Colorado Buffaloes Coach Deion Sanders Offers Bold Thoughts on NIL

Deion Sanders, the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, spoke out and offered bold thoughts on NIL.

Oct 7, 2023; Tempe, Arizona, USA; Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders yells out from the sidelines as his team takes on the ASU Sun Devils at Mountain America Stadium. / Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY

Deion Sanders has become one of the most popular names in college football. While he has made the Colorado Buffaloes an entertaining team to watch, his next step will be to turn them into a legitimate contender.

As the college football landscape continues to change due to NIL and the transfer portal, coaches like Sanders are beginning to speak out to reveal their thoughts on how the new additions are working.

In a recent interview, Sanders spoke out and offered his bold thoughts about NIL deals and the impact it has on the players.

“Everybody wants it both ways. Like the kids want to be compensated like pros but they want to be treated like pros, right? Pros get talked to in a way, not by the coaches but by the media. See there has been a safeguard around college athletes that the media don’t really go at them because they’re amateurs. Now you got media talking junk to college players because college players are making more than the media."

Sanders continued forward, talking about how college athletes are not prepared for the media onslaught that he was referring to.

“And a lot of these collegiate athletes ain’t built like that to hear that. Because the first thing they do and we try to safeguard that, is at halftime, they go to checking the phone. ‘Yeah, what they say about me?’ You can’t live like that. It’s tough. They should be compensated, all of them in every sport. But what’s that mean? What does that look like?”

Additionally, the Colorado head coach believes that all college athletes should be compensated in every sport. However, he doesn't think that compensation should be fair across the board.

“Because I don’t believe that Tom should be making what Harry makes. Tom may not contribute what Harry doesn’t, but Tom needs to be compensated … If I give you something, I have an expectation. Now (if you’re not living up to that expectation), what do I do? So I should have some type of recourse if I’m breaking you off and blessing you and you ain’t doing nothing for it. Where do we go from there?”

That is the question that everyone wants to see answered. What comes next from NIL deals and how it impacts the players themselves?

In the near future, revenue sharing will become a big thing and the whole deal will become even more confusing and unclear. The NCAA needs to be very proactive in coming up with a plan that makes sense for the players, along with every other factor.

Sanders is absolutely correct on two specific points. Young athletes are not going to be able to withstand the kind of media coverage that professional athletes can. Also, not every player should be paid equally.

As the years move forward, it will be very interesting to see what comes from the NIL side of college sports.

There are a lot of questions and not as many answers. With Sanders and many other names leading the way, the hope is that all issues will be ironed out in the near future.