During a Big 12 event this week, Colorado coach Deion Sanders claimed college football needs a salary cap. An idea popular analyst Paul Finebaum thinks is silly coming from “Coach Prime” of all people.
College sports, especially football, are now much different than what it was a decade ago. With the addition of name, image, and likeness (NIL) money, and a recent court ruling forcing schools to pay players directly, collegiate sports have been forever changed.
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Teenagers and athletes in football are making wild sums of money, and there are no real guardrails on how much money they make. However, Sanders believes that should change, and had an interesting opinion this week when asked about the situation.
“I wish there was a cap. Like, the top-of-the-line player makes this, and if you’re not that type of guy, you know you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does,” said Sanders.
“So the problem is, you got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him a half-a-million dollars. You can’t compete with that. And it don’t make sense.”
It’s a fair point. However, coming from Sanders — who had two stars in his son Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter making huge NIL money in 2024 — the opinion rings hollow. Especially to popular college football analyst Paul Finebaum.
“No,” Finebaum said on a SportsCenter when asked if Sanders had a good point. “I just find it amazing that Deion Sanders, who had a generational player of our lifetime on his team last year, really didn’t go very far and is asking for a paradigm shift.
“I understand what he is saying. And in a perfect world, it would be great. But it’s not. Deion is a politician. He sounds like he’s running for the Senate.”
Related: Deion Sanders addresses pre-draft criticism of Shedeur Sanders, Shilo Sanders from NFL
