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Bob Stoops, a former college football head coach who won a national championship at Oklahoma and the current leader of the United Football League’s Arlington Renegades, called for a commissioner to lead the sport.
Stoops said in an interview with 92.3 The Fan that the current college football model as it relates to coaches is “not sustainable” – a similar sentiment that has been echoed across the sport’s landscape over the last few months.
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Head coach Bob Stoops of the Sooners celebrates the 48-20 victory against the Connecticut Huskies during the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl at the University of Phoenix Stadium on Jan. 1, 2011, in Glendale, Arizona. (Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
“It’s a pro model right now with college football. It’s a pro model. So the NCAA isn’t governing it,” he said. “We need to have a commissioner. We gotta have salary caps on what you can spend. You’ve gotta have contracts, on and on. I don’t see how you cannot if it’s going to continue this way.”
Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban was on Capitol Hill with lawmakers earlier this month to talk about the NIL era in college sports. He suggested it contributed to his decision.
Head coach Bob Stoops of the Arlington Renegades during the Vegas Vipers GAME at Choctaw Stadium on Feb. 18, 2023, in Arlington, Texas. (Sam Hodde/Getty Images)
“All the things I’ve believed in for all these years – 50 years of coaching – no longer exist in college athletics,” Saban said when asked by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, if the “current chaos” in college sports led to his retirement. “It always was about developing players, always been about helping people be more successful in life.
“My wife even said to me – we have all the recruits over on Sunday with their parents for breakfast. She would always meet with the mothers and talk about how she was going to help impact their sons and how they would be well taken care of. She came to me right before I retired and said, ‘Why are we doing this?’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘All they care about is how much you’re going to pay them. They don’t care about how you’re going to develop them, which is what we’ve always done. So why are you doing this?’
Former OU QB Baker Mayfield talks with former head coach Bob Stoops during the spring game at Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium on April 23, 2022, in Norman, Oklahoma. (Brian Bahr/Getty Images))
“To me, that was sort of a red alert that we really are creating a circumstance here that is not beneficial to the young people, which is why I always did what I did. My dad did it, I did it. So that’s the reason I always like college athletics more than the NFL, because you had the opportunity to develop young people.”
Fox News’ Scott Thompson contributed to this report.
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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.
