Dabo's beef with NIL almost made him quit football

SB Nation

Dabo Swinney has established himself as one of the top coaches in college football, not just in his era but in the sport's history. After taking over a struggling Clemson University team in 2008, Swinney transformed the Tigers into a powerhouse, securing multiple championships.  However, as the multi-billion-dollar industry of college sports moved toward sweeping changes that would modify decades-old rules allowing athletes to earn compensation from their name, image, and likeness, Dabo was prepared to walk away from college football altogether. Being that successful and ready to call it quits over a rule takes a lot of beef.

Transcript

00:00Dabo Sweeney has cemented himself as one of the elite coaches in the game of college football.

00:06Not just his era, but in the history of the sport.

00:11After taking over a lowly Clemson University team in 2008, Sweeney transformed the Tigers

00:16into a crown jewel boasting multiple championships.

00:20But as the multi-billion dollar industry that is college sports leaned toward drastic changes

00:26that would alter decades old rules, allowing athletes to receive compensation from their

00:31name, image and likeness, Dabo was ready to chuck the deuces and dip from college football

00:36completely.

00:38To be that successful and ready to call it quits all over a rule takes a lot of beef.

00:46Okay so Dabo isn't just some complete evil overlord who thinks paying players goes against

00:52the moral fabric of college athletics.

00:55I mean, that's part of it, but it's a little deeper than that.

00:59But to understand how he could reach the point of threatening to leave the sport, it's important

01:03to know how he ticks.

01:05Dabo's life resembles what some deem the American dream, pulling yourself up by your bootstraps

01:11and making it to the top.

01:13He grew up in a troubled family on the verge of homelessness in Pelham, Alabama.

01:17As a multi-sport athlete in high school, coaches encouraged Dabo to shoot for a basketball scholarship

01:22to reach college, but he always fantasized about attending the University of Alabama.

01:28So that's what he did.

01:30He dreamed of suiting up for the Crimson Tide football team and got that done as well.

01:35He barely touched the field and what he described as crawling onto the team, but he earned a

01:40scholarship and made the squad nonetheless.

01:42The dude was the first of his family to attend college, had to work several jobs to support

01:48himself, and nearly got kicked out of school for late tuition payments.

01:52But enduring all that and finishing with a double degree while playing football at his

01:57dream school was more than worth it for Dabo.

02:00While working on his master's degree, Dabo started as a grad assistant on the Bama football

02:05staff before eventually earning a full-time spot coaching receivers.

02:10He later lost that role under an entire coaching regime change in 2000, forcing him to pursue

02:15a career in real estate.

02:18He fancied himself a damn good leasing agent, but ultimately returned to football when Tommy

02:22Bowden, a former Bama position coach, offered him a spot on his staff at Clemson.

02:28At Clemson, Dabo worked his way from receivers coach and recruiting coordinator to top dog,

02:34taking over for Bowden after he unexpectedly resigned in the middle of the 0-8 season.

02:39Dabo inherited a struggling team, but finished the year strong, earning the head coach position

02:45going forward, mostly based on his recruiting chops.

02:49Critics initially thought hiring a guy who hadn't even held a coordinator role would be a grave

02:54mistake for the program, but two championships and several top recruiting classes later.

03:00The rest is history.

03:02And Dabo offered a different side of coaching.

03:05He brought a gleeful type of energy, more similar to your friend calling out plays at

03:09the bar versus Nick Saban's strict process that seemed devoid of joy.

03:14When his Tigers finished the 2015 season ranked number one overall, Dabo threw a pizza party

03:20for the entire town.

03:22He dressed up as Santa Claus during the holidays.

03:25He was a bit of a goofball, but he had a vision.

03:29After winning Clemson's second title in three years, both against his alma mater, Dabo recalled

03:34a board meeting during his first season when a staff member wished for Clemson to be like

03:38the other top schools in the country.

03:41That wasn't enough for Dabo.

