College football fans are up in arms about Deion Sanders‘ roster purge at the University of Colorado, and rightfully so as it’s alarming to see that many players depart a program at one time.
But instead of just blaming Deion, critics should be directing their attention and venom to college football and those who transformed it from amateur athletics into big business.
And it’s not a recent phenomenon either.
As the sport gradually, yet eagerly, transitioned from its simple DI roots and heavily contested ranking system to the BCS, FBS, Power 5 and College Football Playoff system, gone was whatever innocence was left in the game. In its place stepped lucrative media rights deals, six-figure sponsorships and a new hierarchy no longer ruled by the NCAA.
College football became an elitist, quasi-caste system led by university presidents, conference commissioners, athletic directors and media executives who crafted college football into the money-making machine that it is now.
And while the strategy took decades to evolve, two recent events thrust college sports into its current state.
In 2018, the transfer portal was adopted by the NCAA as a way to “help compliance administrators track transfers to better organize the process.”
It has been tweaked multiple times since then, and athletes have used it as a tool for improving their athletic standing and more recently, their earning potential.
Then, on June 21st, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that the NCAA was violating antitrust law by placing limits on the education-related benefit that schools and universities can provide to athletes. That propelled the system’s revenue-generating powers into overdrive for the decision enabled schools to provide unlimited compensation as long as it was related in some way to their education.
“The NCAA is not above the law,” wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh at the time. “The NCAA couches its arguments for not paying student athletes in innocuous labels. But the labels cannot disguise the reality: The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”
That ruling gave birth to NIL and the arrival of the moment athletes like Ed O’Bannon, Jeremy Bloom, and Kain Colter fought so hard for.
Ironically, on July 1st, 2021 the first recorded NIL deal took place at Jackson State where Deion Sanders was head coach.
Since that time, college athletes have pitched, negotiated and secured NIL deals that have created financial stability former college athletes could never attain.
And many have done it by transferring to a new school that provides them with more visibility both on and off the field of play.
The Deion Sanders Effect
This past December, Deion Sanders accepted the head coaching job at the University of Colorado.
His hire rejuvenated a despondent fan base while simultaneously infuriating many in the HBCU community who felt cheated by his short stay. Regardless, his impact on both teams and cities was immediate and undeniable.
In Colorado, fans rallied around the “Prime” brand, and the ensuing frenzy made Boulder, CO the new place to be for media outlets.
But along with Deion’s arrival came his vision, which excluded many of Buffaloes’ players. He made that clear as soon as he touched down and spoke with the team.
“I ain’t gonna lie. Everybody that’s sitting their butt in a seat ain’t going to have a seat when we get back for the final cut,” said Sanders in his introductory meeting with the team.
And he wasn’t kidding.
According to David Ubben of The Athletic, “a total of 51 Buffaloes have entered or said they plan to since the portal first opened in December – 46 since Sanders took over Dec. 2. No other program has lost more than 29 players.”
Those 51 players, according to Ubben, are a combination of players who voluntarily entered the program and those who were told they had no future with the team.
That’s an astounding and disconcerting number, yet the process is neither illegal nor a violation of rules. As a matter of fact, the sport recently eliminated the previous cap of 25 signees in a single class, which enabled Deion to accept 29 incoming transfers to date.
And while the deadline to enter the portal was Sunday, April 30th, teams can continue to sign players after that date. So Colorado has turned out to be both the place to be and not to be.
Some call it cruel and that holds merit. But that’s what the business of college football has become. In many ways it’s always been as such but not everyone had been privy to the inner workings of the system.
But now they are.
And while the process feels cold-hearted, the NCAA allows it through a recent rule change that allows first-year coaches to remove players from the roster as long as they honor their scholarships despite not being part of the team anymore.
That rule, 15.5.1.7, was how Lincoln Riley was able to quickly change his roster in his first year with the USC Trojans.
“We obviously forced some of the attrition here,” said Riley when asked about his maneuvers.
So while the decisions feel heartless, it’s a legal practice employed by college football coaches facing the pressure of winning without waiting.
And to be fair, the current transfer portal has helped facilitate a new form of athlete empowerment, so the system has benefitted athletes as well.
While coaches like Lincoln Riley have done exactly what Deion is doing, Sanders’ overpowering personality makes him an easy target for criticism and anger.
But instead of singling out Deion, that anger, criticism and frustration should really be directed at college football and the system that transformed it into the big and cold business fans support every Saturday in the fall.
