Ohio State football fans, Dabo Swinney wants you to know it’s not personal.
The Clemson coach didn’t rank the Buckeyes 11th on his coaches ballot because he believes there are 10 better teams.
He didn’t say Ohio State shouldn’t be in the College Football Playoff because they’re not good enough.
Swinney knew the heat he’d take for his comments that many Buckeye fans – and probably some coaches and players – view as disparaging. But he believed he had to be true to himself. He voted Ohio State 11th, five spots lower than any other coach, because he believed that no team that played fewer than nine games should be ranked in the top 10.
“To me, right is right,” Swinney said Monday morning in a Zoom press conference previewing Friday’s College Football Playoff semifinal against the Buckeyes in the Sugar Bowl. “It's not always easy to do the right thing. I absolutely knew that I would be the poster child for whatever.
“I could probably run for governor of Michigan and might have a good chance, but I'm probably not very popular in Ohio. But I don't live my life that way. I'm not going to say, ‘Well, let me let me put them here (higher in the rankings)' and do something that I absolutely don't believe in.”
He said his vote was strictly about principle, that he would have done the same thing on the ballot for any other team with Ohio State’s resume. The same logic applies to his contention that a team that played more games should have been selected for a playoff spot over Ohio State.
“I just don't think it's right that three teams have to play 13 games to be the champion and one team has to play eight,” Swinney said. “If people have a problem with that, I don't really care. It's my poll. … That was just my standard that I put in place, and I wasn't going to change that (to be) politically correct in trying to appease people.”
Swinney’s view has apparently changed since mid-September. Then, he didn’t appear to take issue with the possibility that the CFP selection committee might select a Big Ten team that played fewer games than other teams.
“Shoot, in a year like this, no,” Swinney said Sept. 16. “It’s a crazy year. Who knows how many games anybody is going to have? You have some of the best teams and coaches in that league. It’s not their fault. They’ve worked their butt off.”
Swinney said his recent criticism about Ohio State’s selection isn’t personal. He said that three years ago he ranked the Buckeyes ahead of Alabama, his alma mater, on his last ballot.
Clemson beat Ohio State 29-23 in last year’s CFP semifinal at the Fiesta Bowl, a defeat that still stings the Buckeyes. Now, as they were then, the Tigers are favored. Clemson has never lost to Ohio State in four meetings, three under Swinney. The Tigers beat Ohio State 40-35 in the Orange Bowl seven years ago and shut out the Buckeyes 31-0 in the CFP semis four years ago.
Swinney said his team will have to play better than it did last year against the Buckeyes.
“They can beat us by two touchdowns,” he said. “They’re plenty good enough to beat us. They're good enough to win at all.”
Even if, to him, they shouldn’t have been given the opportunity to do so.
brabinowitz@dispatch.com
@brdispatch
No. 3 Ohio State vs. No. 2 Clemson
When: 8:45 p.m. Jan. 1
TV: ESPN
Radio: WBNS-FM/AM (97.1/1460)
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