Deion Sanders calls for college football age limit: 'You can’t have a 30-year-old man'

Deion Sanders has watched college football go through some changes in the past decade.

For better or worse, the Colorado Buffaloes coach has tried to stay ahead of everything. He was one of the first to use the transfer portal as a primary recruiting source, which is how other teams operate today.

Free agency, as college football knows, will always be polarizing without limits. Sanders went on the record about how the game could get better. He called for age limits as part of a competition standard. When the NIL era was ushered into college sports, hardly anybody took into consideration the fact some players were trying to make a career out of being in college.

This is worse in college basketball compared to college football, with LSU Tigers coach Will Wade constructing a roster of several players who were already selected in the NBA Draft. Also, the Diego Pavia rule, which allows former JUCO players a full four years of competition at the Division I level, has created a new avenue for the mid-20s crowd to milk the system.

Sanders doesn't agree with the rules that are currently written.

“You can’t have a 30-year-old man playing against a 21-year old man and think it’s fair,” Sanders told the AP in a recent interview. “Should be a transfer rule as well. You’re teaching kids not to fight through adversity when you’re having kids able to transfer two or three or four times.”

One of Sanders' best attributes as a coach is his ability to speak out about how the game could be better. With name, image, and likeness on the books, there will always be an angle to try and bend the rules. Look at Texas Tech and the Brendan Sorsby situation. Until the Big 12 brought legal action against the State of Texas, there was an idea he was going to be eligible after a gambling scandal rocked the college football landscape.

Now, Sorsby conceded his spot at Texas Tech after entering the 2026 NFL Supplemental Draft. The damage could've been far worse than it is currently. Once again, this is all traced back to

NIL and the stakes are higher than ever. What if being able to pay players openly existed during Sanders' prime at Florida State? Would he have changed the market into being more friendly for the generation of players who followed him?

Read More: Deion Sanders reacts to Brendan Sorsby's gambling scandal amid backlash across college football

“It probably wouldn’t have (changed),” Sanders said. He then reflected on his Hall of Fame career. “I’ve had a pretty good run. I’m still running, too — still high-stepping. I’m probably in the third quarter of this game (of life) and we’re winning. We’re up by about 21. I’m loving life.”

Sanders enters his fourth year at Colorado with a 16-21 record. A nine-win season would put him at .500 for his tenure in Boulder. The Buffaloes will have to beat the odds with a projected win total of 4.5 going into the upcoming season.