Deion Sanders Responds to Post About State of CFB Recruiting in NIL Era, 'Lololol'

Deion Sanders has chimed in with some thoughts about the state of recruiting in college football during the NIL era.

The Colorado head coach wrote "Lololol" in response to a post on X about a high school recruit engaging in a back-and-forth with their high school coach about attending a school, then getting an offer of $500,000 and a Cadillac to go to a specific college.

The joke seems to be that college coaches aren't as interested in developing players anymore as they are in finding a quick way to add premium talent and hope things work out.

There definitely does seem to be evidence supporting the idea that coaches aren't as invested in building up their own talent as they once were.

Per data from the 2025 season featuring the top 15 teams in the College Football Playoff rankings released by The Athletic's Sam Khan Jr., the four clubs that advanced to the semifinals were among the top seven in starts by transfers.

Indiana, which just won the national title, had the second-highest percentage of starts from transfers (65.9 percent) from that group. Mississippi was atop the list with 66.3 percent of starts by transfer players.

Among the teams that made the playoff on the list, three of the top four teams by percentage of starts from high school recruits lost their first game. The group includes Georgia, Oregon and Ohio State. Alabama was the only team in the top four that won a playoff game before losing 38-3 to Notre Dame.

Granted, a one-year sample size isn't definitive proof of anything. But it has led to questions about a much larger issue of how important recruiting out of high school really is anymore.

It is worth noting that just one year ago, Ohio State won the national title with an offensive foundation built on high school recruiting. Jeremiah Smith, Emeka Egbuka, Carnell Tate, TreVeyon Henderson, J.T. Tuimoloau and Jack Sawyer were all key contributors and homegrown prospects on that Buckeyes team.