Deion Sanders on Colorado Football: ‘We’re Box Office’
Deion Sanders has completely transformed the public perception surrounding Colorado football since he took the program over following the 2022 season.
Sure, the winning hasn’t come consistently yet, as Colorado is coming off a 4-8 season and lost seven of its last eight contests, but the amount of people that watched those games was unprecedented for the program.
Cameras, and therefore people, flock to see what Coach Prime is going to do next, and it’s hard to quantify just how valuable that might be. Imagine, if you will, what the College Football Playoff hype would be like if Coach Sanders and the Buffs were a part of the field.
It would be absolute pandemonium and in an interview with ESPN’s Steven A. Smith, he discussed what the debate would look like. Mike Norvell and Florida State (Deion’s alma mater) just finished their season at 13-0 and the winners of the ACC Championship. Yet, they were left out of the College Football Playoff. Sanders said that if his Buffs were in that position, there’s nothing that would stop his team from being a part of the field.
“Coach (Mike) Norvell coached his butt off and we can’t take nothing away from him,” Sanders said. “But the real question that you have is would you leave me out of the college playoffs? Ain’t no way in the world. We’re box office. You got to see this unless you’re crazy. I wish I had the problems that coach Norvell has.”
Sanders is clearly suggesting that television ratings, brands, and matchups all matter — it’s not just football like we’d all hope it to be. It’s a business. He said as much during a discussion with Carl Reed on 247Sports’ Transfer Portal Palooza earlier this month.
“No way that you’re going to leave coach (Nick) Saban and Alabama out of a playoff, and Georgia,” Sanders said. “No, you’re not going to leave Georgia and Alabama out. It ain’t no playoff if you do that. … But that’s a tough one. But they’re going to always go with the business. People think it’s just football, man. You got to understand this is a business as well.”
Colorado is set to make the jump to the Big 12 in the summer of 2024 and currently has a Top 25 recruiting class coming in, with many more pieces sure to arrive via the portal. Will Coach Prime and the Buffaloes get his team into that discussion in his second season? We’ll have to wait and see.
