Where Things Stand Regarding Clemson, NCAA With the Luke Ferrelli Situation

It hasn’t even been a week since Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney sounded off on Ole Miss regarding the Luke Ferrelli situation, and ripples still are being seen.

In the wide variety that was mentioned during last Friday’s press conference, the main point to hit home was Swinney’s criticism of college football’s current landscape, which begins with the tampering that is seen all around the country.

After Ole Miss was able to nab Ferrelli away from the Tigers, Swinney said that he reached out to the NCAA in regards to tampering. He would look to see if penalties ensued within the Rebels’ program, which would circulate to head coach Pete Golding.

“I am not going to let someone flat out tamper with my program,” Swinney said. “If you tamper with my players, I’m going to turn you in. There’s a lot more I can say, but I’m going to let the NCAA do its job.”

So, that’s exactly what Clemson did. According to The Athletic, the NCAA was informed about the situation, investigating “any credible allegations” about the situation, according to the organization. It sets the table for having this situation end up being one of the pioneers of the tampering enforcement of the NIL era.

Clemson is feeding into it, too. Now, when you go to Ferrelli’s profile on the Tigers’ website, there is nothing besides a hyperlink to a 27-minute video of Swinney retelling the story of the alleged tampering.

While the motive of punishing tampering is an important one, another reason why Swinney and athletic director Graham Neff are pushing for it is to solve the plethora of issues that college football brings.

Neff said that the decision came as a surprise to the NCAA, due to how clear everything was.

“The NCAA, quite frankly, was surprised the school is willing to come forward as directly and transparently as we have normally,” Neff said on Friday. “There are a lot of complaints in the media, hearsay, amongst the industry, etc. Very little actually gets reported, that’s coming from the NCAA directly.”

He also says it's bigger than his program: it’s a nationwide issue that is arising.

“A lot of my colleagues across the country have started to say we’re at a critical juncture of college athletics,” Neff said, “and have started to come forward more and more with a voice and perspective and platform of that, and want to really encourage and extend that here.”

ESPN’s Pete Thamel added that this move was praised among those in college football, as well as many members of the media. Analysts like Josh Pate and Booger McFarland also had positive things to say about how Swinney handled it.

For now, it’s in the hands of the NCAA. Ferrelli is enrolled at Ole Miss, and the Rebels have not been penalized as of Wednesday afternoon, but a lot can change in due time. In the meantime, Swinney will get his Tigers focused on the winter months before the spring game in March.

Clemson Tigers on SI will remain updated with the given situation, providing constant news about this ongoing situation.