Dabo Swinney was in an embracing mood Friday.

Speaking inside Bank of America Stadium ahead of Saturday’s ACC championship bout, Clemson’s coach was asked about his opinion regarding expansion of the College Football Playoff, which became official Thursday. Starting with the 2024 season, the playoff will triple from four to 12 teams.

Swinney has publicly opposed expansion in the past, citing the tradition of the sport, player safety and the idea of less end-of-season motivation as some of the reasons he’s been against it. Yet he’s also said his team would deal with whatever postseason format was in place should the Tigers find themselves back in the CFP in the future.

He reiterated that stance Friday.

“We’ve got one more year of a Final Four, if you will, and then it goes to 12. We’ll all embrace whatever changes come with that,” Swinney said. “There’s always unintended consequences, and we’ll embrace that. And you keep moving forward. I’m excited about it and look forward to whatever comes with it. But it doesn’t really matter what anybody thinks about it.”

Clemson, winners of two CFP titles, made six straight playoff appearances before the streak was snapped a season ago. With two losses and a No. 9 ranking heading into Saturday’s conference championship tilt with No. 23 North Carolina, the Tigers won’t be part of the CFP this year either regardless of what happens this weekend.

But the Tigers would be squarely in the mix if the 12-team format was in effect this season. Under the new format, the six highest-ranked FBS conference champions and the next six highest-ranked at-large teams will make up the CFP field. The four highest-ranked conference champions will receive byes and await the winners of the first-round games, which will be played on campus. The first batch of opening-round games will be played Dec. 21, 2024 — two weeks following conference title games that season.

Expansion will add at least one more game to the schedule of CFP teams that already play a minimum of 12 before the playoff rolls around. For non-bye teams that advance to the CFP final, that means four more games, which makes for a 17-game season for any such teams that also played for a conference championship.

Swinney said last year when the idea of a 12-team playoff was initially introduced that his players weren’t all that enthusiastic about the possibility of playing a longer season. On Friday, though, Swinney said he and his program are welcoming the new reality of the sport.

“It doesn’t matter what I think,” Swinney said. “It doesn’t matter what anybody’s opinion is because it’s reality. Just embrace it and keep moving.

“It’s happening, so all that matters is let’s move forward.”