CHARLOTTE — Brad Brownell has experienced a lot of success at Clemson since the landscape shifted with the advent of NIL.

The longtime head coach has been masterful at navigating this new landscape of college athletics, which includes using the transfer portal to supplement his roster. In fact, some of the Tigers’ most impactful players in recent years were portal additions, including Joe Girard, Viktor Lakhin and Jaeden Zackery.

However, the landscape might be on the precipice of another major shift, with the Protect College Sports Act recently being passed by the Senate. For the bill to get formal approval, it will now have to pass through the House of Representatives.

While it certainly doesn’t guarantee passage, the bill currently has a lot of support. If it were to become law at some point, Brownell isn’t quite sure what kind of impact it would have on his program.

“I just don’t know what it is going to do to the NIL and rev share,” Brownell said at the ACC Tipoff. “You talk to other basketball coaches right now, and there are a lot of basketball coaches that are not recruiting high school kids nearly as hard, Clemson being one, just because we really don’t know what our cap’s going to be next year. What’s it going to look like?”

Just the possibility of it becoming signed into law is already impacting how Brownell is recruiting the high school ranks.

“Retention of the guys on our roster is still going to be the most important thing,” Brownell added. “The early signing period, you are using money on guys you are not sure are going to be able to crack your top eight, and the guys you want to get on the high school market are expensive. That is a lot of money to get them.”

Brownell is about to enter his 17th season as head coach at Clemson. He has a 316-207 all-time mark at the school and is the all-time winningest coach in program history. He has guided the Tigers to six appearances in the NCAA Tournament, including making in four of the past six seasons. He led Clemson to the Sweet 16 in 2018, as well as a magical run to the Elite Eight in 2024.

Brownell is No. 1 in Clemson coaching history in terms of winning percentage against ACC competition, and his 158 regular-season wins over ACC teams are the most-ever in program history.

Now, the head coach is entering what feels like unchartered territory. And the current questions surrounding the PCSA are only making it more challenging when it comes to roster construction, especially when it comes to high school recruiting.

“It is a little different than the last couple of years, with where it was going. Now, it feels like you are just not sure, because of things like the College Sports Act,” Brownell said. “So I think it has affected that, and I think it has affected all of us in terms of trying to plan and organize your roster, so it is almost like sometimes you are just waiting around, which is hard for us to do as coaches. We want to go out and sign guys and do our jobs, but that is not always the smartest thing. You don’t sign your eighth, ninth and tenth player at the expense of having money for your top three players. That is a juggling act we are working through.”

– Photo courtesy of Nell Redmond/ACC Communications