Sonny Dykes: College football needs 'adults to be adults,' enforcement to have 'teeth'

TCU coach Sonny Dykes knows college football needs to have adults in the room and enforce the rules, especially in the age of NIL. He referenced the new partnership with Deloitte, which is supposed to manage NIL deals across the sport.

The biggest point Dykes tried to make was that college football needs parity and that the sport is better off with it. The NFL has plenty of teams that can ultimately win it all each season and Dykes wants college football to have that ability.

“I think right now, you know, obviously college football has partnered with Deloitte, and what Deloitte is going to do in terms of assessing real NIL, and what that’s going to mean and okay, so what happens if you violate that,” Dykes said at Big 12 Media Days. “What’s going to be the cost of doing that and all the things? There’s so much passion around college football right now that you’re going to have people, you’re going to have boosters, you’re going to have fans, you can have people that you know want to break rules. I mean, that’s been part of the game of football for forever … 

“I think finally now we have a system, or we’re developing a system that is supposed to help provide some guidance in that. And my hope is that Deloitte, that they have teeth that the NCAA provides them with an opportunity, or college football provides them with an opportunity to, you know, to help manage these things, because college football is better when there’s parity. That’s what makes the NFL Great. There’s 16, 18, teams right now in the NFL that probably have a legitimate chance to go to the Super Bowl and win the championship. You know, that’s more than 50% of the league. Is that the case in college football? No, it’s certainly not.”

Sonny Dykes all for parity in college football as long as their enforcement of rules

Dykes argued the parity movement in college football. He does not want the rich to get richer, as has happened recently in college athletics.

“And we need to have as much parity in the game as we can possibly have,” Dykes said. “And the only way that you can do that is by having revenue sharing, which we finally have, but then also controlling the NIL money that is made on top of that. So my hope is that they do that. My hope is that that system is developed at a very high level, operates at a high level, punishes people that need to be punished and results in college football becoming even better, because the game is great.” 

The game of college football is great as it is. But as Dykes pointed out, it could always be better by rectifying some holes in the machine.

“I mean, it’s a great time for the game of football right now. As I said, the players are being compensated,” Dykes said. “The players have freedom to make decisions that’s going to benefit them and their families. It’s about time that they’ve had those, it’s resulted in some awkward situations for all of us involved in the game, but I think it’s where it needs to be, and I’m really, really excited about the future of college football. 

“I really believe in the game. I believe in the players. I just, I want the adults to be adults, and I want us to operate within the framework of the rules, and I want us to do what is best for the game and what’s best for the kids and and we need to have that mentality as we move forward.”