Name, image and likeness has completely changed college sports as student-athletes can now earn money while competing in college, turning the recruiting world upside down.
North Carolina mack brown head coach not a fan
Head coach Mack Brown of the North Carolina Tar Heels runs onto the field for the ACC Championship game against the Clemson Tigers at Bank of America Stadium on December 3, 2022 in Charlotte, NC (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)
«We are the NFL. We are the mini nfl«Brown told Sports Illustrated» It’s like the NFL. That’s where we’re headed. We will never see amateurism again. He went away. I hate it. I thought that’s what we are, what college football is.
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«Now, we’re a farm league for the NFL with a lot of NFL programs. We’re moving toward an NFL model.»
Brown, who at 71 is the oldest coach in the FBS, is preparing to enter his fifth season as head coach at North Carolina.
He has been the head college football coach since 1985, including a non-coaching stretch from 2013-2019.
Brown has seen it all during his time in the game, and he’s frustrated with the current model NIL that has created a «pay to play» atmosphere in recruiting.
North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Mack Brown during the San Diego County Credit Union Holiday Bowl against the Oregon Ducks on December 28, 2022, at Petco Park in San Diego. (Jordon Kelly/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
«Cheaters cheat. People who used to give incentives still do. It’s just called NIL,» says Brown. “That stupidity that ‘you don’t pay to play’. What are they paid for? They don’t get paid for anything. It is what it is. I wish we would stop hiding behind NIL.»
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Brown believes athletes should be compensated as part of a «salary-cap» system and that the NCAA should be divided into divisions along revenue-generating lines.
«We all have to come together. I wish our leadership was more of a group,» Brown told SI. “We have decision makers who make decisions for the whole. You can’t make the same decisions for Division II as you do with the Power 5. We’re doing that, and it’s not working. Even FCS. Even the Group of 5. There isn’t that much money. We need to separate the divisions.»
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Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban and offensive line coach Eric Wolford during a game against the Mississippi Rebels on November 12, 2022, at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi. (Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Brown isn’t the only major head coach to take issue with the current NIL model. Nick Saban from Alabama made it clear in March that he sees flaws in the current NIL system.
«The problem is that when you create those [collectives] for individuals, are you establishing a kind of pay-per-play environment that can be used in recruiting? So now all of a sudden kids aren’t going to school where they can create the most value for their future,» Saban told Sports Illustrated. “The boys go to school where they can earn more money. I don’t think that’s the best for the player.»
There has been an increase in calls for a more structured way of regulating NIL, with US Senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Joe Manchin, DW.Va., announcing their intention to draft legislation to regulate NIL in August.