Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney is one of the main figures in the game who is still truly fighting for the players and the sport, trying to fight for what is best for the players and the sport in the long-term, not just what is profitable in the short term.
Swinney has been criticized for being resistant to change, but there’s also something admirable in standing by principles that have gotten the program to the highest mountain tops college football has to offeWhile he has started to adapt in terms of utilizing the transfer portal and everything that comes hand-in-hand with it, he also has not been afraid to voice his displeasure regarding the direction the sport is taking.
When it comes to that direction, it goes much deeper than just NIL and the portal.
Fans have seen entire conferences eliminated and reshaped over the last several years.
Though Clemson and the ACC, for the moment, have held on without seismic shifts, those could still be coming in the subsequent years.
Asked about the direction the sport is taking, Swinney sees super conferences and wholesale NFL-like changes as the inevitable.
“Eventually money’s going to win the day,” he said in a piece by Seth Emerson of The Athletic (subscription required). “I think other dynamics and factors will eventually come into play. I just think people are eventually going to see the business opportunity involved, and it’s going to come down to brands, and TV viewership, and all of that type of stuff. More so than a league … Eventually that’s where it’ll get to. Who knows when we’ll get there. Probably sooner rather than later.
