<\/p>\n
Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian walks into the stadium ahead of the Citrus Bowl against the Michigan Wolverines at Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida, Dec. 31, 2025.<\/p>\n
Sara Diggins\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n
Texas A&M football<\/a> coach Mike Elko<\/a> has joined a club that includes Nick Saban, James Franklin and even the American-Statesman’s Cedric Golden.<\/p>\n Talking in an interview about a range of topics,\u00a0Elko became the latest person to advocate for a college football commissioner.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “Put somebody in charge,” he told\u00a0On3’s J.D. Pickell in a video posted Tuesday<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Elko explained that college football is lacking a voice to make decisions for the “betterment” of the sport. A singular person or office should make\u00a0rules to improve the game and enforce them.\u00a0<\/p>\n “Until we get that, I think we’re all at risk of this thing not lasting like we want it to last,”\u00a0Elko said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko walks off the field after the loss to Miami in the round one College Football Playoff game at Kyle Field on Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025 in College Station, Texas.<\/p>\n Aaron E. Martinez\/Austin American-Statesman<\/p>\n Why would college football need a commissioner?<\/p>\n A slew of changes have rocked the world of college sports, specifically football:\u00a0the\u00a0House Settlement over the summer<\/a> compelled schools to allocate its revenue from sports to the athletes directly; the players’ ability to be paid for of name, image and likeness; increased player movement via relaxed transfer rules. Some of these decisions came from Congress or were forced upon the NCAA.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Several high-profile names in the sport have called for the\u00a0NCAA to put someone in charge to lead on these matters. Elko indicated that someone is needed to represent the interests of all programs, not just the individual conferences.<\/p>\n Some believe the current setup is untenable.<\/p>\n “We used to have contracts for coaches and players, that define your academic responsibilities, when can you transfer and what’s your obligation to the school… if you really don’t support that, you are kinda supporting a little bit of an anarchy which is what we have now,” former Alabama head coach Nick Saban said Dec. 6<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The coach-turned-ESPN analyst suggested there be two commissioners, one to oversee the conferences and a “competition committee that defines the rules of how we are going to play the game.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Saban was the name Statesman’s columnist Cedric Golden<\/a> floated for the role last year. He said the inaction of current leadership was “inexcusable.”\u00a0<\/p>\n “Players have always gotten paid, but now that salary demands and bidding wars are becoming more public, the powers that be need a leader who will bring some levity \u2014 hell, some sanity to an issue that may destroy the game as we know it,” Golden wrote. “… Saban saw this coming years ago, and now that we\u2019re here, it will take someone like him to get things back under control.”<\/p>\n Golden asked current Texas football<\/a> coach Steve Sarkisian about that possibility.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201c(Saban is) sharp enough and definitely everybody will listen to him if he decides to do it,” he said\u00a0of his former boss.<\/p>\n MORE: After a 1-year break, Longhorns will again host a spring game<\/a><\/p>\n James Franklin, another head coach who’s made the College Football Playoff,\u00a0previously said\u00a0Saban was the “obvious choice” for such a role.<\/p>\n Nick\u00a0Saban,\u00a0or someone else, for commissioner?<\/p>\n In September, Franklin explained the need for a commissioner. The new Virginia Tech coach explained how someone with coaching and media experience can help college football based. He used annual American Football of Coaches Association meetings as an example.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019d have a coach that one year, was in the SEC and had very strong opinions on what we should be doing for college football. And then, the next year, they\u2019re in the Big 12 and have totally different opinions and we\u2019re supposed to be doing what\u2019s best for college football,\u201d he said on SiriusXM College Sports Radio.<\/a><\/p>\n USA Today columnist Blake Toppmeyer<\/a> suggested UT athletic director Chris Del Conte<\/a> after he shared new ideas about college football at his town hall. Golden last month\u00a0also indicated that former Texas coach Mack Brown<\/a> would be good for the role.<\/p>\n There have been no discussions on what a commissioner would look like by the NCAA or if it is something association leadership, or the conferences, would consider. For his part, Elko didn’t offer up and names or suggestions. He had a simple message to finish up his point on the topic.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “Most people believe that someone should be in charge of things,” Elko said with a smile.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas Longhorns head coach Steve Sarkisian walks into the stadium ahead of the Citrus Bowl against the Michigan…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":761247,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,8518,49,48,8342,50339,7212],"class_list":{"0":"post-761246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-mike-elko","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-nick-saban","13":"tag-texas-a-m-aggies-football","14":"tag-texas-am-aggies"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116094190373249949","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761246","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=761246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/761247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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