Meanwhile in Columbia ...

UPDATE - 7:43 p.m. EST - Caslen resigns & BOT accepts resignation

CLEMSON -- Most of you can recall the memorable 2008 exchange between Dabo Swinney and a Clemson trustee.

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As Swinney was campaigning for the job vacated by Tommy Bowden, he visited with the Board of Trustees and various ideas were being exchanged about what Clemson should and could realistically aspire to be.

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One trustee brought up a few schools, including Michigan and Florida, that had managed to achieve both on the field and in the classroom. Clemson should be more like them, basically.

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Swinney startled some folks in the room by respectfully taking exception to the premise, by stating a firm belief that Clemson should aim for those schools and others to aspire to be more like Clemson.

This is one of the important moments in the Dabo-Clemson story, a juncture that signaled to the folks in the room that he was different. Whether he succeeded spectacularly or fell flat on his face, he was going to do it in a positively unique way.

The outside world didn't learn of this vivid exchange until years later, after Swinney made Clemson great and when everyone could look back and laugh about it.

We thought of this anecdote this morning while marveling at the hot mess taking place in Columbia.

As the Bob Caslen fiasco approaches what could well be his accepted resignation, you can bet the heavy hitters at Clemson are quietly watching with jaws on the floor and viewing it as yet another affirmation of their preferred mode of operation.

Preferred mode being: Behind the scenes. Out of the headlines. Understated.

For most of its existence, South Carolina hasn't been able to get out of its own way when it comes to alignment among leadership of its athletics programs, its university and its trustees.

There's an element of politics down there that always seems present and significant, and that's more likely when you're located in the state Capitol and the governor is an ex officio chair of the board.

Tuesday, the debate over what to do with Caslen unspooled for everyone to see on the Senate floor.

Rep. Kirkman Finlay, R-Columbia, said the university is "the laughingstock of the nation," according to The Post and Courier.

"Perhaps it's time to cut our losses."

Also in The Post and Courier, state Sen. Dick Harpootlian said the blame is on trustees who are elected by lawmakers.

"We don't see this kind of stuff coming from the College of Charleston, Clemson University, Francis Marion University. We don't see this kind of drama except at USC. His resigning does not fix the problem. The one constant in all of this is the board."

Longtime Gamecocks reporter Josh Kendall quoted an anonymous source suggesting that politicians just take over day-to-day administration over the university if trustees can't have insulation from outside meddling.

"Let them just pick the president and the provost and the coaches and everything. Let the legislators just do it all."

Another source uttered this damning quote to Kendall about Caslen:

"He's killin' athletics."

Over the past six years, we have frequently written articles on the vital importance of Clemson's alignment as a fundamental ingredient in the Tigers' rise to powerhouse status.

The topic doesn't get much attention when the national media chronicles the phenomenon of Clemson doing all this almost out of nowhere, but each time there's a meltdown elsewhere in the chain of command it reminds everyone in these parts how good they have it.

At Auburn, a group of influential boosters was somehow convinced Kevin Steele was a marketable replacement for Gus Malzahn. That blew up in their faces, and then Tennessee AD Phil Fulmer thought it was a good idea to hire Steele and make him acting head coach in the wake of Jeremy Pruitt's ouster. Then Fulmer resigned, new coach Josh Huepel didn't retain Steele and Tennessee owes him an $860,870 buyout.

That's a small but representative sample of the administrative craziness that has unfolded elsewhere as Clemson proceeds in relative serenity.

It hasn't always been this way. Recently, Tigerillustrated.com published an exhaustive series on the Danny Ford era at Clemson, and there were a lot of cooks in the kitchen in those days as controversies seemed to arise every month or so, with involved parties freely speaking their minds in the pages of the state's daily newspapers.

At some point -- and probably largely as a result of those tumultuous, tarnished days -- Clemson decided to carry itself in a more buttoned-up, unified way.

When Swinney was hired, surely there were plenty of doubts among the school's administration and board (there sure as hell were plenty of doubts among the overall fan base). But how often did you hear or see those doubts spilling out onto paper, airwaves or HTML?

When the Tigers went 6-7 in 2010, Swinney's second full season, the heat was on. But how often did you see his superiors administering that heat to reporters?

When the rivalry with South Carolina turned and Steve Spurrier made Swinney the butt of his jokes, how many times did you hear red-faced trustees, no doubt incensed over an unprecedented losing streak, airing their frustration outside the family?

Never on all counts, by our recollections.

And don't misunderstand: We're not saying every relationship, every conversation, is totally hunky-dory at Clemson. It just doesn't work that way when you're in a high-stakes enterprise featuring cutthroat competitors who are always trying to find an edge.

There are hard decisions. There are disagreements. There are differences in philosophy and opinion. There is sausage being made.

But almost all of that stuff happens behind closed doors, out of earshot of the outside world.

Meanwhile, it seems every piece of drama that occurs at South Carolina happens before all of our ears and eyes.

And the drama happens on seemingly such a daily basis that it could well be an actual soap opera. And come to think of it, Hollywood is located in the state that Caslan mistakenly substituted for South Carolina during his bumbling commencement speech last week.

Thinking back to Swinney's bold, ambitious retort on the Michigan-Florida thing back in 2008, imagine what might've happened had that exchange been public soon after it happened. You can imagine the headlines ("Swinney at odds with trustees," and so on).

With that type of mess, chances are Swinney's tenure never really gets off the ground.

The astounding success of the past decade simply doesn't happen without everyone pulling in the same direction.

The current embarrassment in Columbia, as usual playing out in a most public way, is a resounding example of what can happen when everyone is pulling in different directions.

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