Urban Meyer just can’t take Deion Sanders’ proposal for a salary cap seriously. Sanders came under fire last week during the Big 12 media days after proposing that a salary cap be imposed on college football to prevent powerhouse schools from ruling the transfer portal market. He proposed that a system similar to that of the NFL be implemented.
During Wednesday’s episode of the “Triple Option” podcast, Urban Meyer gave his take on Deion Sanders’ proposal:
“I have two thoughts. Number one, I thought that was one of the purposes of this entire settlement and everyone with a salary cap. And number two is: I could care less. I mean, this is—I think—the 780th time we’ve talked about this.” (8:00)
“But still, it will never happen. It will never happen because Colorado is not the same as Ohio State and Alabama and big market cities that have alumni who are willing to do that. In a perfect world, you’d like it to be like the NFL—but it’s not. It’s like Major League Baseball, and we’ve said this over and over again,” he added.
Is Urban Meyer right? Does Deion Sanders’ proposal make sense?
One of the first questions Deion Sanders’ proposal raised was: Is it even necessary? Under the rules set out by the House v. NCAA settlement, schools are only able to use 22% of their yearly revenue in player compensation. Many analysts have already established that this won’t be enough to build a nationally competitive roster. This limit in itself is already a form of salary cap.
The problem remains NIL deals, which are less regulated. But even there, Deloitte (The independent clearinghouse set up by the settlement), will have to approve new deals, and some speculate that this will make it more difficult for schools to use booster groups to hand out money in their names.
Beyond that, Urban Meyer seems to believe that as things evolve, the college football market will become something more akin to the MLB. MLB is the only major American sports league not to have a salary cap. Some have even criticized Deion Sanders for proposing a salary cap, after participating in the 1990s MLB players’ strike, which prevented the implementation of such a system in baseball.
According to Meyer, you’ll eventually have players in some programs that make more than the entire rosters of others. He used the Los Angeles Dodgers as an example, where Shohei Ohtani makes significantly more than the entire roster of poorer franchises.
The Miami Marlins’ payroll is $67 million per year, and while Ohtani currently makes $2 million per year, once deferrals kick in, he will make $70 million per year.
In a funny gaffe, Urban Meyer referred to Ohtani as the left fielder of the Dodgers (Don’t anyone tell him that’s Teoscar Hernandez, not Shohei Ohtani).
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