Oklahoma State head coach Mike Gundy doesn’t like the way college football is heading, and it has nothing to do with the Cowboys’ two straight losses to ranked opponents.
This is a big-picture thing; with that mindset, it’s hard to argue with Gundy. Expansion has wiped out conferences — RIP Pac-12 — and the introduction of NIL has made it so players can be promised millions of dollars before they even step foot on campus (if the program ends up paying out). Not only that, but the transfer portal has been kicked wide-open, making each offseason feel more and more like NFL free agency than student-athletes making important college decisions.
It’s a mess, and Gundy thinks someone needs to be there to oversee it all.
“It’s a simple process. College football needs a commissioner,” Gundy said in a recent news conference (h/t On3). “And if it’s one of the four guys, now, if it’s the guy at SEC commissioner, I don’t care, we need a commissioner. And then we need the Power Four, Power Five if we go back to it. Those commissioners are under them. And then we need a football oversight rules committee that is going to enforce the whatever rules that we say there are whether that is recruiting, NIL, salary cap, employment agreements, transfers, whatever those rules are, and they need to follow the NFL model.”
Saying that the NFL is the model college football should follow will upset purists, but it has always been a big business. The only thing that’s different is that all the money being exchanged is out in the open, now.
Still, Gundy is right, there has to be some kind of way to oversee everything and keep the sport from devolving into chaos. Who would do it?
One option would be the recently retired Nick Saban, per Gundy. North Carolina’s Mack Brown, a legendary longtime coach who is still getting after it, would be another option.
“You know, Coach Brown in North Carolina when he retires, Coach Saban, that’s your football commissioner. That’s Roger Goodell for us, in my opinion. Because he knows what he’s doing, he gets it,” Gundy said.
Without question, either man Gundy mentioned would be a great college football commissioner. Whether Saban or Brown, for that matter, would want the job and the stressors that would come along with it is another question entirely, though.
