College Football

Prime Time in Pac-12: How Deion Sanders will impact Colorado, conference, sport

Updated Dec. 13, 2022 10:46 a.m. ET

It's Prime Time in the Power 5.

After leading Jackson State to its second-straight SWAC title and a 12-0 record, Deion Sanders has been announced as the next head coach at Colorado. With that announcement begins a new era in Boulder and beyond, and signifies the arrival of a cultural icon — and one of the sport’s best coaches — to the FBS coaching ranks.

Let's take a look at what that means:

What does it mean for Coach Prime?

After leading Jackson State, a historic football program, to its first undefeated regular season in school history, putting together a 27-5 record and winning back-to-back SWAC Championships, Sanders is taking an appropriate step up in coaching difficulty, if not prestige. He's also taking up the challenge of building a winner at the highest level of the sport — the Power 5 — at a school that felt ready for the Coach Prime experience.

Sanders is smart to take the job at a school that had previously hired two Black head coaches in succession. With a dearth of Black head coaches at the FBS level, Sanders has an opportunity to show out not only for Colorado but for other Black coaches who deserve a shot to lead Power 5 programs.

If Sanders’ Buffaloes perform like his Tigers did, he might not be long for Colorado if a better job — like Alabama, Ohio State or the Dallas Cowboys — becomes available. Buffalo fans can take heart in thinking Sanders might have to put together a good season (10-plus wins and a conference title?) before that job materializes. However, Mel Tucker left Colorado for Michigan State without achieving either of those things.

What does it mean for Colorado?

The Buffaloes have a star. Remember, Sanders’ appeal is so great that the JSU spring game was nationally televised.

He built and sustained a winner in Mississippi during a pandemic, and signed the top recruiting class in FCS just last February.

He's also got player chops that are legendary, having played in both the NFL and MLB — famously once on the same day. He won NFL Defensive Player of the Year, a Super Bowl and was crowned a Pro Football and College Football Hall of Famer.

At this time last year, USC and Trojan athletic director Mike Bohn shocked the sport with the biggest coaching hire of the year, luring Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma.

In short order, Riley flipped a 4-8 program into an 11-win program that fell just a game short of making its first trip to the College Football Playoff.

He accomplished that feat by taking advantage of the transfer portal, luring a star quarterback and others who wanted to play with him, and feasting on the recruiting-rich West Coast.

Sanders brings the same fame and star power to Boulder that Riley did to South Central. He also would likely recruit his son, Shedeur Sanders, one of the best quarterbacks in the FCS — or FBS for that matter — with him to Colorado.

With the resources available to Sanders at a Pac-12 program that hasn't been relevant since Joel Klatt played quarterback, the Buffaloes have the ingredients to skip a rebuild and become competitive right away in a league that hasn't produced a CFP team since 2016.

With a 2023 season-opener against a TCU program that matched JSU win-for-win through the regular season, as well as a matchup with Nebraska and its new head coach Matt Rhule, Colorado has gained a foothold in the national discourse for the first time in two decades.

What does it mean for the Pac-12?

What better way to respond to the departure of USC (and UCLA) for the Big Ten than to have one of its remaining teams, Utah, not only successfully defend its Pac-12 title but thrash Riley's squad in doing so? How about by bringing in a coach with even more star power than Riley?

The league began the season amid rampant speculation that it would be raided by other conferences, or worse yet, be forced to dissolve. CU athletic director Rick George acted. After letting former CU head coach Karl Dorrell go, he didn't settle for anything less than a home-run hire and a win for the remaining 10 teams in the Pac-12.

Just like that, the league will be known for more than just playing in the late-night window on the East Coast, having teams knock each other out of CFP contention and playing its title game on a Friday night. Now, with Coach Prime on the sideline, the Pac-12 has become must-see TV.

Here’s to games featuring the brightest rising star in coaching — Sanders, matching wits with Riley, Kyle Whittingham, Chip Kelly and Dan Lanning in just eight months.

What does it mean for the sport?

In an age of dramatic turnarounds performed at programs like Baylor, TCU, Michigan and USC, the head coach at a university has never been more important. Sanders is an example of that.

With him as Buffaloes head coach, expect fundraising to become easier at Colorado, and for players to take recruiting visits there who might never have done so.

But for Colorado’s foes — all 130 of them in the FBS — the time to gird their loins has come. Sanders was able to land the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2022 class at Jackson State. It shouldn't come as a shock to anyone if he puts together a series of top-10 recruiting classes given his ability to recruit in the age of name, image and likeness, and the transfer portal.

Perhaps if there is one reservation to have about Sanders’ recruiting classes is whether he can convince those all-important offensive and defensive interior linemen to choose Colorado. At JSU, he simply didn't have the resources — nor the number of scholarships available to him — to challenge FBS teams on the field.

And that ought to be a terrifying thought.

What does it mean for HBCUs?

Sanders has demonstrated that not only can the right person win at an HBCU but can (re)turn that HBCU program to national prominence at the FCS level.

And Sanders isn't alone in his attempt. Eddie George is attempting to win at Tennessee State, Willie Simmons is winning at Florida A&M, and the college football world is paying attention.

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