The Clemson Tigers have lost the battle for this year’s college football national championship. But they hope to win the coming war.
The arms race is well underway for college football programs, and Clemson is on the front lines.
The new “athletic facility” being built for Clemson’s football team will include laser tag, a movie theater, bowling lanes and a miniature golf course. And if not for Clemson’s student government, a student fee would have helped foot the bill.
It has been described as a theme park, and head coach Dabo Swinney loves to gush about his new crown jewel. It comes as Clemson is ramping up their entire budget for football.
They spent almost twice as much as USC did for recruiting from 2009 to 2013. Their assistant coaches are the third highest-paid staff behind LSU's and Alabama's. And the price tag for their new facility has soared to $55 million.
Swinney’s chief of staff makes $252,000 a year. Let that sink in for a moment.
Clemson clearly has dreams of not only competing with Alabama on the field, but off the field as well. They want to be known as a big-time football school, and they are clearly willing to pony up the dough to get there.
Which would be fine, if they were being honest about it. “Clemson’s never gonna be Ohio State,” Swinney said when discussing his budget. “But we’re not trying to be Ohio State.”
There's also the painful reality that "Clemsoning" is still a possibility. Clemson just cannot win the big games, no matter how much money they spend.
Now don't get me wrong, USC is certainly a football-crazy school. But I think we have our priorities mostly in line as far as academics and athletics.
For all the jokes and slights we may make about Clemson, they are a quality academic institution. They should resist the urge to build theme parks for their athletes and channel some of that energy and funding into education.