Dabo Swinney is right: Coaches opinions don’t matter in College Football Playoff expansion fight

As the ongoing debate over expanding the College Football Playoff intensifies, pressure is mounting on the SEC to change its thinking as the ACC and Big 12 prepare to publicly announce the 24-team format.

But as the conversation deepens and the opinions flow, the views of head coaches in college football who can make headlines are exactly the same in this era of college football: opinions.

You’ll start to see a more vocal response to an expanded playoff from conferences like the Big 12 and ACC in the coming days. In reality, this is all part of the plan, as the ACC wraps up its spring meetings in Florida this week.

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It’s the constant pressure that many in conferences outside the SEC hope will influence the views of Greg Sankey, who represents them on the biggest stage.

The problem for others is that the SEC commissioner and some of those he represents are currently sticking with the proposed 16-team format, sharing majority power with the Big Ten on future expansion.

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“We’re trying to inform that with research. We did that with 16 people from our perspective.” Sankey told reporters: This week it’s about the discussion about expanding beyond 16 teams. “Through some analytical support, we want to understand plays that matter in an expanded environment and plays that may not matter.”

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Dabo Swinney’s opinion doesn’t matter. His words, not mine

But that won’t stop some coaches from voicing their opinions in conferences like the ACC or Big 12; This comes with the scope of being a school representative and, in some cases, the highest-paid employee in each state.

Although it sounds great to have someone like Dabo Swinney favoring expansion, which would expand the field from 12 to 24 teams, the athletic director isn’t too interested in his idea.

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No, this is not an attack on the Clemson head coach, these are actually the words he said at the ACC spring meetings this week.

“It doesn’t really matter what I think” Swinney told reporters:He also states that he has no control over what will happen going forward.

Bingo! Athletic directors don’t expect their coaches to agree with the school’s philosophy on whether more teams should be added to the postseason.

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Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney looks forward to leading his team ahead of their game against Georgia Tech on September 13, 2025 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

From where? Because their opinions don’t really matter to every organization in the long run. If you haven’t noticed by now, there has been an increase in the number of coach firings by schools in the last two years.

In this day and age when so much money is spent on rosters and infrastructure on college campuses, their job is to put them in position to be a playoff contender.

College coaches only carry so much weight in the grand scheme of things

Leave the business side to athletic directors and presidents who pray that the football program is successful enough to continue generating enough money to keep them in contention.

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Do you think former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward took advice from Brian Kelly on whether other teams should be added to the field?

Both are now out of work and have amassed significant buyouts in the process. I don’t think Ole Miss athletic director Keith Carter is basing his own idea of ​​playoff expansion on Lane Kiffin’s advice. The same can be said for many schools across the country, such as Indiana, Ohio State or Notre Dame, just to name a few.

Now, I can tell you that when the SEC decided to expand its conference schedule to nine games per season, many school administrators asked their coaches for input on how that would affect their playoff chances.

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But that’s it.

This is also another reason why you’ve seen SEC coaches publicly discussing the expanded format recently; as many were under the assumption that additional conference play, even if it meant 16 teams, would equate to some form of playoff expansion.

Ohio State head coach Ryan Day yells at his team during the first half of a game against Rutgers on Nov. 22, 2025 in Columbus, Ohio. (Jay LaPrete/AP)

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But this era of college athletics has led to coaches being on a shorter leash, given the amount of money being poured into sports that actually turn a profit. So, while athletic directors will certainly listen to the head coach, their opinions will only carry so much weight in the long run.

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So Dabo Swinney was right. Although he is considered and admired as a successful coach in the sport, his opinion will not be the reason for future expansion of the College Football Playoff.

This decision, now increasingly being debated in hotel ballrooms across the country, will be the responsibility of those tasked with making the best decisions for each school and conference.

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As other conferences in college football come out in favor of adding 12 teams to the fray, the pressure on the SEC to move to 24 teams will only increase from here on out.

And while the noise will certainly grow, it will come down to two conferences controlling the future.

The battle between the Big Ten and the SEC rages on as others begin to ramp up the volume of their ideas.

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