On Sunday, the ACC issued a public reprimand of Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney for violating the ACC Sportsmanship Policy following the Tigers’ 46-45 loss to Duke on Saturday at Memorial Stadium.

Additionally, the league announced that an institutional fine of $10,000 has been issued to Clemson as a result of the violation.

Per the ACC press release, Swinney’s postgame comments regarding the officiating were in direct violation of the ACC Sportsmanship Policy that states: “Public criticism of officials or public comments evaluating the officiating of particular contests is not in the best interest of intercollegiate athletics. Individuals associated with the athletics program are prohibited, therefore, from commenting while acting in an official capacity on officiating other than directly to the Conference office.”

During his weekly Sunday evening Zoom call with the media, The Clemson Insider asked Swinney about the ACC fine and reprimand, and he gave his reaction to it.

Swinney doubled down on his previous comments about the officiating.

“I just stand by what I said,” Swinney said. “It is what it is. We just have to agree to disagree. There’s a lot of accountability for coaches and a lot of accountability for players, but I don’t think there’s much for refs. There should be some type of — especially a call like that — there should be some type of ability to challenge a call like that. It was very, very frustrating.”

Swinney reiterated that he doesn’t think the pass interference call is why the Tigers lost.

“Again, as I said last night, I don’t blame that on the loss,” he said. “That play could have won the game, and it would have been great for those guys who have overcome so much crap to win the game. But I stand by what I said. We just have to agree to disagree. They don’t want us talking about refs, so you you have to call them and ask them about it. But I do think there should be more accountability and I think there should be the ability to challenge a call in such a critical situation.”

Swinney said in his first year as head coach in 2009, the ACC suspended four refs after a game due to bad calls.

“But that was a different era, different regime,” Swinney said. “I’m not going to tell people how to run their shop, but I can have an opinion. Again, we just gotta agree to disagree.”

During his postgame press conference Saturday, Swinney didn’t hold back while discussing the pass interference call that was made in the final minute of the Tigers’ loss to the Blue Devils.

It appeared the Tigers had the game won with 43 seconds to play, but the back judge called Avieon Terrell for pass interference while covering Duke’s Que’Sean Brown on a fourth down-and-10 play from the Clemson 18. Instead of a Clemson victory, Duke scored one play later, then added a two-point conversion for the one-point win.

Swinney blasted that defensive pass interference call, which prolonged the game and gave Duke a first down inside the 5-yard line.

“I don’t even really know what to say about the last call,” Swinney said. “Y’all saw it. It shouldn’t come down to that. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game.

“But that’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in a game, ever, in my entire coaching career. Ever. In a situation like that… I don’t really know what else to say.”