Profit Opportunity

Clemson just announced that it will not accept any post-season bowl invitation (the gamecocks have decided to do the same). This was a self-imposed penalty after the ugly brawl minutes before the end of the game with the gamecocks last saturday. I think it's smart on the part of the Athletic Department to jump the gun on any ACC/NCAA penalties that might have been imposed at the start of next season. Since the tigers barely made it to bowl eligibility, chances are that they were on their way to a low-payoff bowl game anyway. Remember that in a bowl invite, the schools are responsible for selling some tickets too. If the bowl game was in some place hundreds of miles away from Clemson, it might be hard to sell them all even if Clemson is one of those schools that "travel well."

By announcing the self-imposed penalty, the schools were able to do some PR work and claim upperhand on so-called value and character reputation of the institution. In the end these supposed benefits outweigh the bowl payoff and the cost of possible future penalties.