Neff agrees with Dabo on 'blowup' coming to current system, but says Tigers must compete

Neff agrees with Swinney that the current system isn't sustainable.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Mon Apr 18 08:00:06 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – Clemson athletic director Graham Neff agrees with head coach Dabo Swinney that the current landscape of college football, with NIL and the transfer portal changing the way the game is played, is not sustainable. But he also thinks Clemson has to try and compete under the current system without breaking the rules.

Swinney made headlines over a week ago when he said that college football needs to be blown up.

"I think there's going to be a complete blowup ... especially in football, and there needs to be," Swinney told ESPN. "I think eventually there will be some type of break and another division. Right now, you got everybody in one group, and it's not feasible. Alabama has different problems than Middle Tennessee, but we're trying to make them all the same and it's just not. I think you'll have 40 or 50 teams and a commissioner and here are the rules."

Swinney told ESPN that the current system is a "mess" and that it's hard to get anything accomplished as college athletics continue to evolve in the new world of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness.

"There's so much bureaucracy, and you can't get anything done in a real-time manner. It's frustrating," Swinney said. "The communication is not good, and the rules are outdated. Again, there have been a lot of positives when it comes to the scholarships. But you've got all these people voting on things, and it's just not apples to apples."

Neff, in a candid conversation with TigerNet last week, said he agrees with his head coach but doesn’t think change will occur anywhere in the near term.

“I do not think it's sustainable where we're at. We're just in this environment of incredible uncertainty and it's deregulated and it's a race to the bottom just to try to make as much opportunity as you can in dollars,” Neff said. “And it's confounded by the transfer portal and the transitional state of student-athletes and NIL. Right? So, I agree with all that. That's not saying anything new. And so how I choose to kind of view it and for Clemson Athletics is that I do think that it's a period right now where it's not sustainable. And so, I choose to believe that there are going to be changes, whether that's transfer portal limitations or windows, whether that's more regulation with NIL from a federal standpoint. But that's not near term. I mean, that's one, two, three years down the road maybe.”

Neff said that Clemson has to find a way to compete, with the larger schools now going out of their way to lure in top recruits with thousands of dollars provided under a system that doesn’t have many rules.

“So, while we are operating in this state of uncomfortability, and that's what it is. It's new, it's changing. It's different. It's not a lot of what we all love and hold to be true from traditional college sports, but we still need to compete and we need to compete aggressively,” Neff said. “We need to compete within that environment. And so, from the administration lens we need to support our coaches and our coaches need to have that mindset of being very nimble and aggressive in this environment, despite it not feeling comfortable or not necessarily liking it or maybe not thinking it's sustainable. But it's our current environment and we need to play by the rules. And we have state laws and we have NCAA laws and compliance and we have told all of our coaches that it's non-negotiable that they abide by those, obviously, and that is Clemson.

“But how we operate is we need to win and compete, and be aggressive, and even if it doesn't feel great or it's new or it's uncomfortable or it's the first time we've done certain things, that's the environment right now.”

NEXT IN THE SERIES: Neff details how Clemson can compete under the current system.

Neff on facility updates, including Tiger Walk and Lot 5 improvements

Neff addresses Swinney's contract in today's market and Clemson's commitment to basketball