In an ever-changing era in college football, Kirk Herbstreit sees the need for change. He has a three-step plan to fix what he called a “really big problem.”

Herbstreit, speaking with Front Office Sports, called for a commissioner for college football as well as collective bargaining with the players. Then, he said the Power Four conferences should break away and form their own league.

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Herbstreit compared the current landscape to the NFL, where Roger Goodell is the commissioner for every team. In college, every conference has its own commissioner, which is where the ESPN analyst said things get murky.

“We’ve got a really big problem in college football,” Herbstreit told David Rumsey at Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LX. “Imagine if the NFL didn’t have Roger Goodell, but the AFC South had a commissioner, the NFC South had a commissioner, the AFC East had a commissioner – all the way around. And you asked them all to get on the same page, meanwhile they all have their own goals, their own agenda. That’s what we have in college football.

“What Tony Petitti in the Big Ten are looking at, he’s worried about Champaign, Illinois; West Lafayette, [Indiana]; Columbus, Ohio; Ann Arbor, [Michigan]. And then, if you think about the SEC, Greg Sankey, he’s worried about Starkville, Miss. You think he’s worrying about Evanston, Ill.? No. He’s worried about his constituents – his presidents, his ADs, his coaches, his players. And he should be. But we don’t have anybody governing the sport from a national perspective. Until we do, we’re kind of spinning our wheels.”

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Kirk Herbstreit: ‘We need to create a CBA’

Through Kirk Herbstreit’s plan to transform college football, the Power Four would effectively break away in a model similar to the FBS and FCS. He argued the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC should go on their own and potentially have their own version of the College Football Playoff. That, in turn, would allow the Group of 6 to have a playoff of their own – similar to FCS, Division II and Division III.

But regardless of the postseason, Herbstreit joined the chorus of voices calling for collective bargaining in college sports. Given the amount of litigation the NCAA is facing, most recently a slew of eligibility lawsuits, he said a collective bargaining agreement would prevent those issues, which largely surround antitrust law.

“Just create a new level, which would be the Power Four, and then let’s put a new governing body,” Herbstreit said. “Let’s put a commissioner. If we need to unionize the players to allow them to create a CBA to avoid the antitrust laws, make the rules, come to an agreement like the NFL does on both sides. I think that’s the only way.

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“If we don’t go there, I just don’t know how people aren’t going to threaten to sue. … We’re having a hard time making definitive answers that we, in the sport, know are for the best intent. But maybe the players or the agents don’t think that, ‘Hey, why are you doing this to my guy?’ So they threaten litigation, and everybody backs up. Until you have an agreement and a CBA, I just don’t know how we’re ever going to come to an agreement with the players – and the agents and the parents – with the new governing body. We need to create a CBA.”