Dabo Swinney Leads Clemson Into $26M NIL Era, Puts Faith in New Revenue Model

Dabo Swinney hasn’t been shy about his frustrations with the state of college football in the NIL era. But with a new revenue-sharing model officially in place and guidelines tightening around name, image, and likeness deals, the longtime Clemson coach is optimistic that a more structured future is finally on the horizon.

Starting July 1, schools like Clemson can now share up to $20.5 million annually with student-athletes—a major shift brought on by the House v. NCAA settlement. While the specifics of how the money will be distributed are still up to each institution, Clemson is already planning for about 86% of that figure to go to football.

The wild card remains NIL. A new regulatory body and a tool called “NIL Go” aim to rein in illegitimate third-party deals and crack down on the so-called “pay-for-play” culture that’s taken over recruiting. Despite skepticism about whether those efforts will actually work—or even hold up legally—Swinney is choosing to trust the process.

“I do [have faith in it],” Swinney said at Clemson’s annual media outing. “Because I think the commissioners and presidents, they put all that stuff together and spent a bunch of money to create this entity. I think we’ve got to give it a chance.”

Swinney pointed to the years of planning and financial investment behind the House settlement as a reason to believe this new model could bring long-needed order to a sport that has felt increasingly unrecognizable.

“There is a lot that went into this settlement. It’s not like one person made a decision,” Swinney said. “A lot of people have been involved for a long time, so yeah, I’ve got faith.”

Clemson is already seeing some of the financial impact, with IPTAY CEO Davis Babb telling the school’s board of trustees last week that the university has added $26 million in new expenses—$20.5 million for revenue sharing and another $6 million to fully fund scholarships across 21 sports. Despite the added cost, Clemson finished top 15 nationally in attendance in six sports last year, showing continued support from fans.

Swinney knows change won’t happen overnight, but for a program that has largely avoided the more chaotic elements of the portal-and-pay era, he hopes a more regulated system will help preserve what makes college football special.

“Everybody has been affected,” Swinney said. “But I think we’re all hopeful that we’ll have a little more order. At the end of the day, the goal is still to educate young people—and that starts with creating a landscape that actually allows for it.”