Jay Bilas predicts coaches' salaries will soon be capped following House settlement

The House settlement provided college athletics with a decent framework to work within going forward, but much has yet to be determined. And there could still be big changes coming. Could coaches’ salaries be capped?

That’s precisely what ESPN analyst Jay Bilas suggested on Thursday during an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. He was in the middle of a discussion about NIL when he made a somewhat bold prediction.

“The one thing I think that maybe people aren’t thinking about is if Congress comes in and they’re going to limit the players, they’re not going to let the coaches make the kind of money they’re making,” Bilas said, referring to coaches’ salaries. “They’re going to say, ‘All right, you get a cap now too.’

“So, head coach at Alabama, you’re not getting $12 million while the players are getting limited. You’re going to be limited, too, and we’re going to limit things across the board and make things a little more sane. I think that’s a reasonable possibility that that could happen.”

One of the biggest arguments in favor of the players having more freedom to transfer was the fact that coaches can often move without penalty from one school to another (buyouts aside). But now, compensation as an additional factor to consider?

Is it reasonable that college athletics could begin to cap coaches’ salaries? Bilas certainly thinks so.

He also believes the carousel has not stopped spinning when it comes to NIL and NIL-related changes. He still sees some major shifts coming in the next few years, even though the NCAA is now better positioned post-House settlement.

“I think it puts them in an advantageous position to be able to marshal more resources to acquire better talent, absolutely,” Bilas said of schools. “And that’s kind of the thing now, is people are going to have to make decisions. This current system with the $20.5 million cap under the House settlement is only going to last for a certain amount of time. Like, there’s no way this lasts for longer than four or five years, at the most.

“All this does is give the NCAA a chance to — it gives them some time to breathe without getting challenged in court, so that they can come up with a long-term solution, whether that’s collective bargaining, I think that’s one option. Try to collectively bargain with the players where you can get to a number everyone is satisfied with. Or go to Congress and basically say to Congress, ‘Look, you told us to get our act together. We settled this case. We paid past damages and we’ve got this framework. Take this framework and settlement and make it law so that you can help protect us.'”

Could part of that legislative agenda revolve around coaches’ salaries? We’ll have to wait and see.