Dabo Swinney Claims Clemson Players Don't Want To See College Football Playoff Expansion
College Football Playoff expansion is coming, and unlike the vast majority of the country being completely on board with the idea, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is playing contrarian and wholeheartedly hates it.
Swinney's gripe with CFB Playoff expansion isn't personal, at least he's not claiming it to be. He doesn't believe that the Playoff committee is doing the players any favors by expanding the field and that his own players have essentially told him that they don't think it's fair.
The Tigers' head coach recently joined Greg McElroy on the 'Always College Football' podcast and laid out the reasons the Playoff expansion bothers him.
"I’m all for expanding the playoff. Great. I got no problem with it. But I want to do it in a way that’s healthy for the player," Swinney said, as relayed by The Comeback. "And what bothers me about the expansion of the playoff is when all this was coming about a few years ago, we were kind of given a charge by our commissioner to go and talk to our team and ask them, 'hey, this is what was coming down the pipe, here’s how it’s going to look like' – wanted the feedback."
Dabo Swinney claims his players are out on the idea of the College Football Playoff expansion. (Photo by Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
"I met with my team and I’ll never forget it, and I kind of laid it out for them, here’s where we are, and they all looked at me like I was crazy, like I had three eyeballs."
“You mean to tell me we got to start in July and we’re going to finish later in January? Oh and we just beat Alabama and now we gotta go play Georgia next week? You know, or you beat Ohio State, Alabama and now you gotta go play Georgia? And these are guys that have pro aspirations, and until you’ve been through a season of 15 games at this level, it’s hard to really have that perspective."
"So, the interesting thing about the whole dynamic to me, when all that was coming about – I gave the feedback but nobody listens."
While Swinney will catch some grief here, standing up for his players is more than admirable. Unfortunately, college football doesn't revolve around Clemson, despite what Swinney may think.
Expansion is coming, more games are coming, and that's simply reality.
Follow Mark Harris on Twitter @ItIsMarkHarris