Clemson fighting above its weight class in NIL, but not getting left behind

Neff says Clemson is very competitive in the NIL space.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Nov 30 16:11:03 GMT-04:00 2023

CLEMSON – The importance of NIL is never as front-and-center as it is when the NCAA transfer portal opens at the end of the regular season, and many wonder if Clemson is prepared to compete in this new world. Athletic Director Graham Neff thinks it is.

A few weeks ago, Clemson announced the formation of the 110 Society (named after former head coach Frank Howard’s admonition to give 110% or keep your filthy hands off his rock). The new one-stop shop for all things Clemson NIL and the official partner of Clemson Athletics. 110 Society will create opportunities for fans, donors, and businesses to participate in and benefit from NIL deals with student-athletes.

C.D. Davies will lead 110 Society as its General Manager after spending the past two years working as the NIL coordinator for Clemson Football. Previously, Davies was a longtime executive in the banking industry, serving as CEO for CitiMortgage, LendingTree and Wachovia Mortgage.

“110 Society is the next evolution of Clemson NIL that will be a difference-maker for our student-athletes,” Neff said. “Creating this ‘one-stop NIL shop’ that’s aligned with IPTAY, our corporate partnerships team, and our community makes it clear and simple to engage in NIL with our student-athletes who are in high demand. We believe this is a critical piece to helping our programs continue to win championships in this new era of college athletics.”

Head coach Dabo Swinney says that being competitive in the NIL world is a must in today’s game.

“Supporting collectives and fundraising for NIL opportunities for student-athletes has become imperative in this day and age of college athletics, and I’m excited to see how Clemson’s dedicated fans, sponsors, and local businesses will support the 110 Society to help propel Clemson Athletics forward,” Swinney said. “I’m particularly excited about the leadership of CD Davies in this role. CD had been a valuable resource for our players as our NIL Coordinator, and in the same way that he previously led some of the financial world’s biggest businesses, he will bring world-class leadership for this new group.”

Clemson’s alumni base is smaller than most of the other major powers – especially in football (where Ohio St. has over 600,000 living alumni) – and I asked Neff how his program can compete with those numbers.

“It’s the notion of ‘we fight above our weight class,’ which I know even President Clements talks about a lot as it relates to Clemson and our 180,000 plus living alumni,” Neff said. “Of our 180,000 plus living alums at Clemson, about a third, 60,000 of them or so, approximately, President Clements, who's in his 11th year now, has shook their hand at graduation. The implication is that a third of Clemson's living alums have graduated within the last ten years.

“Now, I know some of that is grad school and things like that. But by and large, in my head, the business takeaway that I have is a third of our alums are what? Low 30s or younger and in their 20s by and large. And so, how do we connect with them? How do we engage, communicate, and sell? This is being broadcast live on Clemson Plus. That's a very intentional strategy and technology for us. And that doesn't hit all the demographics, but I think it certainly is more adaptive and maybe hits one-third of our living alums, the 60,000 Clemson alums that are maybe in that demographic of having graduated within the last ten years.”

Neff said that Clemson is aggressive in NIL but also wants to promote the fact that being at Clemson is about more than just money – it’s about the total experience.

“It's easy to jump to money on that. I would agree with the definition of we're aggressive in our programming, our support, the 110 collective, and ultimately how that connects for our coaches to recruit two from a name, image, and likeness programming. I would agree that we are very aggressive, and I know I've been forward in talking through that. It's one thing to say, it's another thing to be about it.

“I think a lot of the programming and things in our community would support that. But also, it might come across that we're not as aggressive just because, again, it's not all about the dollar here. I appreciate maybe that balance that it sounds like it's two different things, but how I read it is when you really combine them and look at it from the bigger picture, it really fits Clemson. So again, that tangent to our alumni base is somewhat part and parcel, but also, I think, a big reason why I'm bullish on how we're going to continue to position Clemson Athletics, NIL, or otherwise in the changing landscape.”