What we know about the USC-Clemson baseball rivalry series contract situation

The Clemson and South Carolina baseball teams still haven’t announced the dates and locations for their annual three-game weekend rivalry series for the 2024 season and beyond.

When they do, though, don’t expect any departures from the format the Tigers and Gamecocks have been following since 2019.

All indications are that Clemson and USC — both of which hosted NCAA Tournament regionals last season — will sign a contract to keep playing one game at Clemson, one game at South Carolina and one neutral-site game at either Greenville’s Fluor Field or Columbia’s Segra Park, with those off-campus locations alternating each season.

In an Oct. 25 response to a public records request for any “request for proposal” letters sent out by Clemson athletics to cities/towns for hosting a future neutral-site rivalry game, Clemson said the university “has not solicited any RFPs for future neutral-site games.”

In response to a similar public records request, South Carolina said it also hadn’t sent out any request for proposal letters, better known as RFPs, which was an indication in the past whenever the schools were considering other ballparks.

In 2018, as Clemson and South Carolina were weighing other locations to play their neutral-site rivalry baseball game, “officials from both schools sent RFP letters to Greenville, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Charlotte and North Augusta,” according to a Post & Courier report.

The schools eventually settled on playing four total neutral-site games at Fluor Field and Segra Park from 2019-22, with two games apiece at each venue to give both schools a more established home field advantage.

Clemson and South Carolina have been playing a three-game series the first weekend of March annually since 2010. From 2010-18, every Saturday neutral-site game except for one was played at Greenville’s Fluor Field, home of the minor league Greenville Drive.

Fluor Field is about 30 miles and 40 minutes away from Clemson’s campus as compared with about 105 miles and 1 hour and 45 minutes away from USC’s.

Although USC and Clemson split the games in Greenville 4-4 from 2010-18, received equal ticket allotments and drew generally 50-50 crowds, adding a Columbia ballpark to the series rotation “made an awful lot of sense,” then-Clemson AD Dan Radakovich told The State in 2018.

Under a contract that ran 2019-22 and also included the 2023 series, Clemson and South Carolina alternated neutral-site locations with games at Fluor Field in 2019, 2021 and 2023 and games at Segra Park in 2020 (just before the coronavirus pandemic canceled the majority of the season) and 2022.

That pattern indicates the teams are likely to play their neutral-site game for the 2024 season at Segra Park, home of the minor league Columbia Fireflies.

As first detailed by Gamecock Scoop, Greenville’s Fluor Field will also be hosting a four-team First Pitch Invitational college baseball event from March 1-3, 2024, the weekend of the Clemson-USC series. Illinois, Florida State, Western Michigan and Michigan State will be playing in that event, per the Illinois baseball schedule release — another indication the 2024 neutral site game is likely to be at Segra.

As reported in 2018, Clemson and South Carolina had gathered information via RFP surveys for the minor league ballparks in Charleston (which hosted a Clemson-USC game in 2012), North Augusta, Myrtle Beach and Charlotte.

But travel and logistics on both ends — especially given the quick turnaround from the Saturday neutral-site game to an early Sunday game on either the Clemson or USC campus — played a role and continue to play a role in the schools’ decision-making on neutral-site locations.

Neutral-site games in Greenville and Columbia naturally make weekend logistics easier, as South Carolina could play a road game at Clemson’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium on a Friday and stay in the Upstate area that night ahead of a Saturday game in Greenville (see: 2023). Same for Clemson with a game at USC’s Founders Park on a Friday and Segra Park on a Saturday (see: 2022).

A memorable rivalry series

Clemson beat South Carolina all three games in the 2022 series, marking the first time the Tigers swept the Gamecocks in a single season since 1996. But South Carolina got revenge in 2023, winning an entertaining neutral site game in Greenville and a rubber match at home for a 2-1 series win.

That was a particularly spicy edition of the rivalry, given that Monte Lee, Clemson’s former baseball coach, is now USC’s hitting coach. Three former Tigers who played for Lee also transferred to play for the Gamecocks after Lee’s firing in May 2022 after missing consecutive NCAA Tournaments.

Both programs ended up putting together excellent seasons. Clemson, under first-year coach Erik Bakich, engineered a memorable turnaround from below .500 in the ACC to tournament champions and the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.

South Carolina, after a late-season slip, also hosted an NCAA regional as the No. 16 overall seed and advanced farther than its rival, as Clemson couldn’t get out of its own regional and USC advanced to a super regional before losing to Florida.

South Carolina coach Mark Kingston, who’d voiced support for more neutral-site games in Charleston earlier in his tenure, said in an Oct. 5 media availability discussions for the Clemson series are “in process.”

Neither school has released its full non-conference schedule yet, though those are expected soon as both programs work through fall training and scrimmages.

“I think those decisions will be made by higher-ups,” Kingston said. “I think as coaches we get opinions and say what we think the pluses and the minuses for all the different venues are. But at the end of the day, I think it’s going to be people with bigger positions than baseball coaches that’ll make those final calls.”