CLEMSON -- A few thoughts and insights on a Tuesday of South Carolina week:
-- As we've written yesterday and today, the NIL/revenue-sharing topic is highly complicated so we've committed quite a bit of time to trying to make it make more sense to the average person.
Dabo Swinney raised some eyebrows at today's press conference when he said "ain't nobody going to have more money than Clemson, for the first time ever."
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What he's referring to is the percentage of the $20.5 million revenue share/salary cap that will take effect in July.
As we've told you, Clemson has committed to allocating a higher share of that to football than most other schools, and perhaps all of them.
For most schools out there, the default percentage devoted to football is expected to be around 75 percent. It's speculated that some SEC schools will surpass 80 percent.
We're not going to cite Clemson's specific percentage until it's official, but we feel safe in saying it's going to be well north of 80 percent and Clemson is confident it'll be higher than most if not all schools out there.
That's a lot of money. And that's what Swinney was referring to earlier today.
He's probably not going to get into the specifics either, because that's above his head right now and it hasn't been finalized.
But for months he's been pointing to the advent of revenue sharing as great for Clemson, and this is why.
-- There are seven months between now and then, though, and the interim will be spent on an NIL fundraising sprint to try to get as much money as possible under the current parameters before the July 1 start of what will effectively be a salary cap.
We thought Swinney hit the right notes today in explaining donors' previous difficulty in forking out extra cash for NIL in addition to what they already contribute to maintain their donor levels that are so important in maintaining their parking, football seats, etc.
In addition to the announcement that all contributions to the 110 Society between July 1 of 2024 and June 30 of 2025 will be eligible for IPTAY priority points, Clemson is planning a top-down structure that will allow donors to split their gifts between 110 Society and IPTAY while preserving their levels.
"In the past with 110, you really didn't have any benefits to give to 110 other than just helping us, and that's been a challenge," Swinney said. "It's been a challenge. That's just the reality of it.
"It's not going to be a challenge for the rev share. It's going to be a blessing. It's going to really, really be a difference-maker for us. But we've got to get to July. And we're competing against a lot of big NIL schools.
"People understand giving to IPTAY and they get points and they get credit and all this stuff. Now it's worked out to where you're going to get all that. So it's critical that they've created this partnership to where you can get the points, you can get the credit, you can do all this. Because it's the only way we're going to be able to compete between now and July."
-- Swinney says in the revenue-share era you "can't spend a penny more" than the $20.5 million, and already there are plenty of cynics out there about how realistic this is.
Under revenue sharing, NIL is supposed to take on a different form and those who give more than "fair market value" for NIL are supposed to be punished.
Supposed to be.
Count us among the skeptics who believe this won't survive the lawsuits that are sure to come once a "policing" entity punishes an athlete for accepting money that someone wants to give him.
We asked Swinney about this.
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"I have no idea. That was all part of the settlement. I guess in 10 years they'll figure it out. I don't know. But it's a 10-year settlement and a billion dollars, gagillion dollars was spent on the settlement and there's a settlement and there's two sides and this is what they agreed to -- I don't know.
"And it's not the NCAA that's regulating it; it's a third party just like the NFL has a third party that manages this stuff. And if you're a penny over or a penny under, you got a problem. And then if you've got NIL over here and it's not meeting a standard, then there's going to be some issues. I don't know how the big, bad wolf is going to manage it. I don't know. But that's what's out there. And I'm sure there's still some things they're trying to figure out.
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"Again, there's a timeline. Yeah, I'm sure there will be plenty of lawsuits over anything. It happens every day."
Tigerillustrated.com will have more on revenue sharing, NIL and of course Clemson vs. South Carolina on Wednesday.
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