As conference realignment and the rise of name, image and likeness have brought sweeping changes within the college football landscape, Maryland coach Mike Locksley feels that the sport should take it a step further an institute a salary cap.
Pointing to the Big Ten’s $7 billion TV rights deal signed last summer, Locksley suggested using that money to supplement programs’ recruiting efforts on Wednesday, and that the league should adopt a similar structure to the NFL.
“We signed a billion-dollar TV deal in the Big Ten,” Locksley told RJ Young of Fox Sports. “Let’s take $25 million out of that and give it to every school and say, ‘That’s your salary cap. That’s what you recruit with. You manage it how you see fit,’ which is very similar to what the NFL does with their salary cap.”
Locksley believes that incorporating such a drastic approach would go a long way in creating parity in a sport that’s long been rife with financial inequities.
“I’d like to see us go to that salary cap, where everybody has the same money to pay a player and we don’t have these big gaps between the haves and have nots,” Locksley said. “Let’s really see what college football’s all about when we’re playing all with the same type of restrictions or the same type of resources.”
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Locksley hopes to continue to elevate Maryland’s program, especially with the addition of USC and UCLA joining the Big Ten in ’24, the same year that Oklahoma and Texas will enter the SEC.
But as the transfer portal, NIL and collectives continue to affect recruiting within college football, Locksley believes that the players need to be the priority.
“If you continue to study the way college football’s gonna go, the people who have been able to raise money the most are the guys that have opportunities to win championships,” Locksley said.
