Deion Sanders' Message to Recruits on NIL: "We're Not An ATM"

Colorado head coach shared honest thoughts ahead of transfer portal season

The Colorado Buffaloes began the year 3-0 and was in the top 25 before losing seven of the last eight games ahead of the season finale against Utah. Still, Coach Deion Sanders has retooled the football program in under a year with talented players and has garnered consistent national media attention along the way.

The transfer portal is a major reason why Coach Prime was able to quickly build his roster and - despite the losing streak - players from across the country want to come play for Sanders and grow the program. But, with the portal season approaching and Sanders looking to lure more recruits and transfers, he dropped a clear message to players in search of NIL deals, per Barrett Sallee of CBS Sports. 

"We're not an ATM. That's not going to happen here. If you come to Colorado to play football for me and the Colorado Buffaloes, it's because you really want to play football and receive a wonderful education and all the business stuff will be handled on the back end if that's the case. But we are not an ATM. You're not coming here to get rich unless you're really coming here with a plan to go to the NFL and get your degree." 

Coach Prime made it clear to players thinking of coming to Boulder in hopes of getting a massive amount of cash. 

And, whether players like it or not, his message and thought process has been working and will continue to work: "We're not going to buy anybody whatsoever. That's how we approach it. We have tremendous needs. I'm pretty sure everybody in the country knows what we need and how much we need. That's not a secret. Recruits are responding."

The program and Coach Prime himself are the selling point, and despite a disappointing ending stretch, the Buffs improved drastically after a 1-11 season in 2022 under Karl Dorrell. 

The bottom line for Coach Prime is this: He wants people who want to play for Colorado: 

"We want players who want us. Trying to convince somebody and doing that and being held hostage financially ... we ain't with that. We want players who want to be a Colorado Buffalo."

With the NIL landscape shaping recruits' decisions across the country, Coach Prime sure doesn't seem worried about that one bit. After all, Travis Hunter, a five-star recruit who originally committed to Florida State, was one of a large number of players to transfer to Colorado a year ago, and he inked yet another NIl deal.