Want to get paid like a pro? Better be ready to be treated like one.
We’re in a new era of college football from just a few years ago. With the legalization of athletes being paid for their name, image and likeness back in 2021, as well as the transfer portal allowing players to transfer schools without penalty, we’re seeing college football players making millions of dollars through collectives and revenue sharing and schools getting into intense bidding wars for top players.
Of course college athletes still aren’t technically considered “employees” who are paid for their services, because the NCAA wants to maintain the myth of the “student athlete” as long as possible, but with players getting big paydays is naturally going to come programs expecting more for their money.
In Colorado, for example, Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders has implemented a new system of fining players for attendance violations, like missing practice or film sessions.
According to the new rules, Colorado will fine players for any number of violations:
- Late to practice – $500
- No show to practice – $2,500
- Late to meeting or film session – $400
- No show to meeting or film session – $2,000
- Late to strength & conditioning workout – $1,000
- No show to strength & conditioning workout – $1,500
- Late to treatment – $1,000
- No show to treatment – $1,500
- Violations of team rules – $1,000 – $2,500 based on severity
- Public or social media misconduct – $2,000 – $5,000 based on severity
It shouldn’t be a surprise that Sanders is one of the first programs to (at least publicly) announce a fine system for his players. Deion runs a tight ship in Colorado, and at the beginning of the season even went viral for a video showing him laying out the dress code for team members when attending class:
“We start school when? Tomorrow. No slides. I’m gonna send people to campus tomorrow, and if I see you with slides on campus, it’s gonna be a problem. If I see you with a hoodie on with headphones on in class, it’s gonna be a problem. If I see you sitting in the back of the classroom, it’s gonna be a problem.
Do we understand that? And if you are online… if you have online classes and you don’t have a shirt on or you have a wife beater on or if you have something stupid on that causes a distraction or you are walking around during an online session, it’s gonna be a problem. We good with that guys?”
Sanders is also hoping that the new players transferring to Colorado this year can help the team improve from their 3-9 record in 2025, so there’s no doubt that he’s going to be expecting a lot from his players this year.
As we get more and more into the NIL era, and contracts only continue to grow, it seems like we’re going to see more and more blurring of the lines between professional and so-called “amateur” football. Schools are going to want to make sure they’re getting a return on their investment, and will no doubt start (rightly) holding players to even higher standards than they were before they were getting paid.
Ultimately it’s just another step in the elimination of the myth of college football being anything other than a JV league of the NFL, but I’d say we’ll see more and more schools starting to treat players like the professional athletes they are.
