It’s been six months since Dabo Swinney publicly accused Ole Miss of what he called “blatant” tampering to pull transfer linebacker Luke Ferrelli away from Clemson. Half a year later, Swinney says he still hasn’t heard anything back, despite handing the NCAA what he described as a timeline, evidence and receipts.
Speaking Thursday at the ACC’s preseason media days, Swinney said he has no regrets about pointing the finger at Ole Miss coach Pete Golding and general manager Austin Thomas, and he doubled down on his call for real accountability around what he sees as “rampant” tampering across college football.
“We’re probably gonna need some congressional help for that,” Swinney said. “There has to be some type of order put in place. The tampering is a problem. So there needs to be consequences or you just say to heck with it, don’t worry about it, and let’s just call it like it is — the wild, wild west.”
His pitch for fixing it wasn’t shy about teeth. Swinney floated fines, suspensions and even firings as the kind of penalties that might make programs think twice.
“There is lots of things that can be put in place,” he said. “[Tampering] is rampant because there hasn’t been consequences and I don’t know there has been much fear of consequences. So you’ve got to get some order.”
Ole Miss hasn’t gone quietly on the accusation. Golding pushed back in April, saying there are “two sides to every story” regarding Ferrelli — who transferred to Ole Miss just 20 days after starting classes and team meetings at Clemson in January. Ferrelli had spent last season at Cal before his original move to Clemson.
The frustration isn’t confined to Clemson. Back in March, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey called the NCAA’s tampering language “archaic,” though he stopped short of asking the organization to pause its investigations, arguing instead that the rules need to catch up with the new landscape. On the ACC side, commissioner Jim Phillips this week encouraged coaches and administrators to go public if they spot potential tampering.
Several ACC coaches have Swinney’s back on this one. Louisville’s Jeff Brohm didn’t hedge.
“I agree with Dabo,” Brohm said. “He should have been upset. To me that type of tampering shouldn’t happen. It goes back to there needs to be more guardrails. There needs to be a system in place where there’s consequences for doing things you’re not supposed to do, and that’s not in college football right now.”
Brohm tied it to the Protect College Sports Act, the bill many lawmakers and athletic leaders see as the best shot at stabilizing college sports. It cleared a key Senate vote in June after weeks of input from schools, conferences and athletes, and it’s now waiting on a House vote. Tampering is one of the many areas it aims to address.
“It may not be perfect for everyone, but I’m all for it,” Brohm said. “I think it’s important that we do something to try to help the game overall and then make adjustments along the way. Until there’s consequences for cheating and tampering, people will continue to skirt the edges.”
Not everyone thinks a rulebook will change much. Syracuse’s Fran Brown was skeptical that any policy stops the programs determined to operate in the shadows.
“Some people just gonna be certain ways,” Brown said. “There’s still crime in America, right? It’s just certain things that you’re not gonna ever be able to stop.”
As for the silence from the NCAA, Swinney says it doesn’t bother him and he’d do it all again, criticism and all.
“They don’t owe me an update,” he said. “I did my part. The NCAA, ask them for an update. No idea.”
