At $4,800,000, He is Still Underpaid”: Skip Bayless Details What Makes Shedeur Sanders a Highly Valuable Student-Athlete

Shedeur Sanders, the star QB of the Buffaloes and Deion Sanders’ son is prompting people to tune in on Saturdays as Colorado continues to draw massive crowds. He is currently the highest-valued NCAA football player with an increase of almost 150% since the season started. However, Skip Bayless feels that the 21-year-old QB is underpaid even at $4,800,000 NIL value.

Skip Bayless struck a cord in his recent episode of ‘Undisputed’ with Keyshawn Johnson and Michael Vick, taking a bold stance on advocating against Shedeur Sanders’ “undervalued” status in the NIL market. This is despite being the highest-paid football player at the collegiate level.

Skip Bayless Advocates Higher NIL Payments for Entertaining Shedeur Sanders

Shedeur Sanders has proved himself time and again in the Colorado Buffaloes journey in the 2023 season. Furthermore, he has successfully altered the negative opinions directed at him especially as Deion Sanders chose him as the star quarterback shortly after his induction into the program.

In a recent episode of  Undisputed, Skip Bayless voiced his preference for Shedeur Sanders noting that he is being underpaid in his NIL deals given his popularity. He puts forward an array of arguments to support the point that Shedeur Sanders has an entertaining element that appeals to the audiences.

“The truth is at $4.8 million Shedeur Sanders is still underpaid. They are the biggest draw in all of college football, they are the ones setting ratings records. They sell. It’s because of his father and then because of his son. It’s because the son is right there with Caleb in the entertainment factor.

In an additional statement, Skip Bayless continues to emphasize Shedeur Sanders’ improvement on the field. He notes that he is coming close to his father’s style which indicates a positive trajectory in terms of development. Moreover, this serves as an apt reason for him to be better valued in the NIL landscape.

“Shedeur gets better by the snap. And now he is using his legs, in some ways that his father used his legs. This is the realest deal. This kid could project even better than Caleb does at the next level. My point is it’s all entertainment business that we are in.”

It is no surprise that Shedeur Sanders is continuously leaving an indelible mark as the Colorado Buffaloes quarterback. While his NIL deals have usually been with the best names in business including Mercedes-Benz and Beats by Dre, his deals might be able to fetch more.

Keyshawn Johnson Rips Into NCAA for a Delayed Introduction of NIL

Keyshawn Johnson criticizes the NCAA in another segment of the episode for its delayed introduction of the Name, Image, and Likeness regulations for aiding college athletes. He is vocal about his belief that student-athletes should have been allowed to benefit from the rights much earlier. Additionally, he takes a dig at the NCAA for being greedy and refusing to share any profits with students.

“It should have been done many many moons ago. But NCAA is so damn greedy that they didn’t wanna share any other upside with the student-athletes. They wanted to tell you that our education is the value here. I am just glad where we are now with the NIL.

NCAA introduced the NIL landscape into college sports in June 2021 allowing only a handful of deals initially. The changes allowed all college athletes to benefit from their fame in what is considered a landmark change. In fact, a myriad of regulations were framed after the Supreme Court decision, negating any limits placed by the NCAA. Most of them were placed in the name of antitrust laws on the education-related benefits available to athletes, per ESPN.

The NCAA model was criticized, thus opening doors against the 115-year-old NCAA tenet of forbidding any payments to college athletes. While there is a lot more to the story, the NIL landscape has benefitted the athletes and added much-needed glitz to college football.