By Stewart Mandel, David Ubben, Bruce Feldman and Christopher Kamrani
Within the comprehensive catalogue of Deion Sanders’ slogans, the one he proclaimed soon after being hired as Colorado’s football coach in December 2022 is now as prescient as ever. The man who confidently vowed “I Ain’t Hard 2 Find” again and again during his revolutionary approach to college football is staying put.
Colorado announced a new five-year, $54 million contract for Sanders on Friday. The contract raises Sanders’ salary from $5.7 million in 2024 to $10 million this year, making him one of the 10 highest-paid coaches in the country.
You know where he’ll be: in a cowboy hat, shades on, working to continue his brash, innovative ascension in Boulder.
Now entering his third season, Sanders, 57, was down to two years remaining on his original contract. Athletic director Rick George had been negotiating a new deal with the coach since at least late last year, during which time Sanders — known as Coach Prime — was briefly considered a candidate for the Dallas Cowboys job.
“Coach Prime has revolutionized college football and in doing so, has restored CU football to our rightful place as a national power,” George said.
“This extension not only recognizes Coach’s incredible accomplishments transforming our program on and off the field, it keeps him in Boulder to compete for conference and national championships in the years to come.”
Colorado went 1-11 the year before Sanders took over. After a 4-8 debut season, he led the Buffaloes to a 9-4 record in 2024, finishing in a four-way tie for first in the Big 12. Receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter won the Heisman Trophy. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the coach’s son, earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year.
Hunter, Sanders and safety Shilo Sanders, Shedeur’s brother, moved on after last season.
As the school mentioned in its announcement, Sanders also turned Colorado into one of the most-watched teams in the country over the past two seasons, with its games often drawing some of the highest TV ratings each week. Its Alamo Bowl loss to BYU on ABC was the most-watched game in that bowl’s history.
Colorado’s financial report for the 2024 fiscal year, obtained by The Athletic, reported a record $31.2 million in revenue in ticket sales for the 2023 season, Sanders’ first in Boulder, up from about $13 million the previous season.
Since taking over the once-humdrum program, Sanders’ commercial profile reached a stratosphere unlike any other head coach in American sports. Throughout the 2024 season, it seemed any time there was a commercial break during a game on any network, Sanders was there. He was in a boat fishing with the most-decorated college coach in history, Nick Saban, in yet another new Aflac commercial. He was prodding his children in the Sanders family-style Kentucky Fried Chicken ads. And he was even a cowboy-hat wearing, gold-chain-sporting pigeon in a commercial for DirecTV.
“Deion is the original athlete marketing machine,” Constance Schwartz-Morini, Sanders’ longtime business partner and agent, told The Athletic in 2023.
Sanders’ new deal ends a somewhat awkward standoff. Sanders had been the Big 12’s fourth-highest paid coach behind Kansas’ Lance Leipold ($7.5 million a year), Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy ($6.75 million a year) and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham ($6.5 million a year). His deal now blows those away.
During a cameo appearance on “The Morning Run” podcast earlier this month, Sanders made a cryptic remark about money before leaving the room as quickly as he entered it.
“These people better go and get my money and stop playing. Bye. Bye,” he said, exiting the screen.
Sanders was asked about his contract at a news conference on March 17, his first meeting with reporters since the end of the season. He said there were “maybe” talks with the university about a raise and extension.
“I don’t know. I ain’t worried about me. Let’s get everybody else straight first,” he said. “Then I’m good.”
Why this deal makes sense for Colorado
If any college head coach earned a big extension this winter, it is Sanders. Colorado was truly atrocious before he came to Boulder two years ago.
It wasn’t just the team’s one-win season before Sanders’ arrival, but in each of the team’s 11 losses, it was blown out. In his first game at CU, the Buffs knocked off a ranked TCU team that played in the national title game its last time out at the Horned Frogs’ home. He almost instantly made CU nationally relevant for the first time in about 25 years.
Then last season, he led the Buffs to 9-4 and a Top 25 finish for only the second time in 20 seasons. He also showed a keen eye for staffing by hiring defensive coordinator Robert Livingston and giving the former Bengals assistant his first job as a play caller, which proved to be a brilliant move. In addition, Sanders went 27-6 at a Jackson State program that had not had a winning season in seven years.
It will be interesting to see how the Buffs do after Sanders’ two biggest recruits — Hunter and Shedeur Sanders — have moved on to the NFL, but the coach has been doubted before, and proved so many people wrong. It made a lot of sense that the Buffs have opted to go all in to keep him in Boulder. — Bruce Feldman, national college insider
Sanders does it his way
With the advent of the transfer portal and name, image and likeness (NIL) forcing college football to change forever, Sanders promised to build his roster like NFL free agency. He did not apologize when other coaches criticized the plan or its controversial execution. He clapped back. In Year 1 at Colorado, Sanders and his staff brought in 87 new players. In 2024, there were 65 newcomers. Adapt to the Sanders Way, or as he’s said so often, pack your bags.
“I never take a step back,” Sanders said in mid-November. “I try to take a step up. I’m always with my head out the window: I’m trying to see around the corner, not trying to see straight ahead. It’s normalcy to see what’s in front of them. I’m trying to see around the corner.”
Before the conclusion of the 2024 regular season, Sanders said he had a “kickstand down” in Boulder, meaning he wasn’t on the prowl for a higher-profile job with a university that could splash the cash in a way Colorado could not. Sanders nipped the speculation in the bud before it could further spin out of control throughout November, saying: “We ain’t going nowhere. We’re about to get comfortable.”
He’s once again backed up the big talk as the program enters the next phase of the Prime evolution.
Sanders and company have their successor at quarterback in place. Colorado secured a commitment from five-star quarterback Julian “JuJu” Lewis, who decommitted from USC. And Kaidon Salter transferred in from Liberty. — Christopher Kamrani, national college football writer
Life after Shedeur, Shilo and Hunter
Shilo and Shedeur Sanders have been coached by their dad most of their careers. Sanders flipped Hunter, the nation’s No. 1 overall recruit in 2022, on signing day from Florida State to join him at Jackson State, and Hunter followed Sanders to Colorado. Hunter idolized Sanders most of his life, and Sanders has come to call Hunter his “other son.” In November, Hunter called the relationship an “unbreakable father and son bond” during an appearance on Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff.”
After his name was announced as last season’s Heisman Trophy winner on Dec. 14, tears tumbled down Hunter’s face as he fell into the waiting arms of Sanders. At the podium in his baby-blue colored suit, Hunter said again and again that Sanders changed his life forever. Hunter, in turn, became the perfect test case for what entrusting Sanders can do for a player.
But consider the other side of the coin: Sanders will no longer have the built-in talent of his sons or Hunter as he moves forward with Colorado. — David Ubben, national college football writer
(Photo: Ron Chenoy / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)
