There’s no denying Deion Sanders became the most polarizing figure in college football last season, especially from the moment he took over as the Colorado Buffaloes head coach through September and October.
Colorado football games became must-see TCV in Coach Prime’s first year on the job, with celebrities regularly appearing on the sidelines. A September home game against USC included appearances from NBA superstar LeBron James, hip-hop artists Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z, Lil Wayne and DJ Khaled and actors Will Ferrell and Matthew McConaughey.
That didn’t necessarily translate to success on the field, as the Buffaloes finished 4-8 on the year and went just 1-8 in Pac-12 play. But Deion Sanders has created a buzz, and its hard to imagine that didn’t at least somewhat play a part in the overall admissions boost.
He single handedly changed the way college football programs operate, if they choose to follow his lead. He’s a marketing genius and promotes an old-school brand of football at Colorado with a new-school flair and swagger that appeals to many of the top recruits in the country.
Deion Sanders‘ impact on the University on the Colorado Buffaloes football program has been unquestionably massive, and now he has two more stats to prove it. According to Front Office Sports, the school’s online team store merchandise sales have increased 1,220% from September 2022 to September 2023, and the year-to-date sales are up 51% since Deion Sanders became the Buffaloes head coach.
Sanders’ move to Colorado resulted in over $45 million in earned media money for the school, according to the Apex Marketing Group. The school has also seen a 42% increase in sponsorship revenue.
In addition, the University of Colorado’s out-of-state student applications have increased by 40%, Colorado chancellor Phillip DiStefano told TIME. DiStefano is calling Sanders’ impact “transformational.”
“People are drawn to hope,” Sanders said. “We’re pulling people in, man, that just want a chance to be seen, to be heard, to be noticed, to be recognized.”
The University of Colorado reached a record-setting 68,000 applicants for the 2024 fall semester, according to Olivia Doak of the Daily Camera, and the arrival of head football coach Deion Sanders may have played at least some role.
“No doubt the exposure that CU Boulder has received since Coach Prime was hired has been tremendous,” associate vice chancellor of enrollment management Amy Hutton told Doak. “It obviously showcases that a number of our national media outlets are attracting applicants from all over the world, but it’s really difficult for us to draw that causational line between Coach Prime and this application increase.”
Visit Boulder said in a December press release that with all the increased attention Sanders has brought to the Buffs, home CU football games are estimated to have generated an economic impact of $113.2 million during the 2023 season
Visit Boulder said the direct economic impact, estimated at $72.1 million, is comprised of direct spending by visitors, organizers, media and sponsors for purchase transactions related to lodging, transportation, food and beverage, retail and recreation.
The indirect and induced impact is the additional spending by local businesses and employees of those businesses through generated income, the release said. It also includes spending that leaks outside of the local economy due to the purchase of goods, services and raw materials by locals and event organizers.
Denver Post Columnist Shreds Deion Sanders In Scathing Column Filled With Personal Attacks And Accusations The Colorado Buffaloes Coach Has Lost Money For The School
Denver Post sports columnist Sean Keeler picked a random day in early February — where very little is happening in the college football world — to kill the positive vibes surrounding Coach Prime and Colorado with an overly personal hit-piece, filled with personal attacks and accusations.
The column is titled: Deion Sanders is a false prophet. CU Buffs? College Football Playoffs? I’ll have what Coach Prime’s smoking.
From the first sentence, it’s clear Keeler is attempting to go against the grain and popularity for the Colorado Buffaloes head coach and make a name for himself in the offseason by attacking Sanders’ character.
Deion Sanders is a false prophet, the Bruce Lee of B.S., Harold Hill in designer shades. He’s also in the wrong business.
If Coach Prime wanted to run for governor, he’d kill it. Rallies for breakfast. Adoring fans for miles. No NCAA. No recruiting rules. No pesky Washington States to hammer you senseless in the cold. No Stanford to hand you a hubris sandwich. No scoreboard staring back with an inconvenient truth you can’t bend to fit the company narrative.
