Dabo praises Clemson’s plan for paying football players. Here are the details
Revenue sharing will change college sports dramatically.
But Clemson athletics is all in on the move, and coach Dabo Swinney is fired up about what it’ll mean for the future of his nationally ranked football program.
“It’s going to really, really be a difference-maker for us,” Swinney said Tuesday.
Tigers athletic director Graham Neff released an open letter to fans earlier Tuesday morning outlining how Clemson plans to navigate the “monumental shift” to directly compensating football players and other athletes as a result of the proposed House vs. NCAA lawsuit settlement expected to take effect next summer.
Neff wrote that Clemson intends to share the “maximum allowable amount of revenue with our student-athletes,” which will be approximately $20.5 million in 2025-26. The school will also add an additional 150 scholarships (primarily for non-revenue sports) on top of the 275 it already provides across 21 varsity sports.
The $20.5 million maximum that can be distributed to athletes equates to roughly 22% of the average media, ticket and sponsorship revenue at power conference schools. It’s a national standard all power conference schools must adhere to and not go over, but it’ll be “periodically recalculated,” according to Clemson.
Each individual school can decide “how to distribute the revenue share amongst its sports teams and student-athletes,” Clemson said in its message to fans. Although Neff did not explicitly lay out details of that distribution, it’s expected that Clemson football players will command a large percentage of the revenue distribution.
How much of a percentage?
“At Clemson, we’re gonna be as good as anybody out there,” Swinney said Tuesday during his weekly news conference ahead of Saturday’s South Carolina game, adding: “When I say nobody’s going to have more money than Clemson, that’s because of the commitment from our administration.”
Swinney has spoken frequently this fall about how revenue sharing, or “rev share,” will be a big positive for his program (the most prominent and profitable one on campus) when it comes to player retention and recruiting.
Since the advent of name, image and likeness (NIL) three years ago, Swinney has maintained a consistent “no pay for play” stance, which has led to the Tigers missing out on top high school and portal recruits and frustrated some fans.
One model some schools are expected to follow for splitting the revenue share money among athletes is the 75-15-5 “backpay” split for former athletes recommended by the judge overseeing the House vs. NCAA settlement.
In that setup, 75% of the money would be going to football players, 15% would go to men’s basketball players, 5% would go to women’s basketball and 5% would be divided among athletes in other sports.
According to reports from TigerIllustrated.com and TigerNet, Clemson is preparing to share an even larger percentage of that $20.5 million with its football players — to the point where it could be among the highest percentage share nationally.
For context, 75% of $20.5 million would come out to $15.375 million to be doled out among Clemson football players. Clemson will reportedly surpass that allotment.
Football players and other Clemson athletes will also have the chance to earn NIL money on top of whatever compensation they’re getting from revenue sharing.
“We’ve always had the money at Clemson,” Swinney said. “We just haven’t been able to share it. Now we can.”
.jpg "USATSI_24474121 (1).jpg")
Explaining Clemson House settlement changes
The post-settlement changes are expected to kick in July 1, 2025.
The most prominent changes specific to Clemson sports, per Neff:
- Removing scholarship limits in favor of roster limits
- Allowing schools to provide a national-standard revenue share to student-athletes (dividing that share among sports will be up to each school)
- Requiring third-party NIL deals to be legitimate and for “fair market value”
As part of the shift to revenue sharing, Neff, Clemson’s third-year AD, said Clemson will establish a centralized “front office,” similar to that of a professional sports team, to oversee “contract details, compliance and allocation strategy.”
“We recognize the role that we play on our campus and in our community and with integrity we are taking decisive action to best position ourselves for long-term success,” Neff wrote, adding that fundraising will be “crucial.”
Swinney said that’s been a “challenge” in recent years because IPTAY, Clemson’s main athletics fundraising arm, and 110 Society, Clemson’s main NIL collective, are separate entities (in accordance with NCAA and state/national guidance).
“In the past with the 110 Society you didn’t really have any benefits to giving to 110 besides that you’re just helping us,” Swinney said.
Clemson’s final solution there, during the last few months that NIL collectives will be an important part of the equation? According to Neff, Clemson will now ensure that “all contributions” to the 110 Society from July 1, 2024 and June 30, 2025 will be eligible to earn IPTAY Priority Points, the rewards system for Clemson’s booster club.
The Priority Points system, per IPTAY’s website, rewards monetary donations and “long-term support” through season tickets, parking and ticket allocation for games where distribution may be limited (i.e., bowl games and road football games).
Neff wrote that allowing NIL donations to be funneled into IPTAY perks is a “significant step” for Clemson and said that an anonymous Clemson donor has pledged an initial $3 million to that new initiative.
Said Swinney: “Right now, we don’t have rev share. There is no rev share. It’s just NIL, which is just pay-for-play right now. ... We’ve got to get to July, and we’re competing against a lot of big-name schools.”
Clemson’s plan, of course, will affect all sports and significantly increase scholarship counts in sports such as baseball and soccer. But the impact on football, the Tigers’ most popular and important sport, quickly took center focus on Tuesday.
Swinney said football teams’ pots of revenue sharing money would be divided up amongst all the players on the team, “and that’ll be based on your roster.”
Clemson’s coach compared it to a version of the NFL salary cap and gave a not-so-subtle example of how a football team might distribute its revenue.
“If you’ve got a fourth-year quarterback coming back that’s a three year starter, well, you best believe he’s going to do pretty good, right?” Swinney said with a grin, describing his current starting quarterback, junior Cade Klubnik, to a tee. “It’s just the way it is. ... Those are decisions that you have to make year to year.”
Next Clemson game
Who: No. 18 South Carolina (8-3, 5-3 SEC) at No. 17 Clemson (9-2, 7-1 ACC)
Where: Memorial Stadium in Clemson
When: noon Saturday
TV: ESPN
Betting line: Clemson by 2.5 points
This story was originally published November 26, 2024 at 10:46 AM.
