Neff addresses Swinney's contract in today's market, Clemson commitment to basketball

Dabo Swinney sits outside the top-5 in salary per year and Clemson's AD is well aware.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Fri Apr 15 13:49:14 GMT-04:00 2022

CLEMSON – When head football coach Dabo Swinney signed his new contract back in April of 2019, it stood as the richest coaching contract in college football history. That contract, a 10-year deal that paid him $8.25 million in 2019 and increases incrementally up to $10 million later this decade, is now not even in the top-five. Will Clemson look to rectify that in the near future?

Swinney now sits sixth in salary, behind Lincoln Riley of USC, Brian Kelly of LSU, Nick Saban of Alabama, Mel Tucker of Michigan State, and David Shaw of Stanford. However, Georgia is expected to reward head coach Kirby Smart with a new deal that will likely vault him into one of the top spots.

TigerNet spoke with Athletic Director Graham Neff this week, and he said that he is aware that the market has changed. And he’s also aware of what Swinney has achieved with two National Championships, four National Championship Game appearances, and six appearances in the College Football Playoff.

“The market has significantly changed this past coaching carousel, and what Coach Swinney has achieved with two National Championships, which is more than anybody outside of Coach Saban, let alone where the elevation that he rose the program to and what the next decade looks like,” Neff said. “And I'll steal his quote of the best is yet to come. So, we are very aware of the change of market for head coaches, and we're very aware and excited about Coach Swinney has achieved. So, I'll leave it at that.

"He started out last year as the No. 2 guy (paid) and now he's out of the top-five with Mel Tucker, Lincoln Riley, Jimbo Fisher, Brian Kelly, David Shaw, and I think Georgia will have a deal with Kirby Smart soon. So we are aware of it."

That makes it sound that while a deal isn’t imminent, Neff wants to make sure that Swinney is well taken care of as the program heads into the next decade.

Now, onto basketball and head coach Brad Brownell. Neff wrote a letter a few weeks detailing his expectations for the program, including postseason success, and the letter was met with lukewarm response by many in the Clemson fan base.

Neff wanted to make sure that everyone understands his commitment to the program and that he won’t be averse to change if the situation requires it. He also said the school has to provide more support for both the men’s and women’s programs while dealing with the addition of a gymnastics program that will share Littlejohn Coliseum with the two basketball teams.

Neff said they were looking at expanding the Swann Pavilion and perhaps adding another basketball practice court, while also making sure that the assistant coaches are paid on a level with other programs. There is also talk about expanding the current nutritional facilities for basketball. There is a current eating room, but they want to expand it to have a kitchen within Littlejohn Coliseum so they can have regular hot food options that work around the practice schedules (much like the PAW Bistro does for football).

He also wanted to make sure that everyone understands commitment to the sport.

“I am new to this role, not to Clemson, but to this role. But I have been here for nine years and I'm very vested and understand the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities of Clemson basketball. I do,” Neff said. “And so it is not one of those where, 'Oh, he's new to the role and so has an aversion to significant change.' That's not it at all. But I did think it was really important to emphasize from an administrative standpoint the importance of basketball, because I think there have been questions on that of how good do we want to be?

“Because I think we can be really good, and I think we have a lot of people that think we can be really good. And we've seen Sweet 16s, we've seen high-level players come through here. Is there another level? There is another level for Clemson men's and women's basketball, and gosh, what's that? There is another level for Clemson, men's basketball and women, and is there an appetite for that? Do we care to do that and therefore, do we care to invest to get there and to do that?

“And the answer is yes. And so, I wanted to try to be very direct on that. Yes, it's important. And because of that we have high expectations and because of those, we need to invest. In the simplest, direct way, that's what I wanted to communicate. And so again, I get the feedback, positive or negative on that message or agreeing or disagreeing or those type of things. But I just wanted to be real candid and direct with it. I caught some of Brad's comments yesterday (Wednesday) just for his media availability, and I think there was a lot of consistency with things that he said that he and I talked about as far as the expectations and desire for that next level and for more consistency of postseason and postseason success.

“But because of that, there needs to be all-in commitment from the administration and that means the institution too, not necessarily from dollars and cents, but just from importance. And with Jim Clements and Max Allen and our board that type of expectation and importance for all of our sports. But we're talking about basketball here. It's there and it's strong. And so Brad feels that and he and I have spent a lot of time talking about that.

“And again, I think that the excitement or the urgency that he has for that, to take that next level and for what the team is coming back next year. I think there's a lot of anticipation for what next year can be and what that level of expectation and consequently investment should be from the administration.”