At the Big 12 Media Days, Deion Sanders, head coach at Colorado, advocated for a name, image and likeness (NIL) and revenue-sharing salary cap in college football. He said this would help ensure more equality in the space and limit attempts by teams to gain advantages.
In an interview with the Associated Press this week, Sanders discussed an additional idea: compensating players who reach the College Football Playoff, with increased payments for players whose teams win the national championship. Sanders stated concern about existing NIL hype because “there are only three or four guys. who you might know their NIL,” he said. He believes his proposal could help make compensation more uniform among student-athletes.
“[N]ow it’s equality, now it’s even and every player is making the same amount of money,” Sanders told AP’s Eddie Pells of his idea.
Nick Saban, former Alabama head coach and now an analyst for ESPN College GameDay as well as Sanders’ partner in Aflac’s latest commercial, also spoke to AP for this story. Saban supported a system similar to National Football League playoff bonuses. According to AP, Philadelphia Eagles players who were part of the Super Bowl-winning team each received $171,000 last year.
This is not the first time Sanders has called for changes in how student-athletes are compensated. Last month during Big 12 Media Days he referenced difficulties competing with schools willing to pay significant sums to athletes following House v. NCAA settlement approval that allows up to $20.5 million in shared revenue per school.
“I wish there was a cap,” Sanders said during a panel with other conference coaches (…“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. The problem is, you’ve got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him another half a million dollars. You can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense.(…)You talk about equality … all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn near why they’re in the playoffs. It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s giving $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class. It’s crazy.”) according to Sanders.
Sanders’ ideas reflect ongoing conversations about parity and financial regulation within college sports as athlete compensation continues to evolve.
