Paul Finebaum believes Colorado will be 'painfully boring and perhaps even mediocre' in 2025

At Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders called for the NCAA to place a cap on teams’ NIL spending on rosters. During an appearance on First Take on Thursday, ESPN’s Paul Finebaum criticized Sanders for complaining about other teams’ spending.

“In a perfect world, of course, I agree, but we don’t live in a perfect world in college football, which is one reason it makes it so bizarrely interesting,” Finebaum said. “I find it just a tad bit interesting and maybe a slight bit hypocritical that Deion Sanders after his two great players — I mean, we’re not just talking about good players in terms of Travis Hunter, one of the best players in modern college football history — as they depart, suddenly, Deion wants a cap.

“Can you imagine what Travis Hunter would have been worth and would Deion have been in favor of a cap then? Of course not. So, Deion is simply trying to tell the media, ‘Hey, let’s talk about something other than my football team, which is going to be painfully boring, and perhaps even mediocre this year.”

Finebaum’s final note is harsh, but Colorado realistically won’t have an easy path in front of it this fall. The team is returning just eight total starters from last season, and lost starting quarterback Shedeur Sanders and 2025 Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter to the NFL Draft this offseason.

Nonetheless, Colorado didn’t allow outside criticism to stop it last year. After an underwhelming 2023 campaign, many analysts questioned Deion Sanders’ ability to lead the program to success.

Sanders silenced his doubters in 2024 by leading Colorado to a 9-4 overall record and a 7-2 mark in conference play. Now, Sanders will look to shock his critics once again with a set of fresh faces. Of course, Sanders believes it’d be easier to accomplish his goals if he weren’t facing teams with far greater spending budgets.

“I wish there was a cap,” Sanders said. “Like, the top-of-the-line player makes this and if you’re not that type of guy, you know you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does. The problem is, you’ve got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him another half a million dollars. You can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense.

“You talk about equality … all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn near why they’re in the playoffs. It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s giving $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class. It’s crazy.”