Brent Venables shares his stance on college players possibly having contracts

Oklahoma head coach Brent Venables expects big changes to continue to come to college football over the next several years.

He was recently asked if one of those could be schools signing players to multi-year contracts to ensure that they don’t transfer out after a year or two. Venables isn’t sure if that could happen in the future or not.

“I don’t know. There’s pluses and minuses to all of it,” Brent Venables said. “At some point in time, there’s going to be something that’s equitable. Players are going to get everything that they deserve. Because they’re not getting it right now. And that day’s coming. I know that. And when it does, things will probably, to some degree, be a little more equitable for everybody that’s competing within the same rules.”

Venables added that the best thing for college football might be for Power 5 conferences to break away from other FBS schools. That is a suggestion that Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney, who Venables used to work for, has also had.

“Whether there’s two different divisions in college football, those things are all probably very real,” Brent Venables said. “The toothpaste is out of the tube, and they’re going to need to do something to give a little better guardrails for everybody – players and coaches alike.”

He doesn’t believe that the current college football model is sustainable or fair for players or coaches. As things stand, players are entering the transfer portal as their team is preparing for a bowl game.

Coaches are having to try to manage rosters, finish off their signing class and recruit players from the portal.

“The timeliness — it’s very difficult,” Brent Venables said. “If you look at the NFL model, in the NFL, they don’t have free agency before the Super Bowl. Can you imagine the playoffs and free agency’s going on? And that’s what’s going on. We’ve got to clean that up. It’s not good for anybody.

“But they’re not asking me. And then right now, we’re treating the last game of the season like it’s the first game. It’s kind of wild. But anyway, I don’t know what all the answers and solutions are. You try to adapt and adjust and do the best you can. And you try to continue to stay in your lane and not allow the extenuating circumstances change who we are and the things we value.”

Brent Venables and Oklahoma will finish off their season in the Alamo Bowl against Arizona on Dec. 28.