Keeler goes on to mention a recent appearance Deion Sanders made with Skip Bayless and Keshawn Johnson on FS1 where the Colorado Buffaloes coach said he believes his team will compete for a College Playoff spot in 2024.
Yeah, most definitely,” he told Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless last week when asked if his 4-8 CU Buffs were ready to crash the College Football Playoffs in 2024.
“Shoot, I believe, man. I don’t just wear this on my shirt and on my chest. I truly believe that what we have in-house (is enough). Last year, (Keyshawn Johnson) watched all these games. We were seven points away from a multitude of wins, probably seven or eight more wins. We just didn’t know how to win.”
Keeler immediately responded with sarcasm:
I watched all those games, too. Prime’s Buffs were 0-5 in Pac-12 tilts decided by seven points or fewer. They were 26 points away, in total, from flipping a 1-8 conference mark into 6-3 — so, five more net wins. So, hey, I mean, almost a multitude. A near-multitude.
Which, if you’re curious, still won’t get your ticket punched for the CFP. Since the Big 12 did away with divisions in determining who made its championship game in 2017, no team in a non-pandemic season has played for the league title with more than two conference losses on its resume.
“We made noise. But now, (we’re) gonna make some sounds,” Sanders said.
Keeler continued to rip Deion Sanders going as far to say anyone betting on the Buffs to win more than 8 games in 2024 is crazy.
Heck, yeah, they will. Loud ones. Although how much of that din gets taken seriously depends on a three-week, season-opening stretch that kicks off with North Dakota State, Team Trap Game, at Folsom Field. The Shedeur Sanders Farewell Tour then sashays into the friendly confines of Lincoln (Nebraska) and Fort Collins (CSU).
Anybody who sets the bar higher than eight wins is trying to take your money. Or your soul.
Finally Keeler closed out the piece with accusations pointed at Deon Sanders and the football team actually losing money for the school, stating the athletic department is in the red by more than $9 million dollars and has had to lean on state funds known as “institutional support” to keep afloat.
CU athletics collected $27.8 million in direct institutional support from the university proper over the ’22-23 fiscal. That was a whopping jump of $19.8 million over the department’s $8.02 million take in institutional support in its ’21-22 report — in fact, over the previous nine CU budgets, that total had never exceeded $9.01 million in any given cycle.
The Buffs’ institutional buffer was reportedly the second-largest in the country among public Power 5 schools Sportico.com had data on for ’22-23, trailing only future Big 12 rival Cincinnati ($35.529 million).
It’s abundantly clear Keeler is trying to post an ultra-negative image of Deion Sanders behind-the-scenes reality since taking over as the Colorado Buffaloes head coach, and while some of these facts may be true, one would think they would be reported by a variety of outlets and this would become a major news story if it was so far out of the norm.
“It’s fairly rare for a Power 5 (program) to be losing that amount of money. That’s unusual and problematic,” Victor Matheson, an economics professor at Holy Cross and a Boulder native, told me last week.
“Institutional support means you’re losing money, you’re covering up money with redirected money that could go to whatever. … It could’ve been directed at (university) housing, it could’ve been directed at the law school, take your choice.
“That’s not great at all. However, I think we all understand the difference between what was going on in the (fall) of 2022 and what was going on in September 2023 is a world of difference.”
As the Prime Time hype train left the station, The Buffs sold out every home game — heck, even a spring game — while donations to the Buff Club ($28 million in FY ’23, reportedly), ticket sales and merchandise sales exploded. CU can argue, and justifiably, that the Buffs had to spend money to start making more of it. Although …
“While the rest of the university kicked in ($27.8 million) to subsidize the athletic program when things were bad,” Matheson noted with a chuckle, “it’s very unlikely we’re going to see the athletic department take any (’23-24) profit and kick it back to the university.”
Keeler’s final line of the column tells you everything you need to know about his intention of the piece and feelings toward Deion Sanders.
False prophets or false profits? Either way, talk is cheap. I’d run through a wall for Deion. But only if that wall was made of foam bricks and broken promises.