Steve Spurrier has coached in multiple conferences, and multiple rivalries, to understand the landscape of college football, even in the age of realignment and expansion.

The former Florida and South Carolina coach recently told USA Today that Clemson has long been an SEC team in its profile.

“When I coached at Duke, Clemson was actually like an SEC school in the ACC,” Spurrier said. “That was before FSU, Syracuse and Virginia Tech (joined the ACC). When you played Clemson, they looked like SEC guys.”

Clemson has long been mentioned as a potential school to move to the SEC, along with Florida State, because both have similar makeups, expectations and histories in football.

Thinking back to Spurrier’s days at Duke in the 1980s, Clemson’s style of play stood out to the Head Ball Coach.

“Their defensive guys were a little bit bigger, a little bit faster,” Spurrier said of Clemson’s ’80s teams. “They just lined up and tried to smash you. That was their style of offense. They certainly could slide right into the SEC.”

Spurrier, of course, is well versed in expansion because Arkansas and South Carolina joined the league when he was at Florida. And then Missouri and Texas A&M joined the league when Spurrier was at South Carolina.