DALLAS -- Mack Brown endorsed Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby's notions of either creating a fourth division of NCAA athletics or tailoring the rules for a specific sport. The Texas head coach indicated a preference to combine those two approaches Tuesday afternoon at Big 12 media days.
"I don't think you do it by (having) an umbrella over football," Brown said. "Right now we've got maybe four different levels of football and we still have the rules committee voting on all the rules for football. Why don't we have (different) rules for FBS if we can afford more than FCS?"
Brown, entering his 16th season at Texas, will serve as the head of the American Football Coaches Association in 2013, giving his remarks a greater weight and adding to the outpouring of frustration with the NCAA.
Financial resources should play a role in determining who plays by what rules, Brown said. He pointed to the initial resistance to the addition of the 40-second clock instant replay at the FCS level because of cost.
"Why keep the top from doing what's best or trying to stretch the budget of others?" Brown said. "Just say this group can afford this. If you can't do it, don't be in this group. Go to the other group."
As for the impact it would have on the on-field product, Brown suggested that if the teams from the power five conferences -- the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12 -- were to only play each other, parity would become the norm.
"I think it would make it more like the NFL," Brown said. "You would end up with a national champion at 8-4 or 9-5 and the best teams would be playing the best teams, but you would be beating each other up like the NFL does each year.
"I don't think that is best for college football, but if we are going to do that, that next level needs to be really exciting."
Follow Dan Greenspan on Twitter @DanGreenspan.