Mack Brown has been a coach in college football since the early 1970s, so he’s seen many things change and evolve.
The North Carolina head coach, who won a national title with the Texas Longhorns, is not a fan of the game’s current state.
Despite never having coached in the NFL, the 71-year-old thinks the college game is now just another version of professional football.
“We’re the NFL. We’re the mini-NFL,” said Brown to Sports Illustrated this week. “It’s just like the NFL. That’s where we are headed. We will never see amateurism again. It’s gone. I hate it. I thought that’s who we are, what college football is.
“Now, we are a farm league for the NFL with many NFL programs. We are headed toward an NFL model.”
At the heart of Brown’s concerns is NIL, which he thinks allows certain schools to cheat. The coach, who makes $5 million a year, also doesn’t like that money for student-athletes has proliferated in the billion-dollar sport.
“Cheaters cheat. People who used to give inducements are still doing that. It’s just called NIL,” Brown says. “This stupid thing about it’s not pay-for-play. Why are they paying them? They’re not paying them for nothing. It is what it is. I wish we would stop hiding behind NIL.”
Brown said he thinks the logical solution is to break up Division I between the powerhouses and major programs and the ones that won’t be able to keep up.
“We’ve all got to get together. I wish our leadership would be more of a group,” he says. “We’ve got people making decisions that are making decisions for the whole. You can’t make the same decisions for Division II like you do the Power 5. We’re doing that, and it doesn’t work. Even FCS. Even Group of 5. There’s not as much money. We need to separate divisions.”
