Thoughts on the noon hysteria

Have to admit I was a little dismayed to see the noon start for the Auburn game.

Most of the time, sportswriters and media types actually prefer noon. You get in early, you get out early, and you actually get to settle in and watch some football for fun later in the day (and night).

And, truth be told, most coaches and players are preferential to noon starts because it gives them time after the game to decompress, relax and live like normal humans before resuming the grind Sunday morning.

But there’s absolutely no question that the most appealing atmosphere at Death Valley is at night or mid-afternoon at 3:30. And it’s not just because fans have time to get properly, uh, prepared in the parking lots for hours on end.

For any Southern school that’s utterly consumed with football, the proper showcase occurs when the sun is setting or down altogether. And there’s no doubt Clemson’s home setting fits into that category.

The atmosphere at last year’s game at Auburn was truly special, and it ranked among the more memorable experiences I’ve had. Had the game been at noon instead of 7:45, it’d have still been pretty cool. But not goosebump-inducing cool.

Most of you probably remember the 2002 game between Clemson and Georgia in Athens. That was a night game, and at kickoff the place felt like it was about to explode.

Some folks would point out the fact that the next year’s game between the Tigers and Bulldogs was at noon, and that the atmosphere at Death Valley was just fine. And it was – about as electric as you can get for a noon game.

Georgia pummeled Clemson that day, and it’s hard to imagine the outcome being any different had the game started at 3:30 or at night. There are plenty of cases of night games seemingly giving Clemson a better opportunity to win – Georgia Tech in 2006, Florida State in 2009, Florida State in 2003, off the top of my head – but there have been some night duds as well. The 2002 team was humiliated at home, at night, by N.C. State and Maryland by a combined score of 68-18. The 2007 team squandered the Atlantic Division title at night against Boston College. And, of course, last year’s team was throttled at night by South Carolina.

To me, the bottom line is that noon games are just kind of weird. As much as I’ve favored them over the years for professional reasons, when I detach myself from those preferences I can’t deny that there’s something about them that just doesn’t feel right.

I don’t know that the news of the noon game against Auburn merits hysteria. But I can see why some folks consider it unfortunate.

When you think major cross-sectional matchup between a defending national champion and a team that’s starving for its own taste of greatness, you’re thinking of a night or late-afternoon setting

It’s not a great travesty that we’ll all be shoveling ourselves into that stadium in the AM hours on Sept. 17. But it’s not ideal, either.

LW