CLEMSON -- Graham Neff is in his early 40s and beginning his fourth year as Clemson's athletics director.
If there were any questions at the outset about whether he was too young or too unseasoned or too whatever to handle the job, those have probably been put to rest now.
BECOME A TIGERILLUSTRATED.com SUBSCRIBER!
Yesterday we were interviewing the wildly successful Mike Noonan and learning about the moving and shaking currently taking place within college soccer as it thumbs its nose at the NCAA bureaucracy in an attempt to make the game a two-semester sport while working with U.S. Soccer.
At around the same time of our interview, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports revealed major news in the form of a committee of power-conference administrators charged with transitioning away from NCAA leadership and enforcement.
This from Dellenger:
Members of the committee — unannounced and kept secret now for months — are from some of college football’s biggest brands, including Ohio State’s Ross Bjork, Clemson’s Graham Neff and Texas A&M’s Trev Alberts.
ALSO SEE: Friday P.M. Insider | Clemson adds Kevin Kelly as Director of Player Evaluation & Acquisition | Friday A.M. Insider | Clemson Basketball Update: Latest On Del Jones | Clemson's verbal commitments
The transition team met this past Sunday and Monday in Washington to further explore details around this newly created framework, according to Dellenger.
And Noonan said his boss kept all of Clemson's head coaches abreast of the situation.
"Graham has kept us all informed, right up to the minute, of everything that's going on. He is one of the brightest young minds in the business of college athletics, and I'm really proud and happy to have him on that committee as one of the forebears of what's to come. I think that's fantastic.
"He thinks things through in a way that's holistic but also realistic.
"I think it was maybe Monday night when Graham sent all of us head coaches messages telling us he was up in Washington working on House-case stuff and on a committee. He's very, very transparent with us in what's going on. So if that's what came out of it, that's what came out of it and Clemson will support things the way we always have: To be able to compete, and for our athletes to have the advantage to compete at the highest level."
Neff took over for Dan Radakovich in December of 2021, and that seems like a different galaxy given all the fundamental change that has occurred since.
Back then, $200,000 seemed like a ton of money to pay a college football player. Now that's chump change for the more decorated weapons; we know that Clemson has four millionaires on its current roster, led by a quarterback who makes more than any of the assistant coaches.
Neff also took over at a time when ACC commissioner Jim Phillips successfully pushed ESPN's option with the conference from 2021 to February of this year.
Phillips' hope was that high football achievement would put the ACC in position to command a better deal in 2025.
There wasn't much football achievement: No College Football Playoff spot for the ACC over three straight seasons before Clemson and SMU landed in the expanded 12-team field in 2024.
Last week, ESPN and ACC announced that their partnership would extend from 2027 to 2036.
Some people took this as a loss for Clemson and Florida State, the two schools that exercised the nuclear option of suing the conference.
Pat Forde and Dan Wetzel, also of Yahoo!, took a few victory laps over the news that they viewed as putting the Tigers and Seminoles in their place.
Such reactions are a bit childish but, more important, not reflective of reality that includes Clemson and Florida State currently negotiating a settlement with the ACC that would give them not just more money but more flexibility as it relates to reacting to future shape-shifting events within the college athletics model.
It's impossible to predict what everything will look like in a few years; way too many huge things happening at once.
Join Tigerillustrated.com subscribers on The West Zone message board!
But as you're trying to assure yourself that Clemson's place in the hierarchy is secure, and that the Tigers are going to have a seat at the table and be in the same financial realm as the others who are doing the big-boy thing, recent events have to provide some confidence.
And Neff has been a key figure in that.
Let's revisit Dellenger's paragraph above that uses "college football's biggest brands" and "Clemson" in the same sentence.
That's a big deal by itself.
Who knows where this is all headed, but it's 2025 and Clemson is still very much in the game.
BECOME A TIGERILLUSTRATED.com SUBSCRIBER!
When Radakovich abruptly left for Miami, the power brokers at Clemson really didn't have much apprehension or indecision about his replacement.
They thought Neff had all the qualities to lead Clemson through the tumultuous times to come that none of them could even totally fathom at that point three-plus years ago.
They thought he had the makings of being a superstar.
The available evidence, including the most recent major developments, indicates they were dead on.
TODAY: BIG DEALS on a ton of Clemson gear at The Tiger Fan Shop HERE!
(Checkout code: 24SHIP)
