The 2025 season has not gone according to plan for the Colorado Buffaloes. After seven games, the team sits at 3-4, and with a challenging schedule ahead, a run for the College Football Playoff or even the Big 12 title game seems increasingly out of reach.
As the season has unfolded, head coach Deion Sanders has become more vocal about his roster. He admits that some players do not want to be in Boulder and criticizes what he sees as a lack of effort from specific individuals.
What Did Deion Sanders Say About His Colorado Players and NIL Money?
Colorado has been the definition of an average football team through seven games this season. The offense for the Buffaloes ranks fifth in the Big 12, according to PFSN’s CFB OFFi metric, while their defense sits at 10th in the conference per PFSN’s CFB DEFi metric.
Heading into the Buffaloes’ Week 8 bye, Deion Sanders held a team scrimmage and explained that he wanted to gather film for players who plan to enter the transfer portal at the end of the season, which would help them find their next school.
On Thursday, “Coach Prime” reiterated that he understands some players will leave and don’t want to be at Colorado. However, he slightly changed his tone, stating he doesn’t “love” the players who are only there to collect a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) check.
“I don’t dislike any kid,” Sanders said. “Even the ones that don’t want to play, don’t want to practice, they just want to eat off of NIL money, I still don’t dislike you. I don’t love you, but I don’t dislike you. I understand their craziness and their delusion. So, you got to at least assist them in the going.”
Sanders further explained that this “delusion” comes from players who believe they are good enough to play for Colorado but stop putting in the effort when they don’t get playing time. Despite this mindset, Sanders mentioned that the program will still assist those players in finding their next opportunity.
“You don’t know like it’s a lot of players that are gone that we make the calls for them, right?” Sanders said. “To make sure they got with a team because they were good here, but you wasn’t on that level that you probably was going to play here.”
MORE: Alarm Bells Go Off for Deion Sanders As Colorado Players Quit on Him
In essence, Sanders is describing a culture problem where players who are frustrated with their playing time no longer contribute effort to the team. However, the issue is that he is mainly responsible for creating the culture he is now criticizing.
A college head coach’s main job is to build a program in which every single person is fully invested. Success demands total commitment, from the equipment staff to the third-string kicker and the starting quarterback.
So far, Sanders has failed to establish that kind of culture at Colorado, which is why he now has players he claims are just “eating off their NIL money.” While his frustration with the lack of effort from some players is understandable, that frustration ultimately points back to a problem he helped create.
