Swinney lauds Clemson's stability amid 'chaotic' transfer portal era

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney is happy with where the school stands in what he described as a "chaotic" NCAA transfer portal.

"We're just sitting back and watching, watching it all around us," Swinney said, according to ESPN's Chris Low. "It's a crazy time, although I'm not sure a lot of people in our sport should be surprised. I'm just glad we're not a part of it."

NIL rules and other changes have essentially turned the transfer portal into free agency for professional sports. Swinney has repeatedly said he's against the idea of outbidding other schools to pay large sums of money to college players.

"I'm not going to pay a high school kid who's never played a down of college football a million dollars," Swinney said. "Let them get here, perform and earn it. There's a big difference."

The two-time national champion added: "It's not just these last few weeks, but the last few years, and there certainly has been no rules, and whatever rules there were, if you tried to enforce them, then they would get changed, and you'd wait six months, and they would change again. So, yeah, there has been a ton of chaos. ... We're entering a really chaotic time. But the more chaos out there, the better it is for us because we're built for it."

College football's new era was on full display last week during the Nico Iamaleava saga. Tennessee stunningly decided to part ways with the star quarterback following an unsuccessful NIL negotiation. Iamaleava later committed to UCLA, which resulted in passer Joey Aguilar - who had transferred to UCLA from Appalachian State earlier this year - leaving the Bruins and joining the Volunteers instead.

Iamaleava's brother, Madden, then left Arkansas to follow Nico to UCLA.

"It's unfortunate that we couldn't make things simpler in college football and that we have to go through times like this," Swinney said. "That's one of the ironies of life, that you have to go through a lot of bad before eventually people say, 'You know what? We probably shouldn't do that.'"

Over 3,310 players entered the portal last week, making it the most active transfer window in college football history, according to College Sports Network.

Swinney's Clemson has brought in five players since the NCAA transfer portal was launched in 2018, including three this year. He said the Tigers have lost only two players to the portal whom he wanted to keep (safety Andrew Mukuba and defensive end A.J. Hoffler).