{"id":735195,"date":"2026-02-07T07:15:48","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/735195\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T07:15:48","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T07:15:48","slug":"kirk-herbstreit-reveals-three-step-plan-to-solve-really-big-problem-in-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/735195\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirk Herbstreit reveals three-step plan to solve \u2018really big problem\u2019 in college football"},"content":{"rendered":"

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 \u201creally big problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a really big problem in college football,\u201d Herbstreit told David Rumsey at Radio Row ahead of Super Bowl LX<\/a>. \u201cImagine if the NFL didn\u2019t have Roger Goodell, but the AFC South had a commissioner, the NFC South had a commissioner, the AFC East had a commissioner\u00a0\u2013 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\u2019s what we have in college football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat Tony Petitti in the Big Ten are looking at, he\u2019s worried about Champaign, Illinois; West Lafayette, [Indiana]; Columbus, Ohio; Ann Arbor, [Michigan]. And then, if you think about the SEC, Greg Sankey, he\u2019s worried about Starkville, Miss. You think he\u2019s worrying about Evanston, Ill.? No. He\u2019s worried about his constituents \u2013 his presidents, his ADs, his coaches, his players. And he should be. But we don\u2019t have anybody governing the sport from a national perspective. Until we do, we\u2019re kind of spinning our wheels.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Kirk Herbstreit: \u2018We need to create a CBA\u2019<\/p>\n

Through Kirk Herbstreit\u2019s 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<\/a>. That, in turn, would allow the Group of 6 to have a playoff of their own \u2013 similar to FCS, Division II and Division III.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust create a new level, which would be the Power Four, and then let\u2019s put a new governing body,\u201d Herbstreit said. \u201cLet\u2019s 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\u2019s the only way.<\/p>\n

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\u201cIf we don\u2019t go there, I just don\u2019t know how people aren\u2019t going to threaten to sue. \u2026 We\u2019re 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\u2019t think that, \u2018Hey, why are you doing this to my guy?\u2019 So they threaten litigation, and everybody backs up. Until you have an agreement and a CBA, I just don\u2019t know how we\u2019re ever going to come to an agreement with the players \u2013 and the agents and the parents\u00a0\u2013 with the new governing body. We need to create a CBA.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an ever-changing era in college football, Kirk Herbstreit sees the need for change. He has a three-step…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735196,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[22583,331,18073,7,10667,49,48,6,1902],"class_list":["post-735195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-cba","tag-college-football","tag-commissioner","tag-football","tag-kirk-herbstreit","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-nfl","tag-roger-goodell"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116028125205241645","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735195","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735195"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735195\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735195"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735195"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735195"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}