ACC, ESPN asked Clemson to move football game against South Carolina to Black Friday

ESPN and the Atlantic Coast Conference tried to move the annual South Carolina-Clemson football game up a day, according to court filings made Monday as part of Clemson’s lawsuit against the ACC.

The TV network and the league asked Clemson to move its annual rivalry game to Black Friday, Nov. 29, the day after Thanksgiving, from Saturday, Nov. 30. Clemson declined the offer. The game would have been played in prime time.

According to Exhibit A in the filing, the ACC offered “concessions to induce Clemson to make the change.” One of the concessions included South Carolina to reciprocate the move in the future.

The game, which has traditionally been played sometime in November since 1960, remains scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 30.

The last time the game wasn’t played in November was in 1959, when it was held Oct. 22.

The ACC wasn’t pleased with Clemson’s decision to decline the move, as evidenced by an email exchange between the league’s senior associate commissioner Michael Strickland and Clemson athletic director Graham Neff. The email pointed out that other schools in the conference had moved games to Friday after Thanksgiving, including Georgia Tech-Georgia, Florida State-Florida, North Carolina-Notre Dame, Virginia-Virginia Tech and North Carolina-NC State.

“As has been indicated to you during this process, the Conference Office is disappointed in Clemson University’s lack of cooperation on this matter. As all ACC members know, it is incumbent upon the ACC and its institutions to work in good faith with ESPN on football scheduling issues,” Strickland wrote. “This cooperation maximizes the value of our relationship with our media partner and strengthens our collective future. Clemson’s decision not to do so in this instance is harmful toward that goal.”

In addition to moving Clemson’s game against South Carolina, the ACC wanted the Tigers’ Nov. 23 game against The Citadel to be moved to a noon start, Clemson’s 2027 Labor Day game against N.C. State to be moved to Clemson, and a limit of two ACC road games to be played in prime time.

Clemson’s lawsuit against the ACC continued Tuesday in a Mecklenburg County Courthouse in Charlotte.