Colorado's New Director of Football NIL Shares Insights on NIL and Revenue Sharings with Players

In this new era of college football, the focus on maximizing NIL and earning opportunities has become paramount. To stay ahead of the curve, Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders brought in a Director of Football NIL/Revenue Sharing.

With a pending settlement that could see Division I athletes receiving revenue sharing from their schools across all sports, Reggie Calhoun Jr. was brought in to oversee the Colorado football program after the university parted ways with its NIL collective just weeks ago.

As Colorado's Director of Football NIL/Revenue Sharing, Reggie Calhoun Jr., will be responsible for maximizing players' NIL possibilities, benefiting both the team and potential recruits. On Friday afternoon, Calhoun spoke with Buffaloes insider Scott Procter to discuss his role within the program and how Colorado is positioned to enter the future post-Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders.

"Once the collective went away due to the new rules and what CU really wanted to do, I went into my mode of wanting to show that I have more value to the program outside of just being operations for the collective. The revenue sharing is coming, the NCAA is changing, the NIL landscape has so many different viewpoints that I think it's time to really go back to what this all started from: athletes being able to monetize who they are."

Calhoun will approach his new role with a players-first mentality, working to shape Colorado's revenue sharing in a manner that will draw potential recruits to the Buffaloes' football program.

Colorado head coach Dion Sanders flagged for minor recruiting violation

In the world of NIL, recruiting violations seem nearly impossible to commit as tampering is at an all-time high across college football. Top players are being lured into the transfer portal with multi-million dollar NIL packages, causing outrage among coaches.

Aside from competing on the field, coaches are also vying to land the best talent for their teams, whether from high school or the transfer portal. Dollar amounts aside, few coaches have more to offer than Deion Sanders, whose draw has led to a migration to the Buffaloes' football program.

Sanders secured a commitment from one of the top quarterbacks in the 2025 recruiting class, Julian Lewis. Lewis was previously committed to Lincoln Riley and the USC Trojans before flipping his commitment to Coach Prime and the Buffaloes' program. However, it wasn't Lewis' commitment that led to Sanders being hit with a minor recruiting violation, but rather the mention of Lewis' name on a livestream.

The Buffaloes' athletic department was upfront with the NCAA, self-reporting the incident, which took place in 2024. While many would point the finger at the blatant tampering among teams looking to add transfers — no fault to Colorado for this — the NCAA has instead focused on the significantly lesser issue as expected.