“The college sports landscape is a mess.” This belief is pretty consistent from coach to coach across the NCAA’s multitude of conferences. Things are the most out-of-sort in the most profitable ventures: football and men’s basketball.
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Nobody thinks collegiate athletics (as intended) will survive this lawless wasteland. Many people want rules and regulations instituted for the health of the industry. Deion Sanders, Colorado football’s head coach, is one of the people fighting for such things. He recently revealed to Jarrett Bell of USA Today that he’d support a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) salary cap.
“There should be some kind of cap. Our game should emulate the NFL game in every aspect. Rules. Regulations. Whatever the NFL rules, the college rules should be the same. There should be a cap, and every team gets this, and you should be able to spend that,” Deion Sanders said.
Word of Sanders’ opinion got to Shannon Sharpe and Chad Johnson during Monday’s episode of Nightcap. Sharpe didn’t explicitly agree or disagree with Sanders’ thoughts; instead, he focused on how things have changed so drastically from his college days.
“You can’t coach kids like we used to get coached. You can’t yell at a kid… that’s where we are now. And I get it to a certain extent… [sometimes] we go damn near the whole practice with no water. You make a mistake, ‘nah, you ain’t get no water,” Sharpe said.
Johnson took aim at Sanders’ claim more directly. He told Sharpe and their guest panelist, former NBA All Star guard Joe Johnson – that he doesn’t support a salary cap.
“I don’t like it. I want the players to get as much as they can off their likeness. Is there a salary cap when it comes to coaches going from college to college or schools to school? Do they put a salary cap on coaches being able to get as much money as they want? Absolutely not. So don’t do it to the players, either,” Johnson said.
Johnson mentioned colleges make “billions; B-word, not millions… every year” off of their players. It’s understandable that he would, as a former athlete, want the wealth to be spread around.
If Sanders weren’t in a coaching role, he may agree with Johnson. But there’s no disputing that this unrestricted environment has led to utter chaos. It has also increased stress on coaching staffs, who never know if a player may be angling to leave behind their back. Former Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava essentially did this before his transfer to UCLA.
The NIL payments agreed to between team and player – a more appropriate classification than school and student – are supposed to be binding. But there have been many instances of both sides failing to live up to their word. Without legislation of some kind, nothing will get better. Sanders’ idea of a salary cap may not be perfect, but it’d at least be a starting point to getting the Wild West under control.
