College Football Hall of Famer Mack Brown, who was once head coach at Texas and North Carolina, won a national championship with the Longhorns in 2005. Now he compares NIL to “cancer,” discussing what he says is happening to the sport. 

Brown made the comparison on The Triple Option with Urban Meyer and Rob Stone.

"It's growing in so many wonderful ways, like Urban said, but we've got some cancer on there. We got to cut it out," Brown said, directing the comment at Meyer during the show's July 22, 2026 episode.

Brown has a strange annoyance with NIL spending and transfer portal usage. To him, NIL spending, transfer portal movements, and recruiting have combined to create endless bidding wars for players, and with no cap on salaries, no revenue-sharing, and no NCAA rules, it's easy to see why.

"We can't play politics. This is our game. This is about these kids. It's about mental health. It's about graduation. It's about a game that we're passionate about and we've loved forever. We can't just sit here and let it die," Brown said on the same episode.

Attempts to regulate the system are fought in courts, while coaches have to continuously fundraise just to have a competitive roster. For example, Georgia filed a lawsuit against former edge rusher Damon Wilson II, and sought $390,000 in damages after he signed a contract, entered the transfer portal, and enrolled at Missouri.

According to Brown, instability is a particular concern for players most affected. This is not the first time that he has raised issues about NIL.

"We get all the toothpaste out of the tube, and we make decisions. A lot of smart people that maybe didn’t have enough common sense made decisions that have bad consequences,” he said last year in another episode of The Triple Option podcast.

Meyer took the opportunity to outline potential solutions to the issues that arise in a system that is beginning to engage a lot of players and is ignoring the foundations of the sport, like collective bargaining and revenue sharing.

The NIL debate wasn't the only sensitive issue that Brown discussed in this appearance.

Mack Brown has no regrets about North Carolina exit

Brown has no regrets about leaving the North Carolina Tar Heels in 2024. During the July 22 episode of The Triple Option, Brown discussed the end of his coaching career and has zero of the negative feelings about the end of that chapter in his life.

"Success is always the best revenge. Go do something to help people. Don't sit around and talk bad about others." Brown said in the same interview.

He has every reason to go after his old program. Brown coached two periods at North Carolina, accumulating 113 wins along with four bowl games. He wanted to keep coaching after 2024, but he was forced out after he said he would not resign.

Two years have passed, and yet the debate has not fizzled out on how Brown should not have been fired.

“UNC should’ve never let Mack Brown go,” CBS analyst Danny Kanell wrote on X on July 26. “If they stuck with Mack Brown and gave him the resources they gave to Bill Belichick the Tar Heels would be top third of the ACC worst case. Instead they are at the bottom and probably looking for a coach in a year or two.”

Removed from head coaching, Brown is still grabbing attention with his views on the college football situation.

Share your thoughts on Brown's take.

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Written by

Abhay Bharti

Edited by

Soheli Tarafdar