“Disservice to these kids” - $45M worth Deion Sanders demands emphasis on financial literacy for athletes amid NIL era
Deion Sanders, head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, has made many proposals on how to change the college football landscape. Today, he has set his sights on the NIL and how players manage their earnings.
Ever since the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) bill was passed in 2021, college athletes have been able to earn money for commercial deals. For some players, this money may be the largest amount of money that they have or ever will make.
This concerns Sanders. The NIL can give players thousands of dollars overnight, but they may not be financially savvy or responsible enough to manage it. Sanders has a solution for this.
“With NIL and collectives, there should be mandatory Financial Literacy Classes. What's happening today is a disservice to these kids.“
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Sanders wants mandatory financial literacy classes
Sanders has proposed that every student-athlete should have a mandatory class in financial literacy. According to Sanders, this will allow the students who earn money from NIL deals to learn ways to be responsible with their earnings and be able to still have a good amount of money to their name after their time at the university is over.
The unpredictable nature of sports means that a player who is the best in the world and earning millions of dollars can very quickly see themselves without a job and with little or no money. While the former may be down to on-the-field reasons or injuries, the latter is mostly due to the decisions made by the players.
Having financial literacy classes will undoubtedly benefit any college student, not just the athletes. By learning how to effectively manage their money, the universities are giving the students an extremely practical skill that they will use for the rest of their lives.
The impact of the need for these classes is only intensified when talking about student-athletes. For some, the amount they earn from their NIL deals is more than their families make in a year. The large amount of money may lead the player down a pathway of frivolous spending for both themselves and their family, as they have never had this opportunity before.
By teaching athletes how to manage their money, the schools are setting them up to succeed. Even if their careers in whatever sport they play do not work out, the money that they may make, which is constantly increasing as college sports become more lucrative, will be kept safe and enable students to be financially stable.
Deion Sanders is 100% right on this issue.
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