Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was a guest this week on The Players Club Podcast, which is hosted by former Tigers running back Darien Rencher.
Among the topics that Rencher and Swinney discussed is name, image and likeness.
Swinney made it clear again that he is not opposed to NIL, in spite of what some believe about his stance on it.
“Despite what you may hear or read, or what people like to create all these narratives, as y’all know, just like the old social media stuff,” Swinney said. “Every August, they’d write this terrible article about how I banned y’all from social media. I never banned anybody, that was always a player-led thing.
“It’s the same thing with the NIL. I think the NIL is great. I think it’s common sense. To me, why should a guy not be able to go do an autograph session and work and make money? Why should somebody not be able to go home and do a camp? There’s some commonsense things.”
Swinney, however, doesn’t like the “unintended consequences” of NIL and reiterated that while he’s not against NIL, he is opposed to the professionalization of college athletics.
“I do think there are, like anything, some unintended consequences going on with it where it’s being used in a way that it’s not intended, and I don’t think that’s good,” Swinney said.
“People say, ‘Oh, Coach Swinney…’ I’m not against NIL at all. What I am against is anything that devalues education. That’s what I’m against. I’m against the professionalization of college athletics. And what does that mean? That means OK, now we’re paying you guys salaries and 18-year-olds have to pay taxes. I don’t think that’s good. I think we should keep the focus on graduation, incentivize graduation and do everything we can to modernize and improve the scholarship in addition to these NIL opportunities. I think it’s great.”
Clemson Variety & Frame is doing their part to help bring you some classic new barware and help one of the local businesses that helps make Clemson special.
Order your Nick’s barware and do your part to help. #SaveNicks
