Clemson's Dabo Swinney Says He's Against 'Professionalization of College Athletics'

During an appearance on The Players Club Podcast withDarien Rencher, the head coach of the University of Florida spoke about his feelings about name, image and likeness deals.

He said:

"I'm not against NIL at all. What I am against is anything that devalues education. That's what I'm against, and I'm against the professionalization of college athletics, and what does that mean? Well, that means, now we're paying you guys your salaries and 18-year-olds have to pay taxes, and, you know, 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, but again, with the NIL, with the transfer portal, there are some things going on that I don't think is sustainable, and I don't think it's good for a lot of young people. 

"You're talking 18-19-20 year olds that shouldn't be equipped (yet to handle what's going on), you know? And 98% are not going to the NFL. So let's help them maximize this for sure, but let's not allow some of the craziness that is creeping up."

If players in college were ever paid, Swinney said he would quit coaching college football and move to the NFL.

"Who knows what's going to happen down the road? I have no idea. I just try to be great where my feet are. That's my focus every day. Who knows? They may do away with college football in three years. There may be no college football. They may want to professionalize college athletics. Well, then, maybe I’'l go to the pros. If I'm going to coach pro football, I might as well do that. I may get a terrible president or a terrible AD one day. I don't know. I have no idea what's down the road. But I know what we have at Clemson is special, and I wanted to make a commitment to the university. That's what the message of the contract was."

In July 2021, the comments were taken out of context, as per the report from Sports Illustrated.

"I've never had a problem with name, image and likeness. I think it should have been more. If I’d have been the czar, I'd have done it differently, because I don't think everybody's gonna have much opportunity with it. Some will. But not everybody will have opportunity.

"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. 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."

The interim NIL policy was adopted by the NCAA. College athletes can benefit from their name, image and likeness.

The new NIL policy was brought up by the coach when he was asked if it had created a distraction in the locker room. He told reporters there was no correlation between the NIL deals and the on-field struggles.

In the Cheez-It Bowl, the Tigers finished their season with a 10-3 record and a 20-13 win over Iowa State. Despite all the noise, the Tigers were unaffected by the NIL deals and finished the year on a high note.