Clemson football: Saban speaks and Finebaum magically agrees with Dabo on NIL

Funny how that works. Until the last week or so, Clemson football coach Dabo Swinney was on an island as one of the few voices saying something was amiss with the transfer portal and the NIL.

Not that he was against NIL (his players have NIL agreements) or transfers (Clemson has offered two this year), but that he was against the unregulated nature of NIL and all out use of the transfer portal as a replacement for recruiting high school players.

After going it alone and taking the bashing from the Twitter geniuses and Einsteins that masquerade as sports journalist across the country, it seems that the tide (pun intended) is turning in Dabo’s favor.

First, it was Lane Kiffin, who had Dabo’s back, then College Football’s God himself, Nick Saban spoke up on NIL.  Now suddenly, magically, Paul Finebaum believes it’s an issue.

"“I don’t think this is a sustainable model that will last a couple years. It’s impossible to predict the break up of an organization like this because it moves so slowly. But it is going to come apart, the NCAA is on its last breath and I think college football as we know it is on its last breath, and it’s happening with unbelievable speed, supersonic speed that I could not have predicted.”"

What wasn’t hard to predict was Finebaum falling in line after St. Nick largely agreed with Dabo on the NIL.

Then we find out only 54% of players in the portal have gone on to even enroll at another school, much less receive a scholarship.

I think we can all agree that Dabo isn’t always as eloquent or graceful when he speaks on these subjects for the most part.

But, thirty seconds worth of effort to try and understand his point would have made it clear that his heart, and brain, were in the right place, unless you had ulterior motives or an agenda.

Clemson fans can be blinded when Dabo’s wrong, sometimes defending him to a fault.  On this one, he was absolutely correct and now everyone is starting to see it, but there will be no apologies.

That’s not how the mob works.

Some lead because they believe in what they’re saying, no matter the consequences. Others follow because they don’t have the conviction to take a stand and are in it to line their pockets.

It’s pretty clear what positions Dabo and Finebaum occupy on this spectrum.