Dabo Swinney continued to express his disappointment in ACC officiating. Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images

Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney doubled down on his recent officiating complaints in a news conference on Tuesday. During a two-minute rant, Swinney voiced frustration that referees aren’t held more public accountable.

“We have gambling issues going on, people being suspended, all the kind of stuff right,” Swinney said. “I mean refs are people too. It ain’t just coaches and players, and if they’re a part of the game, then by god, they got to be a part of the game, and they got to be a part of the accountability. They got to be a part of the consequences not just behind some shadowy curtain.”

Swinney was already fined $10,000 on Sunday by the ACC for critical postgame comments on a late pass interference call in the Tigers’ 46-45 loss to Duke last week. The Tigers (3-5, 2-4) are en route to finishing with their worst record since 2010 under the 17-year head coach.

This pass interference call cost Clemson the game. Thoughts? pic.twitter.com/gw3qvo3yxF

— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 1, 2025

“I don’t even really know what to say about the last call,” Swinney said. “Y’all saw it. It shouldn’t come down to that. We had plenty of opportunities to win the game, but that’s one of the worst calls I’ve ever seen in a game ever in my entire coaching career.”

During his lengthy statement on Tuesday, Swinney went on to explain the process for reporting missed calls to the ACC. He said the conference only allows coaches to submit 10 calls per game, and for one unspecified game he wanted to submit 14.

“Five of the 10 were wrong,” Swinney said. “I mean these are game-changing calls, obvious pass interference, not called, that takes you off the field. We just get, ‘This will be addressed with the crew’ and yada yada yada. But there’s no public accountability … the system needs to change. There needs to be challenge opportunities, and we need full-time officials if we’re going to have these types of stakes.”

The longtime Clemson coach isn’t the only one frustrated with ACC officiating in recent days. Miami head coach Mario Cristobal ripped officials in a postgame news conference after the Hurricanes’ overtime defeat to SMU. Miami was called for a personal foul on fourth down during a key SMU drive, which eventually led to the Mustangs tying the game. Cristobal had called timeout, but his players were unable to hear the whistle.

“Marquise didn’t hear the whistle,” Cristobal said, per Dan Morrison of On3 Sports. “He’s just playing football. I’m not sure why that’s called in a critical situation. We’re trying to stop a play. It’s really loud. I imagine people should step in and prevent players from moving forward and finishing a play, but it didn’t happen. So, we were called for a personal foul.”

Miami has lost two out of three games, after previously reaching as high as No. 2 in the national AP poll. Its hopes of a CFP berth are now slim.

As their seasons have taken disappointing turns, Cristobal and Swinney are on the same page about one thing: they believe officiating has been subpar, and it has contributed to their respective group’s disappointing results.

Nov 5, 2025

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Jordy Fee-Platt is a Trending Writer for The Athletic. Before joining The Athletic, Fee-Platt was the Broadcasting and PR Associate for the Hudson Valley Renegades, High-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. He has also been a writer and editor for Hoops HQ, a college basketball website. Jordy is a graduate of Arizona State University’s Cronkite School, where he covered Phoenix pro sports, including the 2023 World Series. He hails from San Francisco, CA. Follow Jordy on Twitter @jfeep