College football fans on Gasparilla Island are awaiting Thursday's national championship semifinals, with Clemson and Alabama getting a fair share of support in games against Oklahoma and Michigan State, respectively.
College football playoff coaches from left; Bob Stoops, of Oklahoma, Dabo Swenney, of Clemson, Nick Saban, of Alabama and Mark Dontonio, of Michigan St., pose with the championship trophy after a news conference the college football awards at the College Football Hall of Fame Thursday, Dec. 10, 2015, in Atlanta. Oklahoma and Clemson will meet in the Orange Bowl and Alabama and Michigan St. will play in the Cotton Bowl. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
Clemson's head coach is Dabo Swinney, who has a vacation home on the island, which is better known for the village of Boca Grande. Alabama's head coach, Nick Saban, also has a residence on the island.
Wins by the 13-0 Tigers, in the Orange Bowl, and 12-1 Crimson Tide, in the Cotton Bowl, would pit Swinney against Saban in what could be called the Boca Grande Bowl, at least on the insular resort island. Elsewhere, it will be known as the college football championship game, on Jan.11 in Glendale, Arizona.
Perhaps the losing coach will have to buy dinner for the winner at The Temptation restaurant.
A coach at the peak of his career is just another celebrity in Boca Grande, which is to say, another face in the crowd. Notables from the late Katharine Hepburn to Harrison Ford, the du Ponts, the Busches and the Bushes have enjoyed Gasparilla Island because they can wear shorts and deck shoes, putter around in golf carts and not be bothered by the locals.
Swinney is earning $3.3 million this year as Clemson's coach, according to GreenvilleOnline in South Carolina, while Saban, whose main home is near the Alabama campus in Tuscaloosa, is college football's highest-paid coach at $7.1 million in 2o14. Modest money on Boca Grande, where the neighbors are CEOs and hedge-fund billionaires.
