Deion Sanders conducted his first class at CU as Professor Prime, teaching students about ‘Public Performance and Leadership’. The course was announced in December 2023 by the Communication and Information Faculty of CU.
In his class, Professor Prime had a detailed and raw conversation with the curious students of CU explaining the ins and outs of how he has built a successful brand of himself. During this discussion, Coach Prime was asked about his views on NIL and how it has impacted the new age of college sports.
Deion Sanders, though being an old-school coach certainly has a new-world approach to his program, as he encourages his players to make the most of NIL opportunities. However, in the light of extreme criticism of NIL, Prime had to set things straight about the misinterpretations about the money made by college athletes.
“NIL is not really what you think it is,” Professor Prime said. “All these kids aren’t getting NIL, these kids are getting collectives. Collectives is if we took an offering up in this classroom, we passed the bucket like a church and you put it’s a collection plate and you put your collected in and then we say, you know what we got 10 players up here let’s divide that. That player right there should get $10, that player right there should get $20. That’s a collective.”
Prime used the discussion to respond to those who blame him for spoiling young kids with unnecessary “NIL money” when in fact it is a share of the donations received from the community members which is called a collective.
Prime emphasized how the players receive a share of the collectives, which was previously shook hands on before signing the said player. Every college follows this new-age method of acquiring and attracting skilled players and Colorado is just singing the revolutionary song of the changing financial landscape of college sports.
In fact, the coaches who oppose this change have had difficulties in competing with programs that keep their players financially satisfied since it attracts more players aware of their natural talents.
Professor Prime Deion Sanders Clears the Air On NIL Criticism
Adding on to his point, Prime emphasized how not every student-athlete strikes an NIL deal.
“NIL is the Name, Image, and Likeness,” he added. “Since I got time today, I want you to tell me how many players in college football you’ve seen on commercials.”
The names that came up during that discussion did not exceed the likes of Travis Hunter, Shilo Sanders, Shedeur Sanders, Caleb Williams, and Caitlin Clark.
“All these college athletes and you’ve named five people,” Prime explained. “This is not NIL. That’s what it’s supposed to be. But it’s collectors. And that’s where it went wrong, instead of staying right. I wish it was NIL so the kids could earn it. Because now you gotta ball for a CEO to invest in you. You think I’m gonna have just say a $100 million company. And I’m gonna invest in a college kid that I don’t know nothing about and he could be a deer in a headlight and get drunk after the game and now my company brand is on… There’s no way.”
“So you kinda wait to those kids kinda prove to you that they could handle the light, they could handle the stage, they could handle the opportunity, then you may afford to give them that. But we’re talking about collectives. And I’m sick of everybody in the country talking about NIL, it’s not NIL.”
That said Deion Sanders made a huge point on how the NIL is broadly misunderstood by critics and how this can change the world of college sports for good if implemented properly.
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