Coach Dabo Swinney, the head coach of the Clemson Tigers, caused a stir with his remarks about those who bring up coaches’ wages while asking why athletes should be paid.
Last year, the NCAA’s name, image, and likeness program went into effect, allowing collegiate athletes to accept lucrative endorsement deals. Dabo Swinney, the head coach of Clemson, has already spoken out against college athletics becoming pay-for-play.
In a recent interview with ESPN’s Chris Low, Swinney addressed critics who refer to coaches’ salaries as a reason why college athletes should earn a profit before arriving on campus. Here are his entire remarks, which are taken from the ESPN article linked above:
Well, Nick Saban is 70 years old. I’m 52 years old. None of us set markets on what we do. We live in a capitalist society. The head of Delta probably makes a lot more than the people who are checking your baggage in, but those people are as vital as anybody. None of us set markets on what we do. It’s a free market we live in, in anything. It’s just that our jobs are so visible and so public. I can tell you this: None of us got into coaching to make money, but I don’t apologize for being successful.
According to Dabo Swinney, coaches should be compensated, not athletes
Swinney went on to talk about the wages of coaches. When questioned if college football coaches make too much money, he replied that he believes Saban is “probably underpaid.” Last August, Saban agreed to a new contract agreement with Alabama, which pays him an average of $10.6 million per year until the end of the 2028 season.
Swinney got a 10-year contract deal with Clemson in 2019, worth $93 million and keeping him with the Tigers until 2028.
The Clemson head coach has spoken out against what he refers to as “college football’s professionalization.” He defined it in the quote below, courtesy of ESPN.
Getting away from scholarships and getting away from academics. Ninety-eight percent of these kids are not playing in the NFL. That’s one of the reasons I do like the NIL because 98% of them aren’t going to make the NFL, so it’s good while they have a nice platform that they can take advantage of these opportunities. … As adults, we should do everything we can to incentivize education — period, the end — and that ain’t ever going to change for me because I know ultimately that’s what creates generational change in young people’s lives. … So, for me, I’ve always been about education and the collegiate model and the collegiate experience, and I don’t think what’s been created now is healthy for the game, and in the long run, I don’t think it’s healthy for the young people.
Swinney’s entire comments may be seen in the ESPN piece linked above.
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