Mack Brown: ‘We’re Going to Have to Get Something Like a Salary Cap’
Former Texas and current North Carolina head coach Mack Brown has been around the college football game for a long time, so his opinions matter and hold weight. And he’s not shying away from providing a major one, stating that college football and the National Football League are now virtually one and the same.
“We’re the NFL. We’re the mini-NFL,” Brown told SI’s Ross Dellenger. “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 71 years old and just four months away from 72, Brown is the oldest active FBS head coach. He’s spent time as a head coach twice in Chapel Hill, this the fifth year of his second stint, in addition to being the lead man at Texas and Tulane. But he indicated he’s frustrated with some of what’s occurring now with the state of collegiate athletics and name, image and likeness (NIL) to foster a “pay-for-play” product, he told SI.
“Cheaters cheat. People who used to give inducements are still doing that. It’s just called NIL,” Brown said. “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.”
Indeed, it’s a changing landscape. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to be happy about it, and the former longtime Texas coach sure doesn’t seem to be.
