Dabo Swinney: NIL has 'pitfalls' that need addressed

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has not shied away from NIL discussion, and he’s made it abundantly clear that he believes it needs regulation.

Long before the NCAA allowed student-athletes to profit off their name, image and likeness (NIL), Swinney was quoted as saying that paying players is “where you lose me.” But as college athletics has evolved, so too has Swinney. He has since clarified his stance, explaining that he’s “not against NIL at all.”

He is, however, against the current state of the unregulated NIL space, which allows schools to set up NIL-focused pools for its own student-athletes. Swinney on Wednesday was asked if he thinks these NIL programs could effect recruiting, perhaps providing long-term advantages to certain programs. The answer, to him, was simple.

“Oh yeah, absolutely,” Swinney said. “I think there’s a lot of good intentions with NIL. But I think anytime you do something, there’s always unintended consequences. There will be some unintended consequences. I think the way it’s being used in some areas right now is not what it was intended for. But again, I think everybody’s figuring it out. It’ll all settle out.”

Swinney maintained part of his pre-NIL position, that he’s against the “professionalization” of college athletics. In his words, professionalization “means now we’re paying guys salaries,” but unfortunately, for Swinney, the days of six-plus-figure NIL deals may just be beginning. Some schools and NIL representation companies have started to release data from the first academic year since legalization, and the numbers are staggering: Ohio State, for example, said that 220 student-athletes had been paid a total of $2.98 million for 608 reported NIL activities since its legalization on July 1.

As NIL activities continue to grow across the nation, student-athletes will make even more off sponsorship and endorsement activities. Swinney thinks that the large payouts could distract both student-athletes and coaches from the ultimate goal: helping students get through college with a degree.

“I do think that there are some pitfalls that as adults and as teachers we’ve got to do a great job with the young people that we’ve been entrusted with to help them,” Swinney said. “I can see a lot of young people making decisions for the wrong reasons, and maybe getting distracted, again, by short-term money. Because it’s very short-term. And sacrifice the long-term. So, I think there’s a balance there, and that’s where I think everybody has a responsibility to help them.”

Swinney, a proponent of NIL regulation, can take solace in the fact that he’s not alone. Several high-ranking officials, coaches and directors believe that NIL shouldn’t be a free-for-all, and the NCAA must step in and level the playing field. But until then, he’ll have to hope that Clemson doesn’t lose a step in recruiting due to a lack of program-wide — or school-wide — NIL programs, a la Texas, LSU, Florida, West Virginia and many more.