The subject was the continuing importance of the bowls outside of the College Football Playoff and Clemson coach Dabo Swinney had his perfect example.

He had taken a break from preparing for Notre Dame in Saturday's Goodyear Cotton Bowl and tuned in to the Texas Bowl on Thursday night. Swinney liked what he saw from Baylor's 45-38 win over Vanderbilt and coach Matt Rhule's reaction. After going 1-11 in 2017, Baylor rebounded to 7-6 this season, the second under Rhule.

"I watched Baylor win last night. And coach Rhule, man, that's what it's all about," Swinney said. "How pumped was coach Rhule? How pumped was he? How excited were those kids after the game?"

Swinney then asked reporters at the Cotton Bowl news conference Friday morning for the number of bowl games and was told 40.

"What's wrong with about 40 teams ending their season with a win and having a championship to celebrate in their own right?" Swinney said. "Because not everybody is going to have an opportunity to win the national championship. It's just not going to happen. So I love the fact that I can turn on the TV and watch Baylor and coach Rhule who's building his team, who just has had all this time to prep, extra practice, to go out and compete and to be able to celebrate a great moment. You know, as opposed to only one team walks away and is happy."

Clemson has reached the College Football Playoff in four straight seasons, although Swinney noted things will eventually change.

"We're not going to make the playoff every year. I'm just going to go ahead and news-flash everybody here," Swinney said. "So there's going to be a time where we're at whatever bowl. And we're going to love that. We're going to compete, and we're going to get our team better, and we're going to do the very best we can."