When Kyle Whittingham was named Michigan’s new head coach, the school leaned into it as boosters stepped up. That might sound like a good foundation to rebuild the program in 2026. But by March, he wasn’t celebrating the system because he sees a lot of wrong in the current CFB NIL system.
“Well, it needs a complete revamping,” Kyle Whittingham said in his conversation with On3’s J.D. PicKell when asked what he’d like to change in college football. “I mean, you can’t just do one thing. I think it needs a complete overhaul. Where we are is not sustainable. NIL is becoming out of control.”
Kyle Whittingham’s arrival in Michigan comes right as the sport fully steps into the revenue-sharing era that was born out of the House settlement in June 2025. Now, schools can now cut checks directly to players, NIL collectives are still pumping money into rosters, and the line between college and pro football has become thinner than ever. And to make the whole thing even wilder, he dropped a number.
“I think you’re going to see half a dozen or more teams in the next recruiting cycle,” he added. “‘27 have $50 million plus rosters. And it just can’t continue. And so we’ve got to rein it in.”
NEW: Michigan’s Kyle Whittingham tells @jdpickell what he would do to fix college football:
“I think it needs a complete overhaul.
NIL is becoming out of control. I think you’re going to see half a dozen or more teams in the next recruiting cycle with $50M+ rosters.” pic.twitter.com/IxFaLr0ysg
— On3 (@On3) March 26, 2026
The biggest concern here with the number is that if a handful of programs in 2027 are set to operate at $50 million, the rest are just existing. Not every program is subject to Texas-level wealth and Kyle Whittingham knows exactly where that road leads. But the irony is that this is all happening after rules were put in place to stabilize things.
Under the current structure, schools can share up to $20.5 million directly with athletes. There’s even flexibility now as an extra $2.5 million can be used, albeit with a 20% penalty. But it became fuel rather than establishing boundaries because NIL money is still flowing and turning recruiting into a scenario where players are chasing the bag more than fit and development.
“I don’t have the exact plan or the exact model,” Kyle Whittingham said. “But I know something that resembles an NFL minor league is probably a good starting point is trying to get a salary cap and some guardrails up on this thing.”
The concern is valid. What happens when industries grow this fast without regulation? The powerhouses will compete at the highest level while the lower tier programs have the danger of going irrelevant. And while Kyle Whittingham is calling for a national overhaul, he’s already running a controlled experiment inside Michigan’s walls
Kyle Whittingham’s culture reset is already underway
If you walk into Schembechler Hall right now, you’ll notice that the tone has changed. Meetings don’t “start” anymore because they begin early. An air horn blares, signaling that if you’re just walking in, you’re already late. It’s a small detail, but it tells you everything about how Kyle Whittingham operates hand in hand with accountability. And of course, the players were the first to notice.
“There’s a lot more accountability,” safety Rod Moore said. “The little things that make a team great. Not just the big broad things that everyone else sees.”
So, while the sport debates salary caps and collective bargaining, Kyle Whittingham is starting with his own team. He still wants the system fixed because even the best-run program in the country can’t out-discipline a broken model forever. And if those $50 million rosters are really coming, his warning will sound overdue.
