SEC Head Coach Takes Subtle Dig at Deion Sanders For Demanding College Football Changes

College football will have a new look this season, being at the precipice of the House settlement era. The landmark document has changed college football for good, especially how the money will flow in the sport from now on. And, it has some coaches on two ends of the debates surrounding it, while others opt for a middle ground. Colorado’s Deion Sanders is of the former kind. He wants a harsher clampdown on how things will now work. However, one particular SEC coach is firing shots at the NFL icon for his comments about the college football scene.

Deion Sanders made his first public appearance in the Big 12 Media Days since taking a break from on-campus activities after a health scare. And he had quite a lot of things to say. Coach Prime wants biker shorts gone, and wants some more uniform rules. But perhaps the most important rule change he made was about the money that student athletes will now make.

“What I would change in college football… it has to be a salary cap on this stuff because this stuff is going crazy, and nobody knows where it’s gonna land, where it’s gonna end… you got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him half a million dollars, you can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense.”

This allowed LSU HC Brian Kelly to throw some light shade at Coach Prime. “I listened to some of our brothers over in the Big 12 complaining about where we’re at. I was like, I don’t think you should be complaining about anything… I’m bullish on where we are… you know, 31 years of being a head coach. You know, you have different cycles. And we lived through maybe a bit of the difficult part, but I like where we’re going,” he told SiriusXM. Brian Kelly’s overall record stands at 292-107, after stints with multiple programs and conferences. Coach Prime’s record is yet to hit 50 wins.

Kelly is confident on pulling the age card over Deion Sanders, and is happy about the fact that players have the chance of earning from the sport. A $20.5 million overall budget will see 75% of it going to college football, giving more advantages to the players. “I love the fact that the players are going to be able to get a piece of this. I mean, I think it’s great. They’re going to get their families to see him play every game,” he added. However, Coach Prime said that one “can’t compete” with programs that are raining money on players who are yet to take a snap in college football.

Yes, college football has seen a series of storms ever since the influence of NIL grew. Coaches had long called for the NCAA to regulate the matter, and that has finally happened. This idea is still a grey area, having only just been conceived. But like Kelly said, he’s been here longer than Coach Prime. He’s seen more changes compared to the Colorado HC, who will probably see more complex changes happen as time passes. Here’s a look at Coach Prime’s other requests for the NCAA.

Football Transfer portal and NFL rules among Deion Sanders’ demands in college football

The NCAA has addressed the issues with NIL so far, which is only the first step towards controlling the unpredictable nature of the portal. The transfer portal remains an area that is yet to see a clampdown. Coach Prime wants the NCAA to act on the tampering problem in the portal because athletes are able to simply browse through their offers and commit and decommit from a program anytime they want to. “You have so many different doors. It’s like, I would see a player that said he got an offer from another school, and I’m trying to figure out why you guys haven’t investigated, and how is that possible when the guy’s not in the portal.”

Being an NFL icon, Coach Prime sees how crucial college football is for the league. That’s why he wants players to be in tune with NFL rules in place during their collegiate careers. “They’re getting ready to be pros, so let’s go two feet in, you know, on the catches. Let’s mark the foul with a pass interference,” he said. And that’s not all when it comes to his desire to see a more NFL-like environment in college football. With scouts on the watch for talent in the college space itself, Sanders wants players accustomed to the experience when the reach the NFL

Deion Sanders also wants a change in college football fashion. This one comes from his heart. “I played this game at a high level and I have so much respect for this game. How can we allow guys out there in biker shorts, no knee pads, no nothing, literally pants up under their thighs, and that’s cool?” he said. Moreover, he wants to see players getting fined for uniform violations – something he himself has faced in the NFL.

College football’s current environment is light years ahead of that from which Deion Sanders came. Athletes are becoming nationwide stars at the collegiate level, which increases the demand for them at such a young age. It’s an unending cycle now, with money in play. The House settlement era will be markedly different from the previous eras of college football. Will Coach Prime be able to adapt to these new rules well as time passes?