With the summer months approaching, Dabo Swinney is preparing for some big changes.

The House Settlement is expected to be finalized as soon as this week, and with that comes a new revenue-sharing model that will turn college athletics on its ear. It is expected to go into effect in July.

For the first year, that money is capped at $20.5 million, with each school being able to decide how to distribute it. Clemson plans to devote a large majority of that money to football. As much as any school in the country, something that should be a game-changer for the program.

“I think we are well-positioned,” Swinney told The Clemson Insider, who is at the ACC Spring Meetings for the 13th consecutive year at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island. “I think it is going to create some order where there has been no order. We really have had very few rules, and whatever rules there were, they either changed them or nothing happened.”

On top of that, expectations are that NIL will be more heavily regulated, with a third party being put in place to oversee all deals.

More structure should mean a more level playing field, and anyone caught skirting the rules is expected to be held accountable under the new guidelines.

“There’s been no budget, there’s been no cap,” Swinney added. “Not any type of just order. I think the rev-share is going to be a great thing for all involved, and it will create some order. And there is going to be a third-party entity created that is going to regulate and have some consequences. There is a lot that is coming with this.”

“So, the NIL won’t go away, but the NIL is going to have to meet a standard. There will be a clearinghouse for that. There are a lot of good changes coming.”

However, this new landscape presents a whole new set of challenges. Many college programs are now set up more like an NFL organization, including Clemson, with Jordan Sorrells now serving as the General Manager. Part of his job is determining who gets what, and with the Tigers having so much production from last year’s team, that was no easy task.

“The main thing is, it’s a cap,” SWinney said. “There will be some consequences to that, because you can’t sign everybody. It is what it is. For example, this year, obviously, we have very veteran tackles. We have an elite senior receiver in Antonio (Williams). We got some really good young talent that is proven. We have a quarterback back, who is a high-level guy. We got a couple of high-level corners. It’s no different than the NFL. You have premium players at premium positions, things like that.”

Swinney has always believed in rewarding production. The best players tend to play, regardless of class. And with this new model, Swinney still plans to reward production on the field. A very productive senior, who might have been a former three-star talent coming out of high school, might very well earn more than a five-star freshman coming out of high school.

“It is also going to reward more performance than potential, and that is what I believe in. I believe in performance. That is real life. I think what has happened in college football the last few years really hasn’t had anything to do with performance. That has allowed a lot of kids to get manipulated. A lot of kids to make some bad decisions. That is sad to me. We have just kind of stayed the course with what we believe in, the core of who we are, so it will be a very smooth transition for us. Because we just have a different process as far as how we evaluate.”

At the same time, working on a budget also means you can’t sign everyone. There will still be recruiting misses and players transferring out.

“You will lose some kids, like we always have. You will get some,” the head coach said. “I mean, I think we have done ok. We still got these elite players even when this chaos was going on. Because there are a lot of people out there who really align with who we are and understand the bigger picture.”

Despite moving to this new model, Swinney fully believes culture still sells. However, he also knows that in this new era, a program has to offer more, and he expects Clemson to be able to offer as much as anyone.

“We have a great model at Clemson, and all I know is nobody is going to have more money for football than Clemson,” Swinney said. “They may have more money with the TV contract, but they are not going to have more money that they can rev-share. We’ve always had the money, just couldn’t use it. You had to go raise money. That creates a lot of challenges. So, I think it is a great thing, and hopefully it gets resolved soon, and we can kind of step into the next era, if you will.”