College football programs have been in an arms race for what seems like forever.

In the past, schools used to strive to have the best facilities, all the amenities and the highest recruiting budgets, among other things. These days, it’s all about how much money you can invest in your roster. Not just the $20.5 million revenue share money teams are allowed to distribute, but also the over the cap NIL money.

In an interview with On3’s Chris Low, Clemson AD Graham Neff went into detail regarding what kind of financial commitment it takes to have success in today’s landscape.

How much money players are being paid is something schools try to keep under wraps, but Neff did reveal what Clemson had invested in a 2025 team that turned in an extremely disappointing 7-6 season. He also provided a ballpark number for what will go into the 2026 roster.

“It’s all shadow boxing because the contracts don’t have to be disclosed,” Neff said. “But if you’re going to be in the game, have a chance to win it all, you’re probably somewhere in that range. I think 30 (million) is the number this year, plus or minus. My sense is last year it was around 20, and we were 22 last year. History would tell you that next year it might be 40 or 50.”

However, if Clemson has in the ballpark of $30 million devoted to this year’s team, that’s a pretty big spend. It’s not the $35-40 million that other schools like LSU, Miami, Texas, Texas A&M and a few others are rumored to be spending, but it would almost certainly rank the Tigers amongst the Top 15-20 schools in the country.

At the same time, according to Dabo Swinney, it’s not just about how much you spend, but also about how you spend it.

For example, Neff also disclosed that Swinney was informed that the money was there to go shopping for a quarterback in the transfer portal, but the head coach was happy with the quarterbacks already on the roster and decided to stand pat.

Instead, Swinney decided to invest heavily in retooling his defense, which did not live up to the standard in the first year under coordinator Tom Allen. Clemson added 11 players from the portal, with 10 of them coming on the defensive side of the ball.

It’s the most active Swinney has been in the portal to date, yet he still prefers to build through the high school ranks and use the portal to plug holes.

“We’ve got to be smart, got to be strategic,” Swinney said. “You’ve got to put your roster together the right way. You’ve got to pay the right guys. You’ve got to retain the right guys. We’ll use the portal to fill gaps, and maybe that’s because a high school player decommits or maybe you’ve got a high school kid that the money just gets to a point where you say, ‘If you’re going to have to pay that kind of money, let’s go pay a guy that you’ve seen play in the SEC, the Big Ten or the ACC that you know he’s ready.’”