Lawmakers decided Wednesday that state government shouldn’t dictate college football schedules.
A House subcommittee unanimously voted down a bill that would require the University of South Carolina and Clemson University to face off in football once a year.
USC and Clemson have played each other in football for 103 consecutive years, making it the second longest running rivalry game.
The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland, said many constituents have voiced concerns that the rivalry game could go by the wayside as each team’s conference expands. He said he didn’t expect the bill to face such opposition.
“I understand people are like, ‘this is big government,’ but at the same time our own U.S. Senator Jim DeMint a few years ago lead the effort on the floor to get Shoeless Joe Jackson in the [Baseball] Hall of Fame,” Ballentine said.
He said that though the universities feel secure now, he’ll be at the ready to defend the rivalry with laws if the conferences “start to lean on them” because the game is “something we’re all Palmetto State citizens can take pride in knowing that we’ve got a great rivalry and of course the economic impact is huge for the state.”
But committee members spoke up saying though there is an undeniable tradition and economic impact on the state, it is up to each school’s board of trustees to make decisions regarding conferences and athletics scheduling.
The subcommittee chairman Rep. Lester Branham D-Florence said he has been assured by members of both boards that if they need a law “in their arsenal” if the game comes under fire that they would let him know so a bill could be drafted quickly.
The state legislature did make a one-time mandate for the game in 1952, because Clemson was under sanctions from their then conference, Southern Conference, and could not play any member schools other than the University of Maryland, except games required by state law.
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