03:42He pictured Clemson being the school to set the standard for others to emulate and was

03:47very well on the path of achieving that by preaching education, discipline, and accountability

03:53to his team.

03:55Even when he inked a lengthy, lucrative deal, he expressed his desire to continue developing

04:00total student athletes.

04:02However, as Saban approached retirement at Bama, journalists questioned if Dabo's commitment

04:08to helping student athletes mature solely applied to Clemson.

04:12But Dabo wasn't so sure about his future in the sport, whether it was an opportunity at

04:17his old school or at Clemson.

04:20He seemed content with his career at Clemson, but feared the professionalization of college

04:25athletics would drive him away from CFB.

04:28If that's the case, he thought, why not just jump to the NFL?

04:33It seemed like an unusual jaded response when he could have easily turned to coach speak

04:38and blabbed about his love for Clemson, but it's something that's bothered Dabo for years.

04:43In 2014, while responding to a question about his thoughts regarding a group of college players

04:49forming a union to negotiate salaries for themselves, Dabo was so disgusted by the idea that he mentioned

04:56he would quit coaching if that ever became a reality.

04:59In his eyes, he thought there was already so much entitlement in the world.

05:04Fast forward a few years to him becoming the highest paid coach in the game, and media members

05:10turned to that statement, criticizing the hypocrisy of it all.

05:14But hey, Dabo knew he didn't set the market.

05:17As he sat on that fat ass contract and talks of players receiving compensation wrapped up

05:22by the day, the coach whose southern charm that once had media members swooning became an easy

05:27target representing the good old boy network of football hanging on to the idea of amateurism.

05:34He was now the villain.

05:36But college athletes deserving compensation wasn't some revolutionary idea.

05:42It's an issue the National College Athletic Association has faced since its inception.

05:47When it comes to finances, the relationship between the NCAA and its athletes has been one-sided.

05:53Plain and simple.

05:55Yes, students have the opportunity to gain a higher education through access to scholarships,

06:00but as the NCAA pockets wads of cash through ad revenue, TV deals, and other streams of income,

06:07the athletes themselves didn't see a cent.

06:11At least, they didn't legally.

06:14That's a headline from 1952, by the way.

06:18Since its founding in 1906, intending to protect young athletes and stop universities from hiring

06:24players, the NCAA has functioned as a business that defined college athletes as amateurs.

06:30From tripping over themselves, allowing schools the power to allocate funds,

06:35to taking control as a governing body, only to relinquish that power again,

06:40and all the mess in between, the athletes themselves have been powerless through it all

06:45as schools and conferences stuffed their pockets.

06:48Although in 2009, former UCLA basketball standout Ed O'Bannon challenged that power.

06:55He sued the NCAA, claiming that the video game NCAA Basketball 09 used his likeness without his

07:02consent and didn't cough up any cash in return.

07:05It was a landmark lawsuit in the effort for players to get their fair share of the pie,

07:10and in 2014, that power slowly shifted toward the athletes.

07:16A federal judge ruled in favor of O'Bannon that the NCAA's longstanding rules

07:21disallowing athletes to receive payments violated antitrust laws.

07:25The ruling was the first case in which athletes won the right to get their just due through their name,

07:31image, and likeness, otherwise known as NIL.

07:35After the decision, schools were allowed to pay athletes through trust funds that could be accessed

07:40after graduating, but the case only opened the floodgates, drastically reshaping the world of college sports.

07:46A few years after O'Bannon's lawsuit in 2019, California became the first state to pass NIL legislation

07:54in the Fair Pay-to-Play Act, suspending amateurism rules and allowing athletes to get their bread.

08:01Other states throughout the country soon followed suit, including South Carolina where Clemson resides,

08:07and by 2021, under pressure from the Justice Department and state legislators,

08:12the NCAA fully adopted NIL, allowing athletes to capitalize on their fame.

08:19Dabo's tone changed a bit, seeing the new rules as a way of modernizing college football,

08:24as long as it was focused on education, of course.

