South Carolina-Clemson brawl
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The South Carolina-Clemson brawl was an on-field altercation during an NCAA game between football players from the University of South Carolina and Clemson University. The incident took place on November 20, 2004 at the Memorial Stadium in Clemson, South Carolina. This disturbance led to serious repercussions for those involved from the Southeastern Conference (SEC; South Carolina's conference), Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC; Clemson's conference), NCAA, and the legal authorities.
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[edit] The disturbance
The previous year (2003), Clemson had the biggest one-sided win in the history of the series, 63-17, and some bad blood had been part of the game. Prior to the 2004 contest at Clemson, South Carolina players congregated at the bottom of "the Hill" in Clemson stadium, awaiting the arrival of the Tigers. As the Clemson team ran down the hill into the stadium some of the Gamecocks taunted them and some shoving occurred, although this did not escalate. Later, a massive fight resulted during the fourth quarter after Clemson defensive end Bobby Williamson flagrantly punched South Carolina quarterback Syvelle Newton after Newton was tackled and lying on the ground. Some players on the field from both teams engaged in shoving and punching and both benches practically cleared as chaos erupted on the field. State Troopers, as well as other local law enforcement officers, entered the field to restore order. However, no fans ever entered the field. Play was suspended for six minutes.
The incident was not directly related to the infamous brawl between Indiana Pacers players and Detroit Pistons players and fans during an NBA game the previous night in Detroit. However, Clemson head coach Tommy Bowden said his players had stayed up the night before, watching what had happened in Detroit. There are still questions as to if the fight was somewhat inspired by the Detroit brawl. To make matters worse, the fight overshadowed the last game Lou Holtz participated in as South Carolina head coach, as he retired at the end of the season, and handed the coaching reins to Steve Spurrier. Clemson won the game 29-7.
The following year (2005), in a unique showing of sportmanship which was coordinated by both schools' athletic departments and administrations, both teams met at midfield at Williams-Brice Stadium at the University of South Carolina and shook hands, putting the ugly and embarassing incident behind them.
[edit] The consequences
The ACC and SEC reviewed the tapes of both incidents before handing out proper punishments to players. However, both schools imposed a punishment of their own on November 22, by saying they would impose a postseason ban because of the fights.
Both the SEC and ACC suspended players from each school, with the SEC's penalties effective for South Carolina's first game of the 2005-06 season, against Central Florida, while the ACC allowed Clemson to suspend their offending players at various games during the 2005-06 season.
The penalties were criticised by some as too lenient.[citation needed] First, both teams' seniors were able to get away virtually scot-free, as they forced other non-offending players to be punished for their actions by sitting out postseason games which they had earned, and faced no penalties of their own. Others considered the post-season ban as sufficiently serious punishment for involved seniors and the following suspensions as overkill.[citation needed]
Second, the ACC's policy on players serving suspensions permitted Clemson to punish the players during the season, and not an immediate penalty during the Tigers' first game of 2005, against Texas A&M. Some of the offending players were involved in the crucial game, which resulted in a Tigers win in the final seconds of the game. The penalties were served, based on a case-by-case basis, in midseason games against Temple and Duke. This appears to have been a way to make the punishment equal to that meted out to USC players and to have equal impact on the two teams' following seasons.
The SEC's policy forced South Carolina to punish its players for the Central Florida game, the first game of the ensuing season. The Golden Knights had gone winless the previous season.
Some believe if the schools had allowed postseason play, the penalties would have been stiffer with more justice, as the seniors involved in the brawl would have faced suspensions like the non-seniors, at postseason games likely against Minnesota (South Carolina) and Boston College (Clemson). Furthermore, the games which the players would have served their suspension would have been against a better caliber team, and the conferences would almost certainly have dropped a tougher penalty on the offending non-seniors.
[edit] External links
[edit] See also
- Miami-FIU brawl, a similar incident during a 2006 college football game
- Pacers-Pistons brawl, a noteworthy NBA brawl from the night before.
