Chip Kelly reveals five college football figures he wants to fix the sport

UCLA head football coach Chip Kelly grabbed some headlines on Monday following some comments he made regarding the future of college football.

From college football following an NFL model and separating from other collegiate sports, to revenue sharing with players, and even having brands like Nike and Amazon sponsor divisions, Kelly presented a list of potential changes to be made as the sport continues to evolve.

Kelly joined ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ on Tuesday and expounded on his ideas surrounding college football, proposing a five-person committee of people to solve the sport’s problems in the midst of what’s become a hectic month of December.

“When people talk about problems, and this stuff’s been going on forever, but I just think we need some smart people to just say hey, what are we doing and let’s do it and there are so many.” Kelly said.

“I think Gene Smith at Ohio State, who’s retiring, is one of the smartest people I’ve ever had a chance to talk to and I think he loves football. I would ask him if he could help. I think Greg Sankey is the premier commissioner right now, he has the most skin in the game, I would get him in there.”

The Buckeyes’ athletic director and the SEC’s commissioner start off Kelly’s committee, two strong choices who have their fair share of experience at the highest level of collegiate athletics.

But Kelly also wants some members of his committee with some hands-on experience, rounding out his five with three former coaches that are well respected in the college football landscape.

“And then I would also get coaches involved because I think coaches can tell you about what it’s like on the ground level, and really I think sometimes the coaches don’t have answers, and I think some there’s people like David Shaw, Chris Petersen, David Cutcliffe.”

“Take the five of those guys and put them in a room and then come out and tell us what we’re gonna do, and I would follow any plan those five guys could put together,” Kelly said.

December has become a chaotic month for college football head coaches across the nation who are tasked with preparing for postseason play, managing coaching staff turnover, managing roster turnover and recruiting with the transfer portal window opening, managing high school recruiting with the early signing day period, and steering through the new waters NIL which impact nearly every aforementioned task.

There’s no question that former coaches would put forth an effort to make the month of December more manageable for everyone and help make other changes to help guide college football through these unprecedented times. But when it comes to a current coach like Kelly himself helping make the big changes, he’d prefer leave the big decisions to his five-man roster of Smith, Sankey, Shaw, Petersen, and Cutcliffe.

“I’m an idea guy, I’ll throw ideas out there,” Kelly smiled and said. “But I’ve got a lot of work to do, we got meetings, football, all that other stuff.”