With all of the mystery surrounding Deion Sanders‘ health the last few months, Coach Prime is apparently back in the saddle and ready to lead Colorado Buffs into another season. After missing some engagements, he attended Big 12 Media Day last week and it seems the event has inspired Sanders to place some demands on the university, who already gave him a new whopping contract and also many of his staff got new bags.
Big 12 Media Day Opened Up Coach Prime’s Eyes To Colorado Buffs’ Economic Disadvantage With NIL
Coach Prime wants more money to spend on NIL, his coaching staff, and improved facilities at CU.
At Big 12 Football Media Days, Coach Prime was front and center and appeared a bit envious of the luxuries and resources Joey McGuire has with a robust $28 million Texas Tech Red Raiders NIL payroll. Sanders has seen the way the NIL money is flowing, particularly for huge universities with alumni and affiliates willing to pour millions into their athletic programs, especially the football team. As the college game moves towards a strictly pay-for-play situation, schools who don’t have the financial commitments from their NIL collectives will fall into lack of competitiveness due to lack of recruiting power and money.
Coach Prime Wants NIL Salary Cap
Therefore, Coach Prime wants a salary cap in college football because even with Prime’s influence and connections, Colorado can compete with such an NIL stash, and they eventually won’t be able to compete with richer Big 12 programs. With the departure of Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter it has been reported that Colorado is pulling back on its NIL spending.
“I wish there was a cap. The top-of-the-line player makes this and if you’re not a top-of-the-line player then you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does,” said Prime.
The problem lies, said Sanders, in the other schools who will overpay an athlete who isn’t worth what they are paying, thus setting a poor standard of frivolous spending with no true purpose.
Added Sanders: “You got a guy that is not that darn good, and he can go to another school, and they give him a half million dollars. We (Colorado) can’t compete with that. That doesn’t make sense.”
Prime says it’s not an equal playing field at that point.
Urban Myer Says Coach Prime Is Out Of His Mind: NIL Cap Won’t Happen
Former Florida and Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is involved with shaping the culture of the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) collective, as the former Jacksonville Jaguars head coach sits on the board for “THE Foundation,” which pays Ohio State Football and Basketball student-athletes for using their name, image, and likeness to promote charitable causes and make positive contributions to the community. In the past, Meyer has expressed concerns about the current wild west status of NIL earnings in college football, calling it “cheating” and an “arms race.”
At the same time, Urban Meyer says he believes Sanders is asking the NCAA to put a cap on NIL money that can be spent, essentially creating talent tiers. Or he could be asking the big spenders, like Alabama Crimson Tide and Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas and Texas A&M, to make concessions similar to what teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers and Yankees who typically spend a lot of cash already do and that’s revenue share to keep a competitive balance in pro sports. MLB teams have to pay a luxury tax if they spend over a certain amount of money. There is no salary cap in baseball but the rich have to cut a check to the poor to stay on top.
Meyer doesn’t believe that capping NIL money for schools would be a feasible solution.
“It will never happen. It will never happen because Colorado is not the same as Ohio State and Alabama and big market cities that have alumni that are willing to do that,” Meyer said on “The Triple Option” podcast. “It’s like Major League Baseball… You’ve got the left side of the Dodgers’ infield making more than most major league teams. That’s going to happen.”
It Isn’t all About NIL, But We Are Getting There
Alabama doesn’t just spend money to win. It’s winning tradition still captivate players as The Crimson Tide reportedly weren’t a top-10 spending team this offseason but were still able to pull a top-three ranked recruiting class during the 2025 cycle.
Other universities do have to overpay to get the same caliber of players Alabama is used to beijing in since Nick Saban was dominating the CFB landscape and sending numerous players to the NFL. In fact, Saban says he quit because the NIL game was getting out of hand and its not his style to pay players or beg them with a check to come to Alabama.
Sanders has to take the good and bad into account. If he was head coach at Ohio State or Alabama he wouldn’t be able to have the power he has at Colorado in certain aspects or miss media appointments and practices to deal with health issues.
