Dabo Swinney is not a fan of the changes going on in college football -- especially not the transfer portal. The Clemson head coach was interviewed Wednesday during the Tiger's annual signing day and is not all that impressed with the shift in the sport.
Now that the new transfer rules allow players to leave without any penalty one time, it has evened the playing field for a lot of schools across the country. That doesn't seem to matter to Dabo.
"It's crazy, it's really sad, to be honest with you," Swinney said Wednesday at Clemson's signing day ceremony. "There's right around 2,000 kids in the portal and most of them don't have anywhere to go. There's so much tampering going on and so many adults manipulating young people. It's sad, but you know, it is what it is from that standpoint. You've got a lot of young people that; there's a time and a place, but most of the kids are in there when they shouldn't be in there."
Swinney continued his rant, saying it's not in a player's best interests to just pick up his ball and go home after facing adversity and reiterates that he's all for transferring -- and believes they should be allowed to go wherever they want, but suggests that the NCAA brings back the old rule that forces players who transfer to sit out for a year and just give that year back to them upon graduation.
"Some of the lessons we're teaching young people I don't think is going to benefit them well as they move through their life," Swinney said. "It is something everybody has to manage and deal with. There's no consequences. There's no rules. I'm all for transferring. I personally think we should let them go whenever they want. I just think they should sit a year and then you get that year back upon graduation. What we've done is decentivize and de-value education and I think that's the wrong approach."
A lot of blue checkmarks and fans on Twitter are not feeling Swinney's latest triade.
Add in the new NIL rules and there has never been a time in college athletics where the players have had this much power. As I noted before in my previous story on Swinney, I don't really like him as a coach, as I find him to be very annoying and corny, but he does make a lot of valid points here, especially about the state of the transfer portal. However, at the end of the day, there will always be positives and negatives with any rule or system the NCAA puts into affect.
The only crook I have with Swinney is the education line. When has there ever been a time in high-level college football or basketball where the players graduating and getting a proper education mattered? You can point to UNC's academic fraud scandal in the early 2010s, Carmelo Anthony's 1.8 GPA during his lone season at Syracuse or how Urban Meyer ran his program at Florida -- the only thing that mattered for universities and coaches is winning and what does winning mean -- money.
Personally, I love the fact that college athletes are able to profit off themselves for the first time ever. Since we have yet to hear any complaints from players or parents, Dabo's statements will be ignored and dismissed as the angry football coach who doesn't want to see his athletes get paid.
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
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