08:28It was a far cry from the days of saying he would quit,

08:32and media members again called him on his hypocrisy, which he called bullcrap.

08:37But Dabo's wishful thinking of NIL funds being solely tapped at education,

08:42doesn't factor in the NCAA consistently being a shitshow.

08:47When players were allowed to make money from endorsements,

08:50the NCAA didn't lay out specific guidelines other than prohibiting schools from brokering deals.

08:56The result was a Wild Wild West pay-for-play system with athletes transferring schools

09:03to chase the largest bag they could.

09:05It's hard to fault athletes benefiting from a broken system, but Dabo feared where the sport was headed.

09:12He claimed to have predicted the madness of players flipping schools and abusing the transfer portal,

09:17while seemingly still supporting the idea of athletes making money,

09:21but thought the NCAA had to instill some sort of regulations.

09:27For years, Dabo dominated college football through solid coaching and strong recruiting,

09:32taking advantage of a weaker ACC conference.

09:35But the promise of a good education and building strong morals under his helm,

09:40no longer moved the needle for athletes who had families to feed and now had the resources to do so.

09:46It's not a pretty business hanging potentially millions of dollars over the heads of kids fresh out of high school,

09:53but thanks to the NCAA's lax guidelines, that was simply the reality of the game,

10:00something Dabo refused to partake in.

10:02For Sweeney, he's still counting on bringing in kids who fit the Clemson mold.

10:08He's not afraid to eat the punches of critics who call him a flip-flopper because,

10:12in his eyes, he's always stood on the morals of education first.

10:17And maybe that's the issue.

10:20Dabo is stuck in a system that gave a poor kid from Alabama the opportunity to earn a scholarship

10:26and play for his dream school, to coach for that same school,

10:29to become the top dog at Clemson without serving as a coordinator,

10:33to flexing on all the doubters who said he would fail,

10:36only to turn a middle-of-the-road program into one of the most dominant forces in the sport.

10:43It's a real rags-to-riches story that Dabo seemingly still wants to be the star of.

10:49But he was no longer the underdog of college football.

10:53He climbed to the mountaintop of the sport and looked to stay there,

10:57but his descent came a lot quicker than expected.

11:00After the 2021 season, a full year under NIL,

11:04Clemson finished 10-3 and missed the college football playoff for the first time in seven years.

11:11And while the Tigers reached the CFB postseason in 2024,

11:15suffering a first-round loss, Dabo and Clemson were nowhere near the

11:19standards he set for his program years before.

11:23Winning the ACC wasn't even a guarantee.

11:25Numerous experts questioned if the game had passed Dabo by,

11:30but as the sport continues to evolve, the coach doesn't seem ready to grow with it.

11:35He's firm in his beliefs of finding players that align with his vision.

11:40Sure, Clemson has NIL funds, but the school is one of the lowest spenders in the country.

11:46You will never catch Dabo up in the ante to land a top recruit.

11:50He'd rather dish out dough for performance rather than potential.

11:54It might be a sound model, but again, that's no longer the reality of the game.

12:00As the NCAA transfer portal reaches record numbers with coaches looking to fill holes

12:05when their rosters were needed, Dabo would rather build from within.

12:10Over several seasons, Clemson has signed just five transfers.

12:15Five total.

12:16For comparison, the championship winning Ohio State Buckeyes brought in four transfers during the

12:23offseason and that number could very well increase.

12:27Dabo isn't some slouch on the recruiting trail as Clemson continues to hover around the top 10 in the

12:32nation, but experts wonder if his stubborn approach focusing solely on development over NIL is the

12:39right strategy for long-term success.

12:43Kaim will only tell, but one thing for sure is Dabo won't change.

12:48He's excited for the challenge ahead, but as the unstoppable force of NIL

12:53continues to evolve and Dabo remains immovable, something's gotta give.

12:59Otherwise, this is a beef that doesn't have an expiration date anytime soon.

13:14Thanks for watching this episode of Beef History.

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13:44I'll see you in the next one.

13:49Bye.

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