This post was updated Aug. 21 at 9:24 p.m.

After the Big Ten secured a historic media rights deal Thursday, the conference’s commissioner, Kevin Warren, laid out some more goals for the future.

Warren ultimately sees his league – the soon-to-be home of the Bruins – expanding to 20 members at some point. And he envisions the conference paying its players.

While UCLA football coach Chip Kelly hadn’t heard Warren’s remarks when asked about them at the Bruins’ practice Friday, he said conference realignment and student-athlete compensation both seem inevitable in the near future. But he added that there are still question marks regarding how players will get paid.

“The paying the players thing is something that’s probably going to happen in the future, as long as they can figure out a way for it to comply with all the rules,” Kelly said.

Those rules, however, remain largely undefined. As name, image and likeness has ballooned over the past year since its formal introduction in July 2021, the methods by which student-athletes across the country have earned money have also expanded.

Many schools have created their own NIL operations to help mediate deals and manage the NIL activities of their student-athletes. But recently, third-party interest groups have stepped into the mix as well.

Earlier this month, a group of USC donors and fans announced its intentions to create a third-party NIL collective called “Student Body Right.” The group of donors ultimately intends – against the school’s wishes – to provide the equivalent of a base salary to every academically eligible member of USC’s football team.

Similar third-party collectives have already launched at schools across the country, including Texas, Texas Tech, Notre Dame and Arizona. At Texas Tech, for instance, a group of private donors has sponsored one-year, $25,000 contracts for 100 members of the Red Raiders’ football program this season.

While Kelly believes student-athletes should get paid, he said the fundamental model by which college athletics programs are run could be set for a change if paying players becomes the norm – specifically as it pertains to the funding of non-revenue sports.

“I think the players should get paid if it can be worked out the right way,” Kelly said. “Sometimes you’re going to have to blow up the model, though, because the revenue-producing sports pay for the other sports. So if you take the revenue and you’re paying the players, then where does that other money come from?”

Despite all the talk about the ramifications of NIL and financial compensation for players, Kelly said he and his coaching staff have no say in how those conversations play out. Instead, his sole focus is on the development of his student-athletes.

“Our north star for this group … is two things: this team and this season,” Kelly said. “We have a bunch of players that have given everything to this program. … They’re not going to be here in two years. If our focus and attention isn’t on something that’s in two years, then we’re not doing what our job is, and that’s creating an environment for those guys to be successful.”