are eliminated or reduced, then either party, upon written notice, may cancel the Game without penalty or the payment of liquid damages.”

A re-upping of the Clemson-South Carolina football series, which is one of the most recognizable rivalry games in the country and has been played 120 times, was expected. But a slower turnaround time on executing the next contract raised questions earlier this fall of whether or not ACC and SEC scheduling changes might affect the game’s date or the viability of playing it at all.

Neff, the Clemson athletic director, and Tanner, the South Carolina athletic director, had both publicly acknowledged the date of the Clemson-South Carolina game could change in the future because of the SEC moving to a nine-game conference schedule or other factors.

Both ADs, though, said they heavily preferred sticking to their current slot, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Clemson and South Carolina have now played 17 straight games on that weekend and haven’t played each other before the month of November in 64 years. As of now, that’ll continue through 2025.

Direct public comments in support of the rivalry and keeping it going regardless of circumstances from Neff, Tanner, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney and South Carolina football coach Shane Beamer have been music to fans’ ears over the past two seasons as realignment has ended other iconic rivalries including Oklahoma-Oklahoma State and Oregon-Oregon State.

The schools signed a two-year game contract to play football games for 2022-23, which was executed on April 8, 2021, roughly 19 months before the first game on the deal. The 2024-25 contract ended up getting finalized roughly 12 months before the first game on the deal, a seven-month delay from the previous cycle.

Clemson-South Carolina contract details

A few more notes from the contract, provided by Clemson:

• As per usual, the schools won’t pay each other for these games. For each contest, it’s noted that the Host Institution (Clemson in 2024, South Carolina 2025) will pay the Visiting Institution $0. That’s a carry-over from previous contracts. Guarantee payments are more applicable for lesser opponents. For example, Clemson will pay FCS Charleston Southern $400,000 and Florida Atlantic $1.2 million for playing football games in Death Valley earlier this season. South Carolina paid over $3 million to three 2022 opponents.

• In the liquidated damages section, the contract notes that if one of parties breaches the contract, it owes the non-breaching party $0 if notice of cancellation is received 24 months or more before the scheduled date of the game; $500,000 if it’s received between 12 and 24 months before the game; and $1 million if it’s received within 12 months (or one year) of the game.

• For both games, the visiting school must be allocated 7,000 tickets to sell (including 1,500 lower deck tickets), and the home school must admit 20 cheerleaders, one mascot and two cheerleading coaches from the visiting team free of charge.

• The visiting team for each game must be provided a minimum of 60 team bench passes, 16 all-access passes, eight coaches’ booth passes and six team/coaches video passes.

• The visiting team for each game must be provided parking passes for one equipment truck, four buses and six cars “for use by the football program and administrators.”