Monday Notebook: NIL and Clemson recruiting, scheduling scenario

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney will continue to do things his way.

David Hood · Senior Writer · Monday, May 16 2022

There is a lot to unpack from a busy week last week and a busy weekend, including more discussions on scheduling, recruiting, Name/Image/Likeness (NIL) deals, and the transfer portal.

I will start with recruiting and NIL. I’ve received a dozen or more emails from readers in the last week and all are of the opinion that Clemson’s recruiting – viewed by many as lackluster – is a result of the NIL, Dabo Swinney’s dislike of the new rules, and the Tigers being behind the rest of the country when it comes to “paying players.”

One even told me that “Dabo needs to change his ways before it’s too late” and that Clemson just needs to pay recruits whatever they ask for.

Ok, so some people go a little overboard. But I’ve spent a lot of time texting high school coaches, talking to recruits, and talking to sources within the Clemson program to try and get a feel for how the NIL is affecting Clemson. The answer I get? Not much. Not one recruit I’ve spoken to over the last few months has mentioned NIL and its importance on their own.

Yes, Texas A&M bought a recruiting class. Yes, Tennessee bought a quarterback. Yes, Texas’ running back got a sweet deal from Lamborghini Austin. This car deal comes shortly after Miami basketball transfer Nijel Pack reportedly signed a deal that earns him $800,000 over two seasons and a car.

It’s everywhere, and that leads some to think that it’s all about the money now. In some ways, they are right. Bu they’re wrong, too. One reader on the board saw that Notre Dame received a commitment from offensive lineman Sullivan Absher – a Clemson target – and said Clemson needed to get on board with the NIL dollars. Notre Dame has four more 4+ star 2023 commits than anyone in college football right now (12 total). That’s more than double all but two teams. And they are doing without much of an NIL presence.

Notre Dame has a deal with NBC where the network will try to present opportunities to athletes, but it’s not a situation where the players are receiving big packages. Just the chance to work with someone. Former quarterback Brady Quinn is heading up FUND (Friends of University of Notre Dame), a collective aimed at helping student-athletes who want to be ambassadors of the charity of their choice (a Clemson-geared collective is doing something similar).

New head coach Marcus Freeman told The Athletic last week that Notre Dame is attracting recruits because of culture and simply trying to outwork everybody on the recruiting trail. They are offering more recruits, casting a wider net, and offering something beyond the here and now – what a Notre Dame degree means 10 or 20 or 30 years from now. He also said that if a recruit asks about NIL up front, then that recruit is probably not a fit for the Irish.

For those wondering how the Irish are getting the top OL recruits, offensive line coach Harry Hiestand is one of the most respected names in the business. That’s an easy sell. In his first six years in South Bend, Hiestand had six offensive linemen selected in the first three rounds.

So, yes, NIL is everywhere and it’s taking its toll in certain places. I am not sure it’s hitting Clemson as hard as people think. Not yet. But there will be players lost to the highest bidder, there will be battles lost because of families and recruits walking in with their hand out. But I haven’t seen it as widespread as people think.

I think head coach Dabo Swinney will continue to recruit for the right fit from a culture perspective, and will continue to recruit his way and bring in the kind of players that fit the Clemson model. Will it work? That remains to be seen.

*One of the topics of discussion at the ACC meetings last week centered on the conference looking to eliminate divisions and go with a "3-5-5" model. Commissioner Jim Phillips said it’s a proposal they'll likely vote on at some point.

“I'm confident we're gonna get to a decision," Phillips told the media. "And either we're going to do it or we're not going to do it and then we're not going to be talking about it.”

To put it simply, divisions don't work well with competitive scheduling balance and often delay the games between teams for long spans of time. For instance, Pitt has been in the league for almost a decade and Clemson made its first trip to the Steel City this past season. The Tigers haven’t played at Virginia since 2013 and haven’t played at Duke since 2012.

Here is what I wrote about this back in February:

If it’s just one rival, maybe FSU wants Miami and not Clemson. After a lot of thinking – and that hurts if you know me – I came up with the following scenario.

Let’s start with Notre Dame – the Irish saw their regular schedule go haywire during the 2020 season, and they were able to play an ACC schedule. As it stands now, however, they are not part of the ACC standings and likely won’t join anytime soon as a full-time football member. So the Irish can continue to play five ACC teams a year, and for those five teams, that is considered an out-of-conference game.

That leaves 14 teams. Give each team three permanent rivals, and that leaves 10 teams. You play five of those teams each year, meaning you see each conference member every two years. For our purposes, and given what other teams and programs would want, let’s make Florida St., NC State, and Georgia Tech Clemson’s three permanent rivals. If you do that, an ACC schedule might look like this every two years.

YEAR ONE

At Duke
At Georgia Tech
FLORIDA ST.
at Miami
SYRACUSE
at NC State
UNC
WAKE FOREST

YEAR TWO

GEORGIA TECH
at Louisville
at Pitt
BOSTON COLLEGE
at Virginia
VIRGINIA TECH
at Florida St.
NC STATE

In year three, you simply flip the home and away from the five you played in year one. In year four, you flip the home and away from the five you played in year two.

That means you play every other league school at least once every two years, and you play at their place and host them once every four years.

Hopefully something like this happens before the 2023 season.