Brian Kelly thinks college football without a salary cap is “just absolutely crazy.”
The LSU football coach — who was once a popular name floated for NFL vacancies — compared the new landscape of college football in the NIL and transfer portal world to the pros during an interview Friday with Mike Golic on the “Dan LeBatard Show.”
He drew a parallel between the contracts awaiting LSU-produced likely top-10 draft picks Jayden Daniels and Malik Nabers within the NFL rookie wage scale and what he faces in college recruiting.
“Look, Jayden Daniels, Malik Nabers, they’re all looking for that rookie signing bonus,” Kelly said, according to YardBarker.com. “You know, we’re out there recruiting seniors in high school. They’re looking for that freshman signing bonus. The transfer portal, he’s looking for a free-agent bonus. And then the guys on your roster, they want retention bonuses. So, look, it parallels. NIL money is broken down into the three categories that the NFL is paying out, and we’re doing the same thing. Unfortunately, we’re doing without a salary cap and that’s where it makes it just absolutely crazy.”
Of course, Kelly, who jumped from Notre Dame to LSU in 2021, didn’t mention anything about a salary cap on coaches or coaching staffs.
Coaches getting paid whopping sums while “amateur” college athletes played for free was part of the impetus behind NIL.
Kelly signed a 10-year, $95 million contract with LSU in 2022.
National powerhouse LSU’s “problems” also pale in comparison to the have-nots trying to compete in the NIL world.
“You just don’t know what the numbers are from year-to-year,” Kelly said. “So, you know, college football is in a great place. We know there’s a lot of money. The problem is nobody knows what this is going to look like in a couple of years. And if anybody does, please let me know. But we just have to figure out how to cap this so we can move forward.”
Kelly said that he needs to be armed with an answer to “How much?” when he visits a recruit at home these days.
The focus used to be on “taking care of my kid.”
“Look, this is my 33rd year, and my why is player development, and developing players, and the relationships with players,” Kelly said. “And I can tell a parent, ‘I can help develop your son to be a better husband, a better father, better technically and tactically. I can develop him as a football player. I can help him graduate. I don’t know what he’s worth. I don’t know. I don’t know what that number is. I can’t give you that.’”