Deion Sanders recently explained why he’s afraid to recruit high school athletes and would instead rather spend his resources going after transfers. The Colorado Buffaloes’ second-year head coach used a unique strategy for his 2024 recruiting class.
According to 24/7 Sports, Sanders has six incoming freshmen for the 2024 class compared to 23 incoming transfers. The Buffaloes’ overall class is ranked 21st in the country. They have the sixth-best transfer class for 2023.
Deion Sanders doesn’t recruit many freshmen
Sanders discussed his recruiting strategy with Robert Griffin III on RG3 And The Ones podcast. According to a transcription of Sanders’ comments by Matt Connolly of On3, Sanders said college coaches have a perverse incentive not to recruit freshmen who have to develop in a program because they’ll leave in the portal:
“We’re not adding freshmen, unless they are mature or impactful – I’m talking about high school kids,” Deion Sanders told Robert Griffin III on his podcast. “
Because you grab a high school kid, and he comes early, goes through the spring or whatever, and he doesn’t play like he wants to play, then he goes back through the spring again, because he’s an early enrollee, and he’s not first-team or whatever — you might as well wave to him, because he’s going to jump in the portal on you. That’s just 100 percent.”
Sanders’ recruiting statistics show how current transfer portal rules are impacting the Buffaloes program. They’re not getting as many student athletes coming into the program who want to be loyal to the school and graduate from Colorado.
Sanders wants the NCAA to step in
Sanders thinks the NCAA should step in to make it more logical to recruit high school athletes. Sanders told Griffin players should only be able to transfer with no penalty if their head coach leaves their program:
“What I think it should be, it should always be if your coach leaves, you can leave,” Sanders said. “If your coach leaves you can leave. Other than that, we’ve got to have some more stick-to-itiveness, because now, this is what you’re dealing with.”
It’s not about the kids
Once again, Sanders wants the power back in the coaches’ hands. He’s not worried about student-athletes education or old-school loyalty to a program. Sanders believes players should be the coach’s property until a coach decides at their whim to accept a better incentive elsewhere.
Adults making decisions about where they want to play football for their own interest isn’t a good idea in Sanders’ book. But for coaches, okay.
Sanders’ logic has nothing to do with returning college football to its intended purpose. He wants to make his job simpler.
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