It’s no secret that Deion Sanders has been pretty ruthless with his roster management since he became the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes back in December. He’s pushing players into the portal in a way we’ve never seen before in college football. And as college football insider Stewart Mandel points out, Sanders is able to do it by taking advantage of one recent rule change.
This week, Mandel responded to a question about the jarring number of Colorado players entering the transfer portal. And he revealed that he is not surprised by what’s happening.
“It’s ruthless. It’s extraordinary in the sheer numbers (as of this writing, only 18 scholarship players from last year’s roster remain). It’s completely against the spirit of the NCAA’s run-off rules … and it’s entirely unsurprising,” Mandel wrote for The Athletic.
As Mandel points out, Sanders is able to do this after a recent rule change that now allows Sanders to sign more than 25 players in a single recruiting class.
“As recently as 2021, it would have taken several years to pull off what he’s trying to pull off. The one-time transfer exception was an obvious game changer, but so was another more recent rules change. The NCAA last year lifted the long-held limit of 25 scholarships per class due to the portal. (Recently it had also allowed 10 additional signees to replace outgoing transfers.) Theoretically, Deion could dump all 85 players from 2022 and sign 85 new ones. He’s already 80 percent there.”
It will certainly be interesting to see how this approach works out for Sanders.
