FERNANDINA BEACH, Fla. – Dabo Swinney is frustrated and encouraged at the same time.
Clemson’s veteran football coach is in northern Florida this week with some of his industry peers at the ACC’s annual spring meetings, where he’s spent chunks of hours shuffling from one ballroom to another inside The Ritz-Carlton Hotel at Amelia Island listening in on and partaking in some of the league’s most pressing talking points. Those include name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities and regulation, the potential reformatting of future ACC schedules and possible transfer portal windows, which Swinney said he’s in favor of so that coaches can better manage their rosters.
What the latter might look like is still unclear, but Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches of America, broached the subject with coaches earlier this week of implementing more rigid timeframes for transfers to enter the portal. Athletes in fall and winter sports have until May 1 of the following year to put their names in the portal while spring-sport athletes have a July 1 deadline in order to be immediately eligible at their new school.
In other words, transfer windows don’t currently exist.
“We’ve discussed that,” Swinney told The Clemson Insider on Tuesday. “Just like the NIL, I think there needs to be some type of guidelines and some type of order so you can have some semblance of roster management.”
The NCAA took a step this week to try to regulate NIL activity, which remains Swinney’s primary frustration amid college sports’ evolving landscape. Swinney is not against athletes being able to profit off those opportunities. He reiterated it’s the unintended consequences that bother him.
“It’s being used in a way that was not intended,” Swinney said.
On Monday, college sports’ governing body took action on that front, implementing a policy that makes it illegal for boosters, including NIL collectives, to use money to entice recruits and players already enrolled that are seeking a transfer. Swinney said he believes the NCAA can find a way to realistically enforce that rule, though NIL legislation already in place at the state level as well as antitrust issues could make doing so a tricky proposition. So, in Swinney’s eyes, the lack of clarity continues.
“It’s new,” Swinney said. “I think as we get further into it, hopefully there will be some type of guidelines and some type of order because right now there is none. We’ll see where it goes.”
All of the shifting within college athletics has only added to the time coaches have to spend keeping track of what’s going on inside their respective programs. But Swinney said it hasn’t dampened his enthusiasm for the sport he’s been involved with for more than three decades or made him question how long he might continue to coach it.
“All it’s done is make me focus more and more on what my main purpose is, and that’s building great men from the game,” Swinney said. “Just helping these young people that I have the privilege to be with every day be the best version of themselves, grow, develop as men and become the best player they can be. And get their education. It’s just put more focus on my purpose.”
And as difficult as it may be for Swinney to stay patient with the process, he acknowledged change isn’t always bad. Ultimately, Swinney said he believes college football will benefit from it.
“There’s always something. You can just fill in the blank,” Swinney said. “I do think we’re dealing with more change than we’ve ever had, but I think it’s good because I think there needed to be some change. And I think over the next 18 to probably 24 months – there’s some frustration at all levels – but I think college football is ultimately going to end up at a better place. We’ll navigate our way there.”
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