We sat down with Clemson University Athletic Director Graham Neff ahead of the ACC's Spring Meetings. Hear what Neff had to say about several topics surrounding Clemson athletics.
On Brad Brownell’s future if Clemson doesn’t make the NCAA Tournament:
"I never view it and haven't it in the past, I know, I've certainly had letters and such, but, you know, it's just not that, that black and white. There's so much that goes into the evaluation of where the program is at and also, importantly, where the program's headed. I think we see that right now, we're here in mid-May-- kind of gone through the transfer portal-- we just announced earlier this week, the additions on the men's side. I think a lot of excitement there. You see ESPN's bracketology, for whatever that's worth, which is kind of next to nothing here in May, but they have the Tigers as like a No.9 seed. So no doubt, there's the evaluation and what's kind of what's been achieved, from a head coach or from a program, but then also there's the level of 'Hey, where are we at? What's ahead? What's the trajectory of the program?’
On the transition to bring in Garrett Riley from TCU:
"A lot of excitement there. It was a really difficult and because of that really sensitive transition there with Brandon Streeter. I know how we were able to roll that out between Dabo and our board and the actions there and how that news-- you know, we really put a lot of time into that, so to speak, to try to sequence that really appropriately for all parties involved for Brandon and the Streeters for Garrett and the Rileys for Clemson for our leadership and the football team. So how that transpired I think went about as well as you could hope for, and they don't always go that way. Right? So clunky and things get out. So it was pleased with how we were able to execute that."
On trying to keep up with the SEC and the Big 10:
"A couple of things, I'd say-- one is, we were hit with the economics of the ACC-- the distributions to Clemson from the ACC, which has been equal to all the other full members of the ACC right? Equal slices of the pie and that's something that I've talked on. Our league has trailed the SEC and Big 10 in distributions for years-- for probably decades. I'm not saying anything that's not known or hasn't been reported before and we've been able to compete. You look at the success. You look at the national championships-- certainly in football. So much of that's been driven-- and this is part of your point by IPTAY, by our donors, by our tried-and-true, seat-equity, been IPTAY members for decades-- fifth generation, right? Certainly, major gifts are important and facility growth-- we've been able to compete because of football and because of the Swinney guy is pretty good and return on investment there. There's a lot of decision-making of why we've been able to compete, it's just that the issue is in the not-too-distant future that order of magnitude of the gap or the distribution shortcoming-- it takes on a different order of magnitude. So it's going to be really difficult as we look at the economics to invest comparatively how we've wanted to invest. I guess that's the way I'll phrase it. So that's what we talk about a lot, look at, and are being very strategic and thoughtful about how we approach the business and approach our investment towards expectations."
**Listen to the full interview between Lawton Swann and Clemson Athletic Director Graham Neff above.
