Dabo Swinney has been around college football as long as anybody in today’s modern game.
The two-time national title-winning head coach has been frustrated by what he’s seeing across the sport. And he’s right. The Clemson Tigers head coach says that the only thing worse than having no rules, is having rules and not enforcing them.
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And that’s what’s happening to college football today.
Swinney believes that college football needs to adapt stricter rules and actually enforce them. While Swinney can be a somewhat controversial figure at times, he’s 100 percent spot-on with this take.
Sep 13, 2025; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney on the sideline against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets in the first quarter at Bobby Dodd Stadium at Hyundai Field. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images© Brett Davis-Imagn Images
“The only thing worse than having no rules is having rules you can’t enforce or don’t enforce. I don’t think any of us thought we’d be in a world where there’s no order,” he told Chris Low of On3 Sports.
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“It’s a much bigger conversation now. Even in the NFL, there are rules. You can’t sign with the Browns and go practice for two weeks and the Dolphins call you up and say, ‘Hey man, what are they paying you? Hey, we’ll pay you a million more. Come on down here to the Dolphins.’ And then you go in there and say, ‘Hey boys, I’m out.’”
ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit agrees
The ESPN college football announcer agrees – college football needs to get better at actually enforcing the rules.
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He’s “sickened” by what’s happened, specifically in regards to the Brendan Sorsby situation.
“It’s sickening that if you don’t hear what you like, you can just go to your local judge and find the answer that you want,” he said during an appearance on The Dan Patrick Show on Friday. “I just don’t know where this ends. If this is where we are right now, pretty much you can do whatever the hell you want to do in this sport, and if anybody says anything, just find a local judge to tell you the answer you want to get.”
Herbstreit knows that things need to change.
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“I think the biggest thing for me, and I think for all of us that follow college football, is who’s the governing body over the sport, and what power does that governing body have, if any?” Herbstreit explained. “The NCAA, when they found out about this, they ruled him ineligible. And like we’ve seen in many other cases, when somebody finds out that the NCAA didn’t give them the answer they want, they go, ‘OK, no problem. We’re just going to go to our local jurisdiction, local judge, and finds out if we can make this happen.’”
Both Herbstreit and Swinney are right.
This story was originally published by The Spun on Jun 15, 2026, where it first appeared in the College Football section. Add The Spun as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
