Deion Sanders has been taking advantage of the recent changes in college football as he’s used the transfer portal to bring in some of the most highly-rated players to Colorado. But he’s not fully on board with the NIL side of things as he reckons it could ruin the game at the NCAA level.
Of course, Sanders is fine with college players getting paid to play football and he has used the development to his advantage. But he isn’t a fan of the collectives and doesn’t think players making millions of dollars will leave them as motivated to make it to the NFL.
“NIL is not a problem with me,” he told Joel Klatt of FOX Sports. “Collectives are… Collectives, you could be Tom, Dick, Harry and Larry and you just put a bag together, boosters or whatever, whoever does it, and try to solicit these kids to come to your university. Who is that helping?
“I want the kid to get compensated, I want the kid to be straight, by all means. But you’ve gotta balance the fine line. Is he still going to want it like that when you’ve just given him that and he didn’t have to earn it?”
Sanders also claimed that student-athletes aren’t picking the schools or programs that would best suit them and are instead selling themselves to the highest bidder. For that, he blames some of the people representing them who are only there to make a buck for themselves.
“These kids have agents, man. Not only agents, they’ve got their homies who’s representing them, who’s just trying to use them and playing them,” he added. “They don’t go to the school that they should go to. They don’t even ask questions about the defense or the offense or the scheme or the personnel or how are you going to use me.”
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While he’s all for NIL, Coach Prime would like to see some restrictions introduced as he doesn’t want athletes to be too relaxed.
“I want them to be comfortable. I don’t want them to be filthy rich,” he admitted. “I’m not going to lie to you,” Sanders continued. “Because I don’t want [NIL] taking away from [football]. … I want you to get that NFL bag.”
The former NFL cornerback recently revealed one of his players, Travis Hunter, was offered $1.5 million in an attempt to lure him away from the Buffaloes but decided to stick with him after the move from Jackson State.
