Deion Sanders thought he could finally kick back. Shilo got picked up by the Bucs. Shedeur is out there slinging it at Browns camp like he owns the field. Prime was supposed to be chilling. But nah. Just when he thought he could breathe, college football went full GTA: San Andreas—with cheat codes. NIL money flying everywhere, and Prime? He wasn’t having it. Coach Prime just flipped the table and served up the wildest fix for the college chaos: an NFL-style salary cap. Yup, he said it—and folks have been wide-eyed ever since.

So here’s the scoop: Deion Sanders, a man who’s seen both sides of the money fence—from NFL royalty to Power 5 disruptor—is officially and literally fed up with how NIL has turned the college game into a bag-chasing bonanza. Prime didn’t just throw shade—he pulled the whole tarp off.

Yahoo Sports’ RJ Young broke it down on his No. 1 College Football Show podcast on May 11. Deion’s idea? A salary cap for college football. And while that sounds all proper and NFL-polished, RJ had thoughts. “If you put a salary cap on this thing, you got to have a CBA,” he warned, referencing the collective bargaining agreement that’s standard in the NFL. But college football? No union. No collective anything. Just vibes, boosters, and whoever’s got the biggest oil check.

RJ went on, “You cannot—Sherman Antitrust, maybe you want to go do a little bit of reading on that.” He wasn’t being petty; he was being real. Without a player’s union, any cap on NIL cash runs into straight-up legal landmines. You’re basically begging for lawsuits with “Sherman Antitrust Act” tattooed on the paperwork.

But that’s not all. Coach Prime is not blind to what’s happening. “It’s pay-per-view with these kids,” he said. RJ backed that up: “You got to get your extension in right away because they will go into the portal or you won’t be able to get them.” Which is exactly why Sanders sprinted to sign that five-year, $10 million deal at Colorado. Not just for clout—but to show players: I ain’t going nowhere.

RJ, in classic fashion, painted the picture: “It’s hard to cheat in the NFL… they all collude with each other. They don’t care who wins, they just don’t want to be embarrassed.” In contrast, college football? 135 teams. About a thousand GMs. Boosters. Alumni. It’s chaos. And let’s be honest—that chaos is the sauce. “Texas Tech is trying to do that right damn now,” RJ said, referencing schools trying to buy their way back to relevance. It’s a mess. But it’s also the mess we all watch every Saturday like it’s a religion.

RJ didn’t slam the door shut, though. He gave Prime some love: “I think it’s noble for you to think that a salary cap is going to curtail shenanigans. It’s not. It’s really not. The game is too big, the game is too broad, and the game is also too regional for you to have that sort of effect. Not to say that it’s not impossible to have a salary cap—it’s not. I am saying you might get exactly what you want, and you might hate it.” Noble, sure. But realistic? Not in this lifetime. RJ closes by saying that trying to clean up college football might ruin what makes it special.

Yes, the system is flawed, but trying to copy the NFL model might kill the regional passion, chaos, and underdog stories that make college football so beloved.

Deion Sanders sends warnings to players who abuse the NIL system

While most coaches duck behind PR teams when it comes to the NIL mess, Coach Prime walks straight through the fire at Press.  Speaking at an event in Vegas—where irony lives rent-free—Deion spilled why he inked that mega-extension with Colorado in record time. “I tried to hurry up and sign the deal,” Prime said on Well Off Media. “First off, I wanted to get my coaches straight and NIL stuff straight because that stuff is crazy right now. Now it’s pay-per-view with these kids.”

That’s the type of honesty that makes Prime hated by many. He’s not sugarcoating the NIL circus. And he’s not just talking about college kids cashing in. It’s high schoolers too—15-year-olds racking up endorsement deals like they’re in a Madden franchise mode. He continued, “Because I didn’t want it to affect my other kids. You know, like those pros thinking I want their jobs and would treat my kids unfairly. So I didn’t want that to happen. That’s kind of why I signed expeditiously.”

But don’t let the humility fool you. Deion Sanders got a blueprint. In a sit-down with USA Today’s Jarrett Bell, he pressed harder on the salary cap idea. “There should be some kind of cap. Our game should emulate the NFL game in every aspect,” he said. “Rules. Regulations. Whatever the NFL rules, the college rules should be the same.” That sounds nice on paper. But in reality? NIL is already wilding. No guardrails. No brakes. Just who’s got the biggest donor or wildest collectives. And that’s where the danger lies.

Prime’s not just worried about recruiting. He’s worried about parity—or lack of it. “The competitive advantage is the school that has hundreds of millions of dollars, and not us,” he told Bell. “You look at who’s always in the playoffs… look at their budget and look at this budget.” Translation: It’s not about coaching anymore—it’s about bank accounts. And here’s where it gets spicy: beginning in just a few months, schools will be allowed to pay players directly—up to $20.5 million a year. Yeah, you read that right. Schools cutting checks like they’re the Packers. It’s not technically a cap, since players can still snag outside NIL deals, but the oversight is real now. Universities will start vetting those side deals like they’re flipping through credit scores.

So, will a salary cap actually work in this circus? Probably not. But Deion isn’t trying to be right—he’s trying to be heard. And when he talks, people listen. This is bigger than Shedeur getting snubbed for 4 rounds straight, or Shilo getting undrafted, and even Colorado. Prime’s drawing a line in the turf. He’s saying: If we don’t get this under control, the game we love might just morph into something unrecognizable. But hey, let’s keep it real—college football has always been a little messy. Maybe that’s what makes it magic. But as Prime sees it? That magic’s getting taxed… and fast.