Brian Kelly on NCAA House Settlement: 'I Don't Think You Should be Complaining'

LSU’s Brian Kelly did not mince words when asked about the NCAA House settlement. At SEC Media Days, the 31-year-veteran told SiriusXM that he has heard his fellow coaches speak on the subject, and that “I don’t think [they] should be complaining about anything.”

It’s not that the House settlement is perfect right out of the box: Kelly admitted as much by saying that the up to $20.5 million in revenue-sharing between colleges and their athletes is “a first step” in streamlining how compensation for college athletes works. But the responses of LSU’s head coach are more thoughtful and less dismissive than these cautions imply, too.

As Kelly put it, “We are in the best place that we’ve been in a number of years. It’s the first step. We’re not at the end. I listen to some of our brothers over in the Big 12 complaining about where we are at. I was like, ‘I don’t think you should be complaining about anything.'”

While there are concerns regarding exactly how to implement the terms of the House settlement, and coaches like Colorado’s Deion Sanders have already called for a salary cap to limit spending for the larger, richer schools, Kelly believes that college football is in a good starting position. “I think we have some guardrails. We have some direction. Revenue sharing helps that.”  

Kelly was also clearly excited that players will now be in a position to afford to have their families along for the ride during their college athletics career: “I love the fact that the players are going to be able to get a piece of this. I think it’s great. They’re going to get their families to see them play every game. They’re going to put them up in hotels and have rental vehicles or leased vehicles. I think this is a great thing, but it’s the first step.”

The key takeaway from Kelly is that the NCAA’s past is over as of the enacting of the House settlement, and its future is opening up right now. It will be what the schools, coaches and players make of it, but that’s going to take time. There is room for improvement, and room to discuss, but just don’t let him hear you complaining about the state of things.  

“We’ve got some work to do. There’s no question,” Kelly continued. “I’m bullish on where we are. But 31 years of being a head coach, you have different cycles. We’ve lived through maybe a bit of the difficult part, but I like where we’re going.”

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