During an appearance on Greg McElroy’s Always College Football podcast, Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney made some unprompted comments regarding Notre Dame while admitting Clemson has a disadvantage with its NIL budget compared to top programs.

“We’re 3-1 against Ohio State. We’re 4-2 against Notre Dame. Notre Dame has their own TV station, they make their own rules, they print their own money,” Swinney said. “They got a money machine in the backyard.”

National sports personality Dan Patrick clearly has an issue with Swinney’s comments about Notre Dame and what he said about playing against teams that have more resources than Clemson does.  

“If you’re good enough to beat everybody, then what’s the complaint?” Patrick said. “And by the way, guess who had nine players drafted this year? Fourth-most nationally, most in the ACC, and they went 7-6 [in 2025]. So, let’s be fair — you had nine players drafted, and you won seven games. That has nothing to do with Notre Dame or Ohio State.”

Clemson made six consecutive College Football Playoff appearances from 2015-20, but the Tigers have made the playoff only once since then, and Patrick called out Swinney himself for his program’s decline in recent years.

“The problem is, you were beating those teams a while ago. You were 7-6 last year. Now, has he done a great job? He did a great job at Clemson. Is he doing a great job? No, not now,” Patrick said.

“You used to beat [these teams], so what changed?” Patrick continued. “You weren’t embracing the transfer portal to begin with. I don’t know what kind of resources you have, but I can’t blame Notre Dame for doing what Notre Dame is doing or what Texas is doing or USC is doing or Michigan is doing or Ohio State is doing. You’re the one being left behind. We said that with the transfer portal. We said that about NIL. Dabo didn’t want any part of that, and I’m thinking, ‘You are a dinosaur, man.’ And we know what happens with dinosaurs, certainly in the college ranks.

“But now he’s easing back in because he knows that he needs to. But if you have nine guys drafted [in the 2026 NFL Draft], you win seven games [in 2025], I would look inside. I wouldn’t be looking at other programs and saying, ‘Well, that’s not fair. Notre Dame gets to print money.’ OK. ‘Well, that’s not fair, Ohio State gets to…’ OK, they’re not breaking any rules.”

Patrick added that Swinney’s Notre Dame comments were just “strange.”

“It was kind of a strange comment there. … And Dabo has done a wonderful job,” Patrick said. “It’s just, I don’t know if he’s sending out the message he wants to send. Because you’re telling me you’re beating these great teams, powerhouses, so what’s the problem? You. I’ll start with you. You won seven games. You lost six games. You lost at home to Syracuse. Like, good luck.”

Despite admitting his program doesn’t match the NIL budgets of some other top schools, Swinney says Clemson still has “enough” talent and resources to compete at the highest level.

“The more things change the more they stay the same,” Swinney said. “Now, it is just different [in how it is done]. We do not have the same NIL budget as some places have. We do not have some of the same built-in resources from an alumni base and all of that type of stuff.

“We don’t but guess what? We never have. But you know what we do have? We have enough. We got enough. We just have to be good with what we have.”