The players that spend countless hours training and practicing and who are the backbone behind conferences and head coaches making millions of dollars are finally able to get a slice of the pie through the NCAA's new NIL rule. Clemson's head coach Dabo Swinney was one of the more vocal opponents of players getting paid, quoted in 2019 that 'he would leave the college game if players were paid.'
The two-time national championship-winning head coach answered questions from the media ahead of the Tigers appearance in the Cheez-It Bowl against Iowa State. Most of the questions fielded by reporters pertained to the game, but the final question asked Swinney whether college football was in a good place with the new amount of money flowing through the sport over the last few weeks. Swinney promptly said that it is not.
"No. College football is not in a good place for a lot of reasons," Swinney said. "There's a lot of change going on, and I think some unintended consequences with that." Swinney continues. "At the end of the day, we'll figure it all out as we move forward for sure," Swinney said. "There's a lot of things in college football right now that I think we'll look back four or five years from now and, and hopefully things will settle down a little bit."
It was unclear whether Swinney's answer was in response to the recent coaching carousel -- where we see big-name coaches leave already successful programs for other schools -- or whether the reporter was asking him about name, image and likeness. One thing we should take from Swinney's latest tirade on the state of college football is that he is not liking the direction of where the sport is heading.
Swinney, who has been the head man at Clemson for over a decade, clarified his past statement on college players getting paid, saying he is not against it, but rather wanting to see compensation tied towards what Swinney calls the ultimate goal, earning a degree and graduating.
“I would have liked to have seen it tied to graduation, education. … What I said, whenever that was, I still say. I am against professionalizing college athletics where we get away from the collegiate model and the value of a degree and the value of an education," Swinney said. "I’ve never, ever said I’m against name, image and likeness. I think it’s a lot of common sense. I think it could be more. I think it could be tied more to the education process so everybody would have had a little more opportunity. I said that, whenever it was, but people hear what they want to hear…”
Although I don't usually agree with what Swinney has to say, he does make some valid points. The state of college football has no doubt changed, both positively and negatively due to NIL. Now that we see coaches at established programs like Brian Kelly, Lincoln Riley and Mario Cristobal leave for other, riskier gigs, and with the transfer portal being the games free agency pool -- the amount of movement we are seeing amongst players and coaches is only going to increase.
"The biggest thing is making sure they know the rules, they're transparent, and it's on their time. You just hope that doesn't become the focus, because it's very short-term money. You hope they focus on the long-term value of their education and development. Hoping we can do a great job of if they get off-track helping them get back on it."
Follow Jasper Jones on Twitter: @jonesj2342
Related
LISTEN on the Audacy App
Sign Up and Follow Audacy Sports
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram