Dabo Swinney, Clemson opposed to expanded College Football Playoff: 'They don't want to play more games'
Count Clemson coach Dabo Swinney and his Tigers team as opponents to an expanded playoff proposal, which would include the six top-rated conference champions and six at-large bids. The 14th-year Clemson coach said as much in an interview with The Athletic, listing myriad reasons for his objection. In all, it came down to main points:
“(The players) don’t want to play more games,” Swinney said, “and to be honest with you, I don’t think there’s 12 teams good enough.”
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It’s true that the proposed model could conceivably produce a 17-game season for a team that plays in its league title game and is seeded lower than fourth. But, assuming Clemson continues to earn Playoff bids as a top-four team — which the Tigers have done every year of the Playoff era, minus the 2014 season — then the new model would result in only one additional game for Swinney and Co. The new model also likely ensures any one- or two-loss Clemson team makes the Playoff.
His second point could be better defended, at which point it becomes a debate of whether you prefer the exclusivity of a four-team playoff over ensuring every Playoff-caliber team can make the postseason, at the risk of including potentially lower quality participants.
Swinney added that an expanded playoff would result in a worse regular season product — not unlike NFL teams that opt not to play star players since they are guaranteed playoff berths.
