Deion Sanders, Colorado agrees with 5-year-old, $ 54 million extension: why displacement is logical for buffs

By Stewart Mandel, David Ubben, Bruce Feldman and Christopher Kamrani

Within the extensive catalog of Deion Sanders -Slogans, the one he proclaimed is short after he was hired as a Colorados football coach in December 2022, just as visible as always. The man who has sworn with confidence that I did not find hard twice and again during his revolutionary approach to College Football.

Colorado announced a new five -year contract of $ 54 million for Sanders on Friday. The contract increases Sanders salary from $ 5.7 million in 2024 to $ 10 million this year, making it one of the 10 best-paid coaches in the country.

You know where hell is: in a cowboy hat, shades on, working to continue his brash, innovative Ascension in Boulder.

Now that it started in his third season, Sanders, 57, was over to two years on his original contract. Athletic director Rick George has been negotiating a new deal with the coach since last year, during which time Sanders known as coach Prime was briefly considered a candidate for the Dallas Cowboysbaan.

Coach Prime has brought about a revolution in the University Football and has recovered CU Football as national power to our legitimate place, George said.

This expansion not only recognizes incredible achievements that transform our program on and outside the field, it keeps him in Boulder to compete for conference and national championships in the coming years.

Colorado went 1-11 the year before Sanders took over. After a debut season of 4-8, he led the Buffaloes to a 9-4 record in 2024, ending in a four-way draw for the first in the Big 12. Receiver/Cornerback Travis Hunter won the Heisman-Trophee. Quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of the coach, earned Big 12 attacking player of the year.

Hunter, Sanders and Safety Shilo Sanders, Shedeurs -brother, continued after last season.

As the school stated in its announcement, Sanders also changed from Colorado to one of the most viewed teams in the country in the past two seasons, with his games that often draw some of the highest TV reviews every week. The loss of Alamo Bowl for Byu on ABC was the most viewed game in the history of those bowls.

Colorados Financial report for the tax year of 2024, obtained by Athleticsreported a record of $ 31.2 million in turnover in Ticket sales for the 2023 season, Sanders First in Boulder, against around $ 13 million the previous season.

Since taking over the once-Humdrum program, Sanders Commercial Profile has reached a stratosphere in contrast to any other head coach in American Sports. During the 2024 season it seemed when there was a commercial break during a competition on every network, Sanders was there. He was in a boat fishing with the most decorated university coach in history, Nick Saban, in another new Aflac commercial. He fought his children in the Sanders family-style Kentucky Fried Chicken advertisