Swinney Voices Support for Clemson Players, NIL Changes

As Name, Image and Likeness discusses continue across the nation, Dabo Swinney takes his stance

As the NCAA and the entire country continues to examine NIL concepts, more and more players are speaking out and pushing for players to begin profiting more off of the use of their name, image or likeness while a college athlete.

During Thursday's opening practice of fall camp, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney was asked for his opinion concerning the ongoing discussion and how he would feel if those same type statements came from players on his team on social media.

"I'm always OK with our players (speaking out). Our players have had a voice," Swinney said. "That's probably the first thing I did was give our players a voice and empower them to help be a huge part of our program. We've done that from the first time I became coach." 

As far as the revenue aspect, Swinney stated he's always been in favor of these guys getting some type of lump-sum, but he's just always wanted to tie it to graduation.

However, Swinney spoke out against "professionalizing college sports" just last year and was on the receiving end of widespread criticism after stating that he would quit coaching if college players were paid.

"Who knows what's going to happen down the road? I have no idea," Swinney said in May of 2019. "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'll 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."