Mack Brown had a chance to reflect on his long collegiate coaching career during Monday night’s Davey O’Brien Awards dinner in Fort Worth. He also offered his thoughts on how he would fix some of the issues surrounding college football.
When asked how he would approach a hypothetical where he was the commissioner of college football, Brown emphasized that protecting young athletes should be at the forefront. The former Texas coach’s initial response appeared to focus on the sport’s current NIL-focused landscape.
“[My] plan’s going to be, No. 1, we’ve got to take care of the kids. Because we’ve got 18- and 19-year-olds and we’re treating them like they’re NFL players. So we’ve got to be careful,” Brown told Sportsradio 96.7 FM/1310 The Ticket (KTCK-AM). “We’ve got to get a sustainable model of alignment and a strategic plan for money because we didn’t have a plan. We have no guidelines. So we need collective bargaining, we need salary caps. We need to pay kids and we need to have some body in place to help them with what to do with your money. How to pay taxes, worry about mental health.
“Then we’ve got to get the transfer portal straightened out because the absolute NIL and transfer portal colliding was a disaster. You’ve got to get people, agents to quit calling people during the season on your team and trying to buy them off your team.”
Brown gave some insight into some of the NIL-centric issues he faced in his last year at North Carolina. Brown admitted the program had a $4 million NIL budget to work with in 2024, which led to a change in his recruiting model. The former head coach added that he’s concerned that an immediate plan for a salary cap doesn’t exist yet.
Brown left the North Carolina football program at the end of last season.
Along with his NIL thoughts, Brown expressed concern over how teams competing in this year’s College Football Playoff will have their break shortened before spring practices ramp up. Although the Playoff recently expanded to include 12 teams, the idea of moving up to 16 participants has made regular appearances in the news cycle.
“I don’t think we can keep playing 15, 16 games with these young guys. They’re affected at the end of one semester, they’re affected at the start of another semester,” Brown said. “I do believe, coaches, they’re just beaten down, they’re tired. And they don’t have a break.”
Listen to the rest of Brown’s thoughts on the state of college football here.
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