Mack Brown endorses changes to pay college players: 'We should have paid players forever'

In his second retirement, Mack Brown has been an active voice in the college football space. Recently joining Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram and Rob Stone on the Triple Option Podcast, he voiced his opinion on the current state of NIL and the transfer portal.

Even though we’re in the rev share era of college athletics, not all concerns have been addressed, and Brown is offering solutions to how to improve NIL. He even provided examples of ways athletes can better benefit from the current state of college athletics. Still, he wishes it had been around a bit sooner.

“We should have paid players forever,” Brown said. “Urban (Meyer) and I got $15 a month. Mark (Ingram), was a super player. He should have gotten a lot of money when he played — and what happened was the universities abused it. They took the money, the conferences took the money, and the players and the families didn’t get any. If we had given even a stipend for graduation, give Mark (Ingram) 150,000 when he graduates to get his life started. If we could have paid parents way to games, or we could have done something to help these families before it got to a point where it was just ridiculous.

“And then what we do, we panic. We get all the toothpaste out of the tube, and we make decisions. A lot of smart people that maybe didn’t have enough common sense made decisions that have bad consequences.”

Brown is worried that college athletes will get paid more from NIL while they’re in school, they’ll be at a disadvantage if they’re unable to turn pro and have to enter the real world. It would be a hefty pay cut that Brown believes could lead to bigger problems like homelessness and mental health issues.

“Right now, we don’t have any guidelines,” Brown said. “Then you get transfer portal — and the transfer portal and NIL at the same time are a disaster because that’s creates tampering.

“If a guy transfers one time, he’s got a 63% chance to graduate because a lot of his courses don’t transfer. If he transfers four or five times, he’s not going to graduate and he’s not going to have a home. He’s not going to have boosters that get to know their favorite players. He’s not going to get a job in that community when he gets out.”

As we enter the revenue sharing era, many questions and concerns still remain unanswered regarding NIL and the transfer portal. Brown sees this as one of the biggest issues facing college athletics today, and he’s not alone in his concern. Only time will tell how it eventually plays out.