Deion Sanders Proposes NFL-Style Bonuses for College Football Players

Sanders has a player-focused idea for the College Football Playoff.

Deion Sanders is entering his third year as head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. | Raymond Carlin III-Imagn Images

As the conferences continue to quibble about which format of the College Football Playoff is best, one of college football's biggest and most influential names, Deion Sanders, has an idea that focuses less on the format of the playoff and more on the players taking the field to play the games.

Sanders, as part of an unveiling for a new Aflac commercial, spoke to the Associated Press and suggested that players be paid an NFL-style bonus if their teams make it to the College Football Playoff. But that's not all. Sanders went on to pitch that players whose teams win in the College Football Playoff be paid even more.

"Now it’s equality, now it’s even and every player is making the same amount of money," Sanders said in reference to the NCAA potentially adopting his idea.

Among the issues in college football is NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), which some players and universities earn—and can pay—far more than others, resulting in an unfair competitive balance across the sport, particularly when players enter the transfer portal (another red flag in the sport). It's not the first time Sanders has pitched an NFL-style solution to a college football problem, as he proposed a salary cap to help even the field between the sport's haves and have-nots.

As a result of a $2.8 billion antitrust settlement involving a former college swimmer, schools now have $20.5 million that they can utilize to pay athletes over the course of the next year, in addition to any deals they are earning outside of the university. This would seem to add some balance to paying players.

And in theory, Sanders's idea would level the playing field for players in terms of earning revenue. Former Alabama Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban, who is alongside Sanders in the commercial, approved of the idea, according to the Associated Press.

It will be interesting to see if it picks up any traction during the course of the 2025 season—and beyond.

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