Well, the biggest game of week 1 of the college football season just got a little bit bigger.
There have been two big storylines dominating the headlines over the past week or so: the poor attendance at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum for USC’s home opener amid atrocious conditions and the influx of NFL players returning to college football.
One team in particular has been especially aggressive at bringing in athletes who’ve already moved on to the NFL, and it’s, surprise, surprise, Lane Kiffin’s LSU Tigers.
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This decision has been controversial, to say the least. Conferences have rushed to ban it, while prominent personalities like Ohio State’s Ryan Day have spoken out against it. There are lawsuits galore, including one with a scheduled court date on Thursday morning. The SEC has already reportedly debated what type of enforcement action they might, or will be allowed, to take, should LSU follow through by putting these players on the field.
This debate and its outcome is important for the future of the sport and how rosters are constructed, but it could quite literally impact College Football Playoff spots. Now, not months down the road.
LSU opens their season at home in Baton Rouge against the Clemson Tigers, two programs coming off disappointing seasons and looking for a return to relevance. While LSU’s a substantial favorite, and has home field advantage, Clemson is a talented team with every reason to believe they can compete or pull the upset. But that task might be a bit harder if Kiffin’s allowed to use those, shall we say, advanced, players.
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It was already expected to be a contentious matchup, but Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney threw a bit more fuel on the fire Tuesday afternoon when addressing this new form of roster construction.
“Rarely am I at a loss for words,” Swinney said. “But I’m at kind of a loss of words. I would just say it’s kind of embarrassing. I mean, honestly, it’s just embarrassing that that’s where we are. I don’t blame the kids and people trying to take advantage of the system. I just think it’s embarrassing where we are with college football.”
It’s hard to view that as anything but a shot at Kiffin, saying it’s “embarrassing” that this is even a topic of conversation. Obviously, it wouldn’t be, if the Tigers weren’t trying to bring players back from NFL rosters. Swinney brought that up too. When addressing how he’s preparing his team to play LSU, he cracked a joke about scouting NFL film.
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“Been spending this last week or so studying the Browns, the Cowboys, the Saints and the Bucs trying to get ready,” he quipped. “I actually got to go watch practice in early June for the Browns. So I’m probably going to get turned in for tampering, I don’t know. I wish I’d have known. I’d have paid a little more attention. Yeah, it’s crazy. It’s hard.”
He wasn’t done there. Swinney said he’s “embarrassed” about the fact that there seems to be no guardrails around anything in college football right now. Thanks in large part to judges who are willing to rule against any type of enforcement.
“That outside stuff, we just kind of — no pun intended — we just stay in our lane here at Clemson. Try to. Every now and then, someone will ram into us. But we just try and handle our business here. But it’s embarrassing; it really is. We have no rules. There’s no governance. It’s a joke. There’s zero rules. When you enforce rules, someone just goes and finds a judge to say, ‘no, you can’t enforce that rule.’ Never did I think I’d be living in an era like this. But that’s where we are,” Swinney said.
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It’s hard to argue with him. Kiffin was ready and willing to take advantage of this ruling because he’s looking for any competitive advantage, no matter how ridiculous it might be. It’s unfair to the college athletes on the LSU roster, unfair to Clemson and unfair that there’s so little meaningful oversight of the sport.
Not that this game needed any more drama and intrigue, but Swinney’s comments illustrate how most opposing coaches and teams will feel about playing LSU this season should those players be allowed to stay with the Tigers. Still, it would be sweet revenge for Clemson if the Tigers were able to pull off the upset anyway.