The latest on scholarship numbers, the portal, and FSU's ACC lawsuit

Clemson has a different scholarship calculus than last year at this time.

by David Hood - Senior Writer - Thu Jan 18 13:42:01 GMT-04:00 2024

There is no offseason for college football, not with the transfer portal and coaching carousels and lawsuits. Where does Clemson stand on a few of those fronts in this tumultuous period?

Let’s get right to the hot topic among many Clemson fans – the transfer portal. It seems like we hear about Florida State and Georgia adding pieces from Alabama’s team every day, and it appears that those teams (Clemson plays both next season) are getting better daily while Clemson does nothing.

I wanted to ensure my numbers were right, so I contacted Clemson football SID Ross Taylor to confirm the Tigers’ scholarship numbers (which are fluid). If you include the members of the 2024 recruiting class that will arrive over the summer, Clemson sits at either 85 or 86 scholarships.

The discrepancy is over quarterback Paul Tyson, who will be a student-coach next season but will be available to suit up should the contingency arise. If he counts against the scholarship limit, the Tigers are at 86. If he doesn’t, the Tigers sit at 85.

Before anyone fusses, wide receiver/holder Clay Swinney, son of Dabo Swinney, is not on scholarship. The only son of a current or former Clemson coach on scholarship is safety Tyler Venables. Former wide receiver Will Taylor is now concentrating on baseball fully and gave up his football scholarship to pay his own way, and punter/safety Brodey Conn (son of Mickey Conn) is also paying his own way.

There are four specialists on scholarship – kickers Nolan Hauser and Robert Gunn and punters Aidan Swanson and Jack Smith.

In other words, Clemson doesn’t have room to add someone at this point. They’ve kicked the tires on a few offensive linemen and were told no. I do think head coach Dabo Swinney needs to be more proactive when it comes to portal players, but we aren’t talking about the kinds of numbers added at a place like Florida St. (which lived by the portal, went undefeated, missed the Playoff, and then was humiliated 63-3 by Georgia after a lot of those same players went in another direction).

Three. Four. Five? Maybe those kinds of numbers. If I was the coach, I would have for sure looked at a quarterback, a center, a defensive end, a wide receiver, and a linebacker. And would have hoped I could find a fit at a few of those spots. But then we go back to the no room element. How to fix that issue? I’ll have more on that later.

Now let’s go to the lawsuit portion. I have believed that Clemson has held off from suing the ACC – like Florida State – because it’s believed that ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips has lawsuit papers against Clemson sitting in the top of his right-hand drawer, just waiting to be filed. So, Clemson waits.

But some news that came out Wednesday evening added to the intrigue of the Noles’ lawsuit. The ACC amended its original lawsuit against Florida State, and in the new lawsuit, a couple of things immediately jump out.

First, the ACC is seeking unspecified damages that will or have occurred because of Florida State challenging the Grant of Rights. The ACC also claims that FSU violated its confidentiality policy by sharing the Grant of Rights with its Board of Trustees and a blogger who allegedly shared it on a Seminoles’ website. In this same vein, the ACC has requested an injunction that would bar Florida State from sharing information about the ESPN contract with anyone.

The ACC also requested that the court ban Florida State from voting in conference matters while the legal process plays out due to the conflict of interest of the Seminoles trying to leave the conference.

So what does that mean? The ACC is scrambling and in over its head, and it’s becoming more apparent with the amended lawsuit. The latest challenge is weak because the ACC was the initial instigator in filing a contract without a vote.