The 12-team College Football Playoff is set to begin in the upcoming season, but Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney says the new playoff format won’t change his mindset or perspective as a coach.
“I don’t think it changes the mindset for us as coaches,” Swinney said Tuesday as he hosted his annual Media Outing at the Allen Reeves Football Complex. “I think as coaches, you try to always have good perspective. I mean, it’s hard to win. Maybe it changes the perspective for the fan base or something, and we get away from, ‘If you lose a game, the world is over and fire every player and every coach,’ that you see all over college football. It’s really hard to win.”
“From our standpoint, the psyche hasn’t changed in that we’re all in trying to win every single game,” Swinney added. “But we also as coaches, having done this for a long time, you have perspective. Again, this is my 35th college football season. I’ve got 13 years at Alabama and going on 22 here, so I try not to get too high or too low with a win or a loss. Try to have good healthy perspective, and I think most coaches are that way. You’ve got to move on – big win, tough loss, you’ve got to move on because you want to have a great season.”
However, with the expanded playoff, Swinney does expect it to have some unintended consequences.
A big one of those that Swinney talked about is teams potentially having to decide whether or not to play starters in their rivalry game, if the following week is the conference championship game and a first-round bye in the playoff is at stake.
Swinney used the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens and Ravens star quarterback Lamar Jackson as an analogy.
“You’ll probably see some situations where, like you see in the NFL — the Ravens are in the playoffs, they’ve got it locked up, they’ve got the bye or whatever, and well, they’ve got one more game that really means nothing because it’s all about the playoffs. So, do you play Lamar in that game?” Swinney said. “That’s probably an unintended consequence in college from a tradition standpoint is maybe you’re 11-0 and you’ve got that rivalry game, but you play your biggest foe next week in the conference championship, and if you win that game, you’re going to get a bye.
“So, those are decisions you’ll probably see play out all throughout college football, which will probably affect traditions and things like that. But you’ve got decisions to make, if it’s all about the playoffs. As we’ve expanded the playoffs… it becomes more about the playoffs as opposed to the regular season. The regular season still obviously matters because that’s going to impact the playoffs, but I’m just talking about some of those unintended consequences.”
Of course, players opting out of non-playoff bowl games has increasingly become a trend, and Swinney only expects that to continue in the new playoff era.
“It’s more of an NFL mindset. There’s very few NFL teams that I think realistically say we’re probably not going to lose a game all season. But it’s about making the playoffs,” Swinney said. “That’s really what everybody’s goal is, and I think that is what will change gradually within the psyche of college football, as it expands and probably will expand more, is it’s going to become all about the playoffs, which is fine.
“But I think there’s probably unintended consequences for that, too, just like everything, in that probably as we see guys opting out of bowl games and things like that, you’ll probably see some guys if you’re 4-4 and probably out of the playoffs, you’ll probably see some guys head off to Arizona and train (for the NFL Draft). That’s probably an unintended consequence.”
With the four-team playoff era in the books, the 12-team playoff will now include the five highest-ranked conference champions, plus the next seven highest-ranked teams as determined by the CFP Selection Committee.
Under the 12-team format, the four highest-ranked conference champions will be seeded one through four and each will receive a first-round bye, while teams seeded five through 12 will play each other in the first round on the home field of the higher-ranked team.
The quarterfinals and semifinals will be played in the New Year’s Six bowl games, and the national championship game will continue to be at a neutral site. No conference will qualify automatically and there will be no limit on the number of participants from a conference.
A limited number of signed footballs from Clemson’s 2022 class are still available. Get yours while supplies last! Visit Clemson Variety & Frame or purchase online!
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