Neff Speaks: Athletic Director covers NIL, transfer portal use and ACC lawsuit

Graham Neff speaks with the media Wednesday.

David Hood - Senior Writer - Wednesday, August 21 2024

CLEMSON – Clemson athletic director Graham Neff met with the media Wednesday afternoon, and the changing landscape of college athletics dominated the session with a nod to facilities upgrades and Dabo Swinney’s use of the transfer portal.

Neff announced the launch of Clemson Ventures, which has been established to operate as an affiliated organization of Clemson University Athletics focused on maximizing revenue-generation strategies in the evolving college athletics landscape. Clemson Ventures is designed with a true private-sector business structure and full-service marketing and NIL agency capabilities to drive revenue.

Just as IPTAY pioneered college athletics fundraising in 1934, Clemson Ventures aims to do the same for the athletic department’s interaction with outside business opportunities. Billed as a first-of-its-kind setup in college sports, Clemson Ventures will focus both existing and new resources on the organization.

An initiative created by Neff, Clemson Ventures further integrates the University’s internal multimedia rights with a comprehensive sales, media, marketing, NIL agency, and business operations unit.

Additionally, by forming a strategic NIL agency with staff and services within the organization, Clemson can aggressively find and manage meaningful and sustainable NIL opportunities for student-athletes.

"Clemson Ventures is a testament to our unwavering commitment to innovation and competitive excellence,” said Neff. “This draws influences from best-practices from the private sector while retaining the unique nature of the collegiate model. By creating this integrated entity, we are not only advancing our revenue-generating capabilities but also fortifying Clemson's position as a leader in collegiate athletics. Our Athletic enterprise, which includes the services of CUAD, the fundraising capability of IPTAY and now Clemson Ventures, is built to set Clemson up for long-term success while providing a world-class experience for students, fans, and partners.”

Neff on the court case against the ACC

Both Clemson and Florida State have challenged the ACC’s Grant of Rights in court – the schools deem that the current structure of the media rights deals puts them at a competitive disadvantage against the SEC and the Big 10 and potentially the Big 12. Florida St. started the process with a lawsuit last December and Clemson joined the fray in March.

Neff said Clemson is content to see what happens from a legal standpoint.

“We'll let the court process play out and let our legal team continue to lead that strategy. To the second part of your question, and Commissioner Phillips, I thought had some really appropriate and shared perspective and comments at football media days in July about his lens on just the professional nature of the relationships and what his role is and what athletic director's roles are and my role is. And so we're going to continue to act, and I couldn't have felt more supported from his chair in the day-to-day and with my certainly colleagues around the table so to speak. And I've been real consistent with our staff and our coaches and our student athletes about the expectations for us to be great members of the conference we're in.”

I asked if the case had to be adjudicated before a move is made.

“I'll kind of pass on the legal sequencing of that only to say that we're going to continue to have our legal team work the legal process with it and act incredibly professional and be great members of the conference we're in and be really well read and connected nationally with all of the moving parts. However, those continue to show themselves it been more active just with the national landscape of all the moving parts within college athletics, a lot of what I've talked about, not just specifically conference membership. Not sure we're going to continue to let the legal process play out. We're going to be great. We, Clemson, are going to be great members of the conference we're in. That's me that starts with me. But all of our coaches and student athletes in institution and also be really well-read and engaged nationally, that's incredibly important.”

On Swinney’s use of the transfer portal

“I couldn't be more convicted and supportive of Coach Swinney, a two time national champion head coach, and how he has built his current program and where he is at and let alone where his strategies and nimbleness, quite frankly is ahead. And so yeah, we talk about it, but in a supportive way and understanding vision and strategy and how do we continue to be adaptable in a changing landscape. That means roster management, but that also means, or particularly means a lot of things that we've talked about. So absolutely that's active engagement with me and coach.”