West Virginia University football coach Neil Brown is among those across the country who feel the college game needs to address changes in the system. (Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com)
MORGANTOWN – When West Virginia football coach Neil Brown sits in the chair at his desk in his office, which overlooks the field at Milan Puskar Stadium, he sits there in the middle of whatever chaos is in front of him.
It’s a red folder that contains his team’s current depth chart, a list of high school recruits they think will sign this week, a list of what they’re seeking to join those recruits with potential transfer portal players they’re pursuing and his own scholarship list.
“December,” notice, “It’s a busy time. It’s very fluid.”
He’s preparing for a bowl game, recruiting high school kids and transfer portal potential, both from other schools and still on his list, and figuring out his own needs and who can meet them.
Is it any wonder he’s joined UCLA coach Chip Kelly and who knows how many others calling for college football reform? Unlike Kelly, he doesn’t yet have an answer for what this review should be, but he knows it’s necessary and the more time goes by without it, the worse things get.
“I’ll put it this way… our game has a lot of problems.” He said that Sunday afternoon at his pre-Duke’s Mayo Bowl press conference. “The product is still great. People will tune in to these bowl games and they’ll have high ratings. The CFP will still have high ratings. It’s one of the sports with the highest viewership, if not the highest. But we have some issues and we have to solve them.”
You can find numbers that contradict Brown’s assessment of TV ratings. In 2006, the Rose Bowl game between Texas and USC set a record with a 21.7 rating and 35.6 million viewers. The last CFP championship, Georgia’s 58-point blowout over TCU, was the lowest ever with an 8.7 rating and 17.22 million viewers.
They are so broken up that in many ways they are starting over.
“think about it,” Brown said. “We have a professional model but we still work with an academic calendar. The two worlds are very different. We have to come up with some solutions. I don’t have one right now.”
Brown offered one situation as an example.
“Think about the quarterback leaving the Texans (Malik Murphy). He had to make the decision to leave in the middle of the CFP and I get that. He’s trying to secure a new home.” Brown said.
“Talk about December” The coach continued. “You have people coming into the portal and you know your roster numbers. I’m sure, after the bowl game, we’ll have more. I don’t know how much. The assumption is we’ll have more.”
“So, trying to figure out the exact number of high school players that should be selected and the exact number of gateway players that should be selected are moving targets at all times. Now, you add a second transfer window to this, you’re basically saying everyone is a free agent every time It opened the gate.
“good luck.”
Brown’s immediate attention is more on the calendar, the transfer portal and the lack of anything.
“I will say this as well. I think fans suffer because of it, but for the general public, it’s not a problem because the product is still good.
“Nobody gives in if coaches’ lives suck. We get good compensation and all that kind of stuff, but it’s not a good process. We have to figure something out.”
Chip Kelly saw UCLA move to the Big Ten. It’s a logistical and scheduling nightmare, and a huge step away from what college football is supposed to be. His plan is to scrap everything we have now and completely revise college football.
“I think football should be separate from other sports.” He said.
It’s what Brown said Sunday about the situation West Virginia University is in while he’s a member of the national conference. Maybe this applies to football, but not to other sports.
For me, football has kind of become its own entity. Who are we kidding? We’ll be sending our football team to Arizona for a midweek game. Let’s go. “There are some real issues.” Brown said.
Kelly’s plan is radical, but he created it using Notre Dame as an example of how to play football on your own.
“Well, Notre Dame is independent in football and they’re in a conference in everything else.” He said. “I think we should all be independent in football, and you can have a 64-team conference in the Group of Five, and you can have a 64-team conference in the Group of Five.”
Here’s how to imagine it. Teams will have a seven-game slate against natural opponents — in his case, their PAC-12 peers. In the case of West Virginia University, there will be Eastern foes such as Pitt, Penn State, Maryland, Virginia Tech, Cincinnati, Louisville and Virginia.
Teams can have one rivalry game outside of those seven games to maintain their rivalry aspect – USC and Notre Dame, for example.
Other matchups will come from facing, say, Eastern teams in one year, Southern teams in another year, Midwest teams in another year, in addition to your seven regional games.
Kelly also envisions a national television contract, not five negotiated by five leagues, something along the lines of an NFL deal.
In this, he sees an opportunity to sell sponsorships to help create a path to achieving this “Revenue sharing” In order to pay players’ salaries.
“Not that I’ve really thought about it, not that I’ve spent a lot of time, but I think if you came together as a group and said there are 132 teams and we share the same television contract, there wouldn’t be a Mountain West that we don’t have one and the Sun Belt is another , and the SEC, we’re all going together. That’s a lot of games and there’s a lot of people in the TV world that are going to play it.
“You can sponsor each one of them. Instead of calling it the Group of Five or the Power Five, you can call it Amazon, or Nike, or whatever. You can do a lot of things.”
Obviously the details have to be worked out, but the fact that such a radical plan is being discussed tells you we are in an era of screaming for relocation.
“I think it needs to be done, this money should now be shared with the student-athletes and there should be revenue sharing and the players should be paid and you can get away with (nothing). Schools should be paying the players because the players are what the product is, and the fact that they don’t Getting paid is really the biggest farce.
To be sure, change — big change — is on the horizon, but it won’t come under the umbrella of the NCAA.
College coaches are constantly seeking ways to improve the current system, and West Virginia University’s head football coach Neal Brown is among those interested in making significant changes. With a focus on bettering the overall experience for student-athletes, coaches like Brown are pushing for reforms in areas such as player compensation, transfer rules, and athlete representation. As the conversation around these issues continues to gain traction, it’s clear that college coaches are eager to see positive changes implemented for the benefit of their teams and the entire collegiate sports landscape.