Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

Jun 30, 2018, 12:46 PM

of why South Carolina left the ACC if my memory is correct. I seem to recall that basketball was the major driver in USC (USUCK) leaving the conference. Frank McGuire was the basketball coach at USC. His team had played for a National championship when he was the coach at St. John. He left St. John and went to UNC and led UNC to a National Championship in the 1957 timeframe. They beat a Wilt Chamberlain led Kansas team. UNC was not a big basketball school before McGuire's arrival; their focus was football. He was initially responsible for turning UNC into a major basketball school by recruiting players from the playgrounds of New York. It was called his "New York Railroad" and he did it at both North Carolina and later when he went to South Carolina. When he was forced out at UNC in the early 1960's due to a scandal, Dean Smith (one of his assistants) took over the UNC program and the rest is history. After a couple of years in professional basketball, McGuire took over as coach of South Carolina in 1964. His 1971 team (I think) went undefeated in the ACC regular season but lost to N.C. State in the ACC tournament. In those days only the tournament winner got a bid to play for the national championship. That bugged McGuire! His teams had been so successful at South Carolina that he had the clout to be the major influence on South Carolina leaving the ACC in the 1972 timeframe.

The ACC's 800 rule was certainly a factor as well as the ACC's rule limiting football scholarships to 35 per year. I certainly remember vividly the recruiting of Freddie Solomon. I remember him being described by some one as "running as if he was in a controlled epileptic fit." There was no national NCAA scholarship limit in that general timeframe. You could recruit as many as you could pay for. Pittsburg won a national championship sometime back then and it was largely due to no limits on scholarships. I seem to remember they recruited 60-80 one year before their championship with Johnny Majors as their head coach. After there were scholarship limits set by the conferences, the SEC limit was 45 per year when the ACC limit was 35. That meant that over a 5 year period (including a redshirt year), SEC teams could have 50 more scholarships than the ACC could offer. I think that was in the late 1960s. I remember home and home series with Alabama and Auburn in the late 1960s or early 1970s when Alabama and Auburn each beat us 4 years in a row (we won 0 and lost 8). I believe the scholarship numbers were a big factor in the rise of the SEC in those days. It was tough on a Clemson guy living in Alabama who had moved here after returning from Vietnam in 1966.

Again, this is mostly from my memory as I haven't taken time to research exact dates but the general thrust is factual. The 800 rule and the scholarship differential were the reason that Coach Howard called the SEC "the knucklehead league." I am 75 and lived through that era with a high interest in recruiting because Coach Howard had sent me a letter expressing interest in me after my junior year in high school. That led no where because I had a season ending injury my senior year plus the fact that I was probably to small to play offense and defense in those days when you had to play both before two platoon football. I welcome any comments from those who lived through that period or others who care to do some research and fact checking.

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I was a pre-teenager when USuCk left the ACC and went the independent route and I recall my Dad telling me that Coach Paul Dietzel (forgive me if I misspelled his name wrong) convinced the Trusteees at the time that he could turn USuCk into the next Notra Dame as an independent school with no conference affiliations. That did not work out to well for them. I believe this because my Dad and AD Bill Bill McClellan were at Clemson together and were great friends. They used to talk all the time about Clemson football. Frank McGuire was adamently opposed to leaving the ACC as he knew what effect it would have on his recruiting pipeline in NEW York City. I don't know what the baseball coach thought of it though but that wass the only sports program that didn't suffer when USuCk left the ACC.

Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

Re: Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

Re: Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

Re: Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

Re: Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

Re: Good discussion on 800 rule but there is more to the story

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