AP, Nov. 22
COLUMBIA, S.C.â€â€Clemson and South Carolina have both forfeited bowl bids, an unprecedented punishment after players brawled near the end of Saturday's rivalry game.
South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee said Monday the Game*******s' actions on the field were not consistent with the values and ethics of the school.
McGee called the joint agreement on penalties unprecedented.
"This decision will have a significant financial impact on USC athletics. We will also lose a month of pre-bowl practice," McGee said. "It was a decision that had to be made."
Clemson athletics director Terry Don Phillips said the decision isn't fair to most players who didn't fight.
"But given the circumstances, I believe strongly that it is the right decision so that our university, our student-athletes, supporters and all people that love Clemson know without question what our values are," he said.
Clemson University Police Chief Gregory Harris said he didn't expect any criminal charges. "We're allowing, basically, the university's athletic department to deal with its players for their behavior," Harris said.
The brawl broke out with about six minutes left in the game. It started when Tigers defensive lineman Bobby Williamson took down South Carolina quarterback Syvelle Newton and appeared to linger too long on top of him.
Game******* offensive lineman Chris White came to Newton's defense. Several Clemson defenders joined the fray and soon players rushed on the field from both sidelines.
South Carolina coach Lou Holtz, in his last game after 33 seasons, and Clemson coach Tommy Bowden tried to break up the brawl. But the mobs of players stretched nearly 60 yards along the field. Clemson's Yusef Kelly flung a Game******* helmet into the stands. South Carolina running back Daccus Turman cold-*******ed Clemson's Duane Coleman in the back of the neck.
Eventually, security and police officers were needed to restore order.
ESPN college football analyst Rod Gilmore, a three-year starter at Stanford, was in the network's studio when he saw the footage. He was quickly disgusted and embarrassed for retiring South Carolina coach Lou Holtz, Gilmore said by phone Monday night.
Gilmore expected some individual bowl suspension, not the actions take by administrators at both schools. "I hope the rest of the country sits up and takes notice," Gilmore said.
Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive said the decision to decline bowl bids should show people that "intercollegiate athletics will not tolerate the kind of behavior we saw" at Saturday's game.
The Atlantic Coast Conference supported Clemson's actions, league commissioner John Swofford said. School officials "have taken an extraordinary and decisive stance in addressing this issue," the commissioner said.
Both conferences say they will continue reviewing the fight to see if additional penalties are warranted.
At his retirement announcement, Holtz put in a pitch for his Game*******s to play in a bowl game. But university President Andrew Sorensen said to dismiss the violence because it happened on the football field "is the rankest form of hypocrisy and very simply cannot be countenanced."
"This university does not approve of hooliganism at any place, at any time," Sorensen said.
McGee said player suspensions will be forthcoming. He said the school, which was mostly likely headed to the Independence Bowl, could lose more than $1 million.
Clemson President James F. Barker endorsed Phillips' decision and said the university would not take further action against the student-athletes involved.
"For the most part, the clear majority of our team was trying to do what was right," Phillips said. "They were out there trying to protect their teammates, trying to defend their teammates."
Trevor Matich, a former Brigham Young center and current ESPN analyst, applauded the steps taken by Clemson and South Carolina. But he wondered if the quick action by both schools came in part because of Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons brawl Friday night. "They might not have gone to this extent so fast," he said.
NBA commissioner David Stern was asked about the college brawl as he announced penalties for the basketball fight. "The spectacle of state troopers having to separate college kids is part of the same problem that we're all dealing with," Stern said.
South Carolina players were told of the school's decision by McGee. They quickly scattered to their cars with belongings and mementoes of their winning season.
"I thought some players were going to be suspended," Game*******s center John Strickland said. "I didn't think we were going to be sitting home during Christmas for the third year straight."
Comments
I lost any respect I had for Lou Holtz when he marched to remove the flag. Anything that might hamper recrutment of blacks has to go.
"South Carolina athletic director Mike McGee said Monday the Game*******s' actions on the field were not consistent with the values and ethics of the school."
A joke! Nearly all American universities have prostituted themselves for the sake of hiring ghetto thugs who will eventually either play in the NFL/NBA or go to prison (or both). Alumni want to win. Coaches want to improve their resumes. Administrators like the money. Faculty who should want academic standards are so leftist that they are more than willing to give away the farm for the sake of black enrollment.
If colleges re-invoked academic standards and went back to using real student-athletes I don't think college athletics would be any less exciting. Skill level is a relative thing after all. And I could watch a game without feeling dirty.
Posted by jmbuch at 5:34 PM on November 23
(from "jmbuch": "If colleges re-invoked academic standards and went back to using real student-athletes I don't think college athletics would be any less exciting. Skill level is a relative thing after all. And I could watch a game without feeling dirty."
Such a setting already exists, though few are aware of it. It's called NCAA Division III -- the no-scholarship division. Every player is a walk-on, therefore academic standards are not lowered. The Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl, a.k.a. the Division III football final, should be on ESPN in a week or two.
Along with the NBA (see the story on the Pacers-Pistons brawl), we should boycott big-time college sports, especially football & basketball. They are corrupt beyond any hope of reform, and far too many alumni are more than willing to sell their souls to Satan in exchange for a winning team.
Posted by Dave at 9:28 PM on November 23
Why do people cheer for out-of-state hired-gun non-students who don't represent them, and live in segregated dorms to boot?
Teams aren't drawn from the student body and are not part of the school at all.
Posted by Leo at 10:28 PM on November 23
What is new. Ghetto jocks behave like ghetto jocks. Self indulgent, out of control, everyone blamed for upsetting them-the perpetual victim and always with an ambulence chaser hand wringer, race cry baby to front the hustle.
The sports culture from high school to pros is totally corrupt. Bench sitting whites selling their lucky inheritance pandering to adolescent melanin children of dysfunctional urban cultures with bad educations.
Media 4th string jock sniffers alibing every ebonic criminal in sight.
Some very good tribal european sports ruined by african tribal norms. Sportsmanship versus showmanship, integrity versus egocentricity, manliness versus machoness.
How many I's are in team? Can you say punk african b-ballers caved to world teams like puerto rico, and just would not let the hotdogs play one on one; insisted that all five on their team could play againt the ghetto one. Squashed like a stink bug, representing America, the infection of good will experience innoculated. Never again.
Posted by Joe at 1:22 AM on November 24
Leo makes a good point; colleges are in fact hiring "student athletes," largely to pander to alumni. I'd love to see wealthy alumns turn off the money spigot as a protest of this degenerate bestiality. They don't really seem to care, though, as long as *their* thugs go to one of the ever-multiplying, meaningless bowl games at the end of the season.
Posted by Cassiodorus at 10:45 AM on November 24
I grew up watching Clemson football back in the 60's. Under coach Frank Howard, "running down the Hill" was established as a fun tradition to start all home games. Now, like all things ruined when blacks take them over, its become an exercise in taunting the other team - with players "freaking" (or whatever the hell it's called) & acting like a tribe of hopped-up apes. The game's 1st confrontation occurred because the Game*******s met the Tigers when they got down off of the hill. Neither head coach had any control whatsoever over his team. Tommy Bowden decided to blame the NBA for his players behavior. (I guess when they gang-rape a coed - something that actually happened not too many years ago - or kill somebody the excuse will be that they were watching daytime soaps or the news.) The no-bowl penalty perhaps could have been avoided if the coaches had shown some leadership => pledged to punish the offenders and taken steps to ensure that this never happened again. Instead, they left it up to the school's bureaucrats. An all-around disgrace.
Posted by B-L Witan at 12:21 PM on November 24
In the 70's I went to a small chruch-affiliated college. We didn't have a football team by choice - students' choice. The alums tried to force it on us but we consistently fought it. Sports were played by real students who knew they weren't going pro, so they studied & planned for a career. It was one of the main reasons I choose the college.
Why can't pro sports set up feeder systems such as is in use by rugby & soccer & leave the universities & colleges for students.
Posted by Elaine at 4:19 PM on November 24
I grew up in a family that supported Game******* football for multiple generations. As a child I went to every home game (sitting in the press box at eight years old)and many away games. I watched George Rodgers--later convicted of drug position--win the Heisman Trophy.
Then I went to school there. For one year. The school greated me with a black roommate, whom I stayed with for a semester rather than offend him, because he was an alright fellow. Turns out his mom was a black politician. He knew what side my bread was buttered on though, and knew who my mother's family was and even then I stauchly supported the Confederate flag. (It was going on even then in 87.) One night I woke up to four blacks in my little room stealing. I still remember chasing them down the stairs while one held my clock radio like a loaf of bread. When my room-mate returned from the home he said, " yep, they were black. They stole my hair gel!"
After tranfering, I still followed the football some (our school had no football) but I noticed that the teams each year got blacker. Then I just dropped the whole thing because it seemed all so childish: all the problems we are facing and these people are talking about the "Gamecawks n Tigawrs!".
But not so with my family, they still follow it--though not with the same gusto. I always get on them about how black the team is, especially after they got a black quarterback. Now they have several--thanks Lou. And they all suck, and the fans are scared to death to say so or they will be racists--woooooo. This year they wore all black uniforms. I told my mom at least we can agree they are all black now.
Last year I saw a Game******* calender: not one white on it. This year they have two white starters. You guessed it--the punter and kicker. Maybe the equiptment manager is too, I don't know. Defense and offense ARE ALL BLACK. How edifying. So now they have this brawl. When I see my family for Thanksgiving, I will wait for the proper intro and then will launch into a diatribe about how you put a bunch of juiced up blacks on a field and scream fight fight fight, then guess what happens? I also will repeat to my mother, who seems to be catching on, that I can't wait when not only the whole team is black, but the referees, the coaches, the consessions people and ALL the fans too. Then "wha you ga do?" Maybe they will go to the horse races with me instead.
Posted by GB at 9:58 PM on November 24
I'll say it again: turning off the set won't do it. You must boycott those who provide advertising revenue. (It looks as though the myth of the "Noble Savage" may be the hardest to break.)
Posted by Robert Binion at 10:48 PM on November 24
Edited by: Colonel_Reb
