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Bowden and Saban Have Always Been Bowl Eligible
Two of the most consistent coaches in college football will be on the sidelines when Clemson faces Alabama in the season opener at The Georgia Dome. There are two active Division I coaches in college football who have coached at least 10 years and never had a losing year, Clemson’s Tommy Bowden and Alabama’s Nick Saban.
Bowden is in his 12th season as a head coach, two at Tulane and his 10th year at Clemson. He had records of 7-4 and 11-0 in his two years at Tulane for an 18-4 overall mark. At Clemson he has a 69-42 record. He has had a break even record just once, a 6-6 ledger in his first year at Clemson, 1999. Every other year has ended with more wins than losses.
Saban is in his 13th year as a Division I head coach and has a 98-48-1 record for a .670 winning percentage. He had a 9-2 record in one year at Toledo in 1990. He then coached five years at Michigan State, five years at LSU and has completed one year at Alabama. He had a pair of 6-6 records at Michigan State (1996 and 199 and that is the closest he has come to a losing season in terms of final record. He was 7-6 in his first year at Alabama with a victory in a bowl game against Colorado.
Saban coached two years with the Miami Dolphins, 2005 and 2006. Both Bowden and Saban have also gone their entire careers without a losing season in conference play.
Clemson Ninth in AP Preseson Poll
Clemson is ranked ninth in the pre¬season Associated Press and US Today college football polls released on August 16. It is the highest preseason ranking for the Tigers pro¬gram since 1991 when Clemson was also ninth.
“I hope our team takes this ranking as a motivating factor, as something to uphold, then it is a positive,” said Bowden. “If they think we have arrived, believe we have accomplished something and become complacent, then it is a negative. We won’t shy away from it, but it will put a target on us. I am sure it will motivate Alabama.”
The Crimson Tide also made the As¬sociated Press preseason poll with a number-24 ranking. This means Clemson will face a ranked team as a ranked team in the season opener for just the third time in school history. Clemson defeated a 12th ranked North Caro¬lina team as an 18th ranked AP team to open 1959, and came away with a 20-18 victory. The only other battle of top 25 teams to play in the opening game of a Clemson season came in 1982 when 11th ranked Clemson lost to seventh-ranked Georgia in Athens, 13-7.
This will be just the 10th time in Clemson history that the Tigers have opened a season against a top 25 team, but the fifth time a Tommy Bowden coached Clemson team has done it. Clemson has won each of its last two openers against a top 25 team, a 25-24 win over 17th ranked Texas A&M in 2005, and a 24-18 win over 19th ranked Florida State last year.
This is the 20th season Clemson has been ranked in the preseason top 25 by The Associated Press. The first occurrence took place 50 years ago when Clemson was ranked number-18 top open the 1958 season according to AP. Clemson finished 8-3 that season and won the Atlantic Coast Conference title. The Tigers finished 12th in the AP poll that year, 13th by the UPI Coaches poll.
This is the seventh time Clemson has been ranked in the top 10 of the preseason AP poll, the first since 1991. Clemson’s highest preseason ranking in any poll was a number-four rating in 1984 and 1988. Clemson finished 7-4 in 1984 and 10-2 in 1988. Clemson was ninth in the final AP poll in 1988.
The preseason poll has not been much of an indicator for Clemson in the last few years. Each of the last three years Clemson has not been ranked in the preseason poll (2003, 2005, 2007), Clemson has finished in the top 25 of both polls. Each of the last two years Clem¬son was ranked in the preseason top 25 (2001 and 2006), the Tigers have not finished in the top 25.
Seven times Clemson has been ranked in the preseason top 25 and gone on to win the Atlantic Coast Conference title. The last time that happened was 1991. That was also the last time Clemson was ranked in the top 10 in the preseason poll. Clemson’s highest final ranking in a season it was not in the preseason poll came in 1981 when the Tigers won the national cham¬pionship. The 1989 season is the only year Clemson’s preseason poll matched its final poll. Clemson was 12th in the preseason and 12th in the postseason polls that year. Clemson’s highest finish in a year it has been ranked in the preseason top 25 came in 1978 when Clemson was 18th in the preseason and finished sixth.

