CLEMSON | Had the NCAA not approved a waiver for Justin Fields to play immediately at Ohio State after transferring from Georgia, maybe Clemson has a much easier time of the Buckeyes in the recent CFP semifinal.

Or maybe Ohio State doesn't even make it to that point with a Fields-less offense faltering against Penn State and/or in the Big Ten championship against Wisconsin.

Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!

If that ball toward the end lands in the hands of Chris Olave instead of Nolan Turner, Clemson fans are probably spending a lot more time right now stewing over the circumstances of Fields' transfer from Athens to Columbus.

It was widely rumored that the impetus for said transfer was some moron yelling a racial slur at Fields during a football game. Fields and his high-profile attorney disputed this, but the fact remains that the case they presented met the NCAA's transfer criteria "documenting mitigating circumstances that are outside the student-athletes's control and directly impact the health, safety and well-being of the student-athlete."