Exactly. It’s The South. The profound South.
That being said, at a large state uni you will find a mix of people, professors included. But the weight on either side will be different. If you’re in a Northern state like UW Madison, the flagship, you would find more liberal vs conservative. Clemson has more conservative people in the mix. While I haven’t attended Clemson I have friends who are professors there. They have been there for more than a decade. The stories when they come north are one of relief to see an emphasis on art and science and less on religion and traditional roles. Yes there is art and hard science at Clemson, but football takes the funding from the arts there. They have also said that there’s one “science” professor that still teaches Creationism–you wouldn’t find even one Creationism professor in the northern unis. They’ve said that there are a significant percentage of young women who attend for their MRS. degree rather than any other reason. They have noted that the cinema studies students often go to work for megachurches. Not that people also have other ambitions, but up north it’s rare to find the MRS-degree-seeking woman student. Often she’s achieving as well as or more than her male colleagues in her studies and intended profession. Similarly, it’s hard to imagine an NYU or Columbia film school person’s ambition being to videotape megachurch services, not that that’'s a bad ambition, but it’s just not seen as much in the north. To be sure, my niece in Illinois married someone who is the videographer for a megachurch in Kentucky – it does happen in the north. It’s that the mix is different.
Clemson also offers great football, great academics in all areas. If you find your people, and there’s a good chance you will, it won’t matter that others are doing things you find different or don’t agree with. In the end it’s a big state school and chances are you will find your own people whoever that may be.