By embracing change, Georgia Tech’s Brent Key shows that he gets it

“They’re the ones jumping jobs every two years, too. Let’s be real. The adults in the room sometimes end up being the bigger problem.”

How refreshing to hear a college football coach point out the hypocrisy that’s always been at the center of college sports. I’ve been singing that tune for a long time, and even I wouldn’t go as far as Key.

I don’t have a problem with coaches who jump jobs. I just think athletes, like coaches, should have the same labor rights as all workers.

College sports leaders continue to resist that change while griping about lawsuits and issues that would be resolved with a labor agreement, such as transfer and eligibility rules.

Key said he’s transparent with his players about the system’s double standards for coaches and players.

“We’re co-workers,” Key said. “This is no dictatorship at Georgia Tech. I’m the head coach, I’m the leader, yes, but we have to work together, and they understand that.

“It’s about the players at Georgia Tech. Always has been and always will be as long as I’m the head football coach there.”

In case you need more evidence that Key is the right coach for Tech, there it is. He wins games and he just gets it. No doubt his message resonates with players who are putting in the work.

There are a handful of others in Key’s industry who have a similar mindset.

Last year, during an interview with University of Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman, Vols athletics director Danny White said collectively bargaining with athletes is “the only solution” to bring stability to college sports. Plowman agreed: “It’s the only way we’re going to get there.”

Some football coaches have expressed support for making players employees.

In a recent interview with On3.com, TCU coach Sonny Dykes argued that it would be cheaper in the long run for schools to bargain with players because costs have exploded under the current system. Louisville coach Jeff Brohm told ESPN that “the best way” to increase stability is to make players employees and negotiate for a salary cap.

Even Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has come around on the idea.

Swinney once threatened to quit if players ever got paid (spoiler alert: he didn’t quit). But in the wake of Luke Ferrelli leaving for Ole Miss soon after signing with Clemson, Swinney told reporters that bargaining with players as employees might be the best way to “have some rules that can actually be enforced.”

The highest-ranking college sports leaders don’t see it that way. That includes ACC commissioner Jim Phillips.

A day before Key spoke in Charlotte, Phillips said the Protect College Sports Act that’s moving through Congress is the “last hope” to get help from lawmakers. A more honest name would be Protect Revenue From College Athletes Act.

The bill seeks to place a cap on NIL payments and provide colleges antitrust protection for otherwise illegal actions.

“I don’t know that I could share ‘What does that look like beyond?’ if we’re not able to get some help there because I don’t think anybody wants to go in that direction just yet,” Phillips said.

If people like Phillips would stop fighting against change, it would look like colleges finally treating athletes as employees to be respected instead of revenue producers to exploit.

It would look more like how Key is doing things at Georgia Tech.

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