Mack Brown blasts current state of college football: 'Amateurism is gone. We're the mini-NFL'

College football looks nothing like it once did back in 1973 when the coaching career of Mack Brown started. All those changes, especially since the beginning of this decade, now leads him to see it somewhere between what it was before and what the pros are today.

Brown spoke about the changing landscape of collegiate athletics while at the desk during ACC Media Days in Charlotte on Thursday. He said there have been more shifts in the 2020s than in his other 40-plus years in the sport at this level.

“There’s been more changes in my last three years than my first 47,” said Brown on ACCN. “Somebody said today, ‘Why don’t you write a book about your first day at Appalachia and now the way things have changed?’ I said, ‘Some people have to die first’ – we couldn’t say all the things.”

Still, this is how things are now. Most notably, players can make money off of their name, image, and likeness while they can also move around freely for the most part within the transfer portal.

With that being the case, Brown knows all he and other coaches can do is pivot and continue to do it quickly.

“We’re dealing with things we’ve never dealt with before,” Brown said. “The people that can adjust and make it work are going to be the ones that have the best programs.

“It’s not ideal for any of us. None of us voted for it but it’s here. Amateurism is gone. We’re the mini-NFL. So now we’ve got to figure out how to handle it.”

There was a point for the near 73-year-old, though, that he second-guessed having come back to the game in 2019. However, it was his wife that showed him the silver lining of how he could transform and in turn be an asset to all those around him at North Carolina.

“I’m sitting there one day and I’m pouting. I said, ‘Sally, I should have stayed in TV. What am I doing? I don’t even have a team. I don’t know if we’re going to play. We can’t practice. This is just ridiculous! I can’t believe we’re doing this,'” recalled Brown. “She said, ‘Maybe you’re supposed to come back and help these kids because you’ve coached your whole life. These kids may not get another chance to play and these seniors may lose their senior year. So maybe that’s what you’re back for? Maybe you’re back to help college football learn how to handle this because athletic departments are going to cut a bunch of sports and there’s not going to be money unless we play college football on TV.’

“She said, ‘Maybe you’re supposed to help these coaches. You’ve got enough money. Your assistant coaches don’t. What are they going to do if they don’t get to play? Maybe you’re supposed to help the state. There’s a lot of people in the state that can’t eat. They’re losing their jobs,'” she continued said Brown. “I said ‘I got you!'”

It’s incredibly difficult to alter yourself when you’re as deep in your career as someone like Brown. Even so, he knows he has little other choice with what other programs are achieving by embracing the changes.

“Instead of griping about it, they’re going to win most games,” said Brown at the podium today. “That’s just what you do as the structure of college football changes and moves forward.”