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Atlanta to host Clemson-Alabama

By Larry Williams (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Saturday, January 5, 2008


Tigers, Tide will play for the first time in more than 30 years



CLEMSON — Tommy Bowden said the promise of exposure helped him warm to the idea of kicking off the 2008 season against Alabama in Atlanta.
Adding South Carolina State to the schedule probably didn't hurt, either.
The Tigers' Aug. 30 date with the Crimson Tide was announced Friday afternoon by the Chick-fil-A Bowl, which spent about a year trying to orchestrate an attractive season opener at the 73,000-seat Georgia Dome. ESPN or WCIV (ABC) will televise the 8 p.m. game.
Bowden, whose team finished the 2007 season 9-4 after Monday's 23-20 overtime defeat to Auburn in the Chick-fil-A Bowl, was initially opposed to the game with the Crimson Tide. His stated non-conference scheduling preference has been playing lesser-regarded opponents who are easier to beat.
MCT/File The city of Atlanta will host Clemson's football season opener against Alabama in the Georgia Dome on Aug. 30.

"Anytime you have an opportunity to have a national platform like this, you take it," said Bowden, who's been at Clemson nine seasons.
Bowden is probably more comfortable knowing S.C. State is on the schedule. Clemson announced the Bulldogs will visit Death Valley on Sept. 20 in a game that will replace Louisiana Tech, which Clemson said asked out of its contracted game with the Tigers in Ruston, La.
That means Clemson will play two teams from the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA). The Citadel will visit Clemson on Sept. 6. Clemson has never played S.C. State.
The Alabama date was made possible when Central Florida asked to get out of its 2008 game at Death Valley, according to Clemson. In a statement released by the school, athletic director Terry Don Phillips said the addition of S.C. State fulfilled Clemson's essential objective of having seven home games.
Phillips said Clemson called "several" upper-division teams seeking to replace Louisiana Tech but found no takers.
"When we had the opportunity to play Alabama at a neutral site, we considered losing a home game and the negative economic impact it would have on the university and the state of South Carolina. ... It will be a positive for two football programs in the state of South Carolina."
Clemson's fourth non-conference game will be a Nov. 29 home date with South Carolina. The Tigers' home games against Atlantic Coast Conference teams are against Duke, Georgia Tech, Maryland and North Carolina State.
Of the Tigers' five home games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents, just one finished 2007 with a winning record — Georgia Tech at 7-6.
Clemson's road conference games are against Boston College, Florida State, Virginia and Wake Forest. The ACC is expected to release its full schedule in late January.
Clemson opened the 2007 season with a Labor Day night clash against Florida State, winning 24-18. The Tigers and Crimson Tide haven't played since 1975, when Alabama won 56-0. Clemson will be the home team and the SEC will provide the officiating crew as dictated by a coin flip.
"I thought it was a win-win for both schools," said Bowden, whose team could be a favorite to win the ACC in 2008. "Once the TV platform, the exposure and the opponent were explained, it was a no-brainer."
Chick-fil-A Bowl president Gary Stokan said he's hoping this game starts an annual season-opening showcase by his bowl featuring the SEC and ACC. According to Stokan, the two conferences boast 343 football players from Georgia.
Stokan said the arrangement is "visionary stuff" that allows the universities to get "outside the box" of the traditional home-game format. Tickets will be split down the middle, with each school getting at least 33,000.
"I don't know that you can find two more passionate fan bases than Clemson and Alabama — which makes all the difference in making a neutral game work," Stokan said.
In its first year under Nick Saban, Alabama went 7-6 and 4-4 in the SEC. The Crimson Tide beat Colorado 30-24 in the Independence Bowl.
In September, Alabama played a neutral-site game against Florida State in Jacksonville, Fla. The game drew a record crowd of 85,412 to the Gator Bowl.
"All these types of venues offer great exposure for us," Saban said.
The Crimson Tide will mark Clemson's third consecutive SEC opponent. The Tigers closed the regular season with a 23-21 victory at South Carolina.
According to Clemson, ticket information for the Alabama game will be included in the season-ticket application mailed out by IPTAY in March.