Dabo Swinney weighs in on CFP expansion, eliminating conference title games
Big changes to the college football calendar may be on the horizon.
Clemson coach Dabo Swinney’s general reaction? Like it or not, accept it.
“I’m indifferent,” Swinney said Monday after the opening day of ACC spring meetings in Amelia Island, Florida. “Really not focused too much on it because don’t have any control over it. It doesn’t really matter what I think.”
College football’s format has shifted dramatically during Swinney’s 18-year Clemson tenure, from the BCS format (1998-2013) to a four-team College Football Playoff (2014-23) to a 12-team CFP (2024-26).
The latest proposal from the American Football Coaches Association, which doesn’t govern college football but plays a major role in NCAA decision-making since it represents FBS coaches, would impact the sport even further.
In a May 5 statement, the AFCA’s board recommended an extensive plan to fix the length of the college football season, which it described as a “critical” issue.
The AFCA’s two newsiest recommendations: “Maximize the number of participants” in the CFP, and eliminate conference championship games entirely.
AFCA executive director Craig Bohl told ESPN the organization isn’t endorsing a specific number of teams at this moment, but 16-team and 24-team playoffs are the two most popular models being discussed by leagues including the ACC.
Dabo: ‘I hate to see championship games go away’
Swinney, a longtime AFCA member, addressed both topics at length Monday.
“I hate to see championship games go away,” he said. “... But I also understand it. Sooner or later, if you keep adding games, the calendar’s only got so many dates.”
Swinney’s Tigers have won eight of the last 11 ACC championships, the most conference titles of any program nationally since the start of the 2015 season.
He’s 9-1 overall (.900) in conference title games with Clemson. Swinney also has a personal connection to the event, as he played in the first ever conference championship game: the 1992 SEC title game between Alabama and Florida. Over 30 years later, he still considers that one of the cooler moments of his career.
But there’s an argument such games have run their course for, among other reasons, the fact they open up a handful of teams to additional injuries and/or résumé-damaging losses while other CFP hopefuls get to take a week off.
Removing league title games (which are traditionally held the first weekend of December) would also help solve the sport’s math problem of how to put on an expanded playoff with at least four rounds and finish the season by the second Monday of January, as the AFCA has recommended.
“There’s a lot of people that want them to go away because they can’t get to it,” Swinney joked, adding of eliminating conference title games: “Do I like it? No. But I totally understand it, because that’s where it’s going.”
Swinney has long said he’s fine with any playoff format, citing the fact Clemson has qualified for college football’s postseason in every iteration since he has been coach. The Tigers made BCS New Year’s Six bowl games in 2011 and 2013, reached six consecutive four-team CFPs from 2015-20 and the 12-team CFP in 2024.
“My job is to just coach my team in whatever the system is,” Swinney said. “... We’ve been in every system. Every one.”
Swinney said he anticipates the CFP shifting to 16 or 24 teams as early as next season and college football eventually molding into one NFL-esque “super league”, where there are 50 to 60 teams and close to half make the playoffs annually.
“That’s why the NFL is popular,” Swinney said. “There’s 32 teams and 14 playoff spots. Half the league’s always kind of in it (the playoff race). Even if you’ve got a crap record, if you win the right games, you’re always in it. And that drives a lot of interest. College football has been different, but that’s where it’s heading.”
Positive change for a ‘jacked up’ calendar
This year’s CFP national championship game between Indiana and Miami was played on Jan. 19, and the next two national title games are scheduled for Jan. 25 and Jan. 24, respectively. Cutting down on the sheer length of the season was the top motivation of the AFCA, the board said in its proposal.
Swinney said the various proposals circling around the football calendar, which also include starting the season in Week 0, wouldn’t solve a complicated setup he’s critiqued at length in the past, but it would be a positive change.
In a Monday appearance on ACC Network, Swinney described the current college football calendar as “jacked up” and something that “doesn’t make sense at all.”
“This is my 18th (spring) meetings,” Swinney said later. “There’s a lot of things we used to care about we don’t care about anymore. It’s amazing how that works. Finals, we don’t care about that anymore. We used to care about health and safety, and now we’re just gonna play (almost) every week for however many weeks.”
Swinney also said an expanded playoff field will increase coaching turnover (and, as a result, transfer portal activity) because schools won’t be as patient and move on from coaches if they can’t qualify for an expanded CFP quickly.
The ACC will continue discussing the college football calendar and viability of conference championship games in meetings this week, with league commissioner Jim Phillips expected to give a formal update Wednesday.
Swinney said both major changes make sense, given the current trajectory of college football, and his job is help Clemson keep winning within those parameters.
“I think it’s inevitable, where we’re headed,” he said.
This story was originally published May 11, 2026 at 8:24 PM with the headline "Dabo Swinney weighs in on CFP expansion, eliminating conference title games."
