Kyle Whittingham Shares Fascinating Prediction For Future Of NCAA Football

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham recently shared his thoughts on the state of college football realignment and where the NCAA is heading.

And it represents a fascinating potential picture of how NIL and realignment could impact the NCAA model going forward.

Whittingham believes that there will be "massive changes, super conferences" in the not-so-distant future. "It's going to be unrecognizable from what it is now," he said." Eventually, he believes those super conferences will split off from the NCAA entirely, and "govern themselves."

What that means in practice is that they'll have "their own commissioner, they'll have presidents...They'll be like a minor league NFL."

Whittingham said he thinks college football has to head that direction because it's the only way "they'll get the NIL reigned in because until they're employees, there's no way you can regulate NIL unless Congress does it."

That's a fascinating possibility in its own right, but Whittingham takes it one step further.

He believes that college athletes won't actually have to attend schools to play in the new "minor league" NFL.

"You'll be affiliated to wherever, but you won't have to go to class and be eligible. You're a minor league football player and you can go to school, but you don't have to."

SALT LAKE CITY UT - NOVEMBER 12: Kyle Whittingham, head coach of the Utah Utes, watches warmups before their game against the Stanford Cardinal at Rice Eccles Stadium November 12, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Chris Gardner/ Getty Images)

Will Whittingham Be Right About The Future Of NCAA Football?

Just a few years ago, this scenario would have been a complete impossibility.

But with the dramatic and near instantaneous changes brought on by NIL and realignment, it's suddenly no longer so far fetched.

The NCAA, as least where football is concerned, seems to be growingly increasingly irrelevant. And the lack of NIL regulation has been seen by some as unsustainable.

Whittingham's version of a "minor league" NFL may not be as close to reality as he believes it, given the unimaginable difficulties of this type of arrangement. But when one of the game's most respected coaches at a major conference believes this is where the game's heading, it's hard to argue.

There are so many intriguing, confusing possibilities that'd result from moving to a professional model, it's hard to know where to start. Would there be a salary cap? Trades? Would eliminating academic requirements make the sport even better? How would recruiting work?

Where there's enough money, there's a way. And if Whittingham's right, we might not have to wait long to find out.