Dabo Swinney used a podcast appearance to defend Clemson’s place in the sport and to take a swipe at Notre Dame’s independence, saying the Tigers are 3-1 against Ohio State and 4-2 against Notre Dame. Swinney said Notre Dame has its own TV station, makes its own rules and prints its own money.
Speaking on Greg McElroy’s Always College Football podcast, Swinney also said Clemson does not have the same NIL budget as some schools and lacks some of the built-in resources from a larger alumni base, but said the Tigers have enough to compete. He framed the issue as a matter of making the most of what Clemson has, not as an excuse for falling behind.
The comments landed in a rough stretch for Clemson, which went 7-6 in 2025 even while having nine players drafted. Dan Patrick later called Swinney’s Notre Dame line strange and pushed back on the broader point, noting that Clemson made six straight College Football Playoff appearances from 2015 through 2020 but has reached the field only once since then. Patrick said if a team is good enough to beat everyone, then the complaint is hard to understand.
Swinney’s remarks also cut into the bigger arguments now shaping college football: how much NIL spending matters, how much school-brand support still counts and whether the transfer portal has changed the sport’s old hierarchy. Patrick said Swinney had not wanted any part of the portal at first and added that he is easing back in because he knows he needs to. For Clemson, the issue is no longer whether it can point to its past. It is whether the program can turn its own version of enough into wins again.
