During Big 12 media day, Colorado football coach Deion Sanders repeated a narrative that’s dominated college football recently surrounding NIL. Essentially, he said the teams that spend the most money end up in the College Football Playoff, according to ESPN's X account. While that’s true for most of the teams in the field, Arizona State’s NIL budget wasn’t nearly as hefty as Colorado’s last year.
Yet the Sun Devils received a first-round bye while the Buffaloes got blown out in the Alamo Bowl against BYU. This is an interesting perspective from a coach who has heavily benefited from both NIL funds and the transfer portal. Last season, Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, the top two players on Colorado’s roster, had a combined NIL valuation over $11 million.
For context, according to a USA Today story in Nittany Lions Wire, Arizona State ranked ninth in the CFP last season for NIL funds at $10.6 million. The irony of Sanders saying this and still finishing behind a team with far fewer funds is what makes it sound like an excuse.
NIL doesn’t win games, but it does put a team in a competitive spot
I guess the conversation around NIL is destined to change with revenue sharing now part of college athletics. Programs will be allowed to keep their NIL collectives if they choose, though teams like Colorado have already jettisoned their collectives to focus solely on revenue sharing. Either way, the amount of money a team has to spend doesn’t directly correlate to that team actually winning at the highest level
While it gives teams access to the best players, it doesn't actually play the games. Colorado found that out when they came up short of a College Football Playoff bid, losing games they shouldn’t have lost. They needed to beat Kansas, of all teams, to reach the Big 12 championship game and couldn't do it. NIL (and family ties) helped the Buffs have the Heisman winner and one of the top quarterbacks in college football last year, but it didn't get them over the hump.
You mean to tell me Sanders was able to poach Julian Lewis from USC simply because of the appeal of Boulder, CO? Yeah, I doubt that. Colorado was able to provide the money Lewis was interested in while also proving a better opportunity for him to play — though the latter usually gets left out of NIL discussions.
If you look at last year’s CFP field, SMU, Arizona State and Boise State all spent less than Colorado did, but that didn't stop them from making the field. NIL has changed the recruiting game, but it doesn’t — and probably never will — directly correlate with winning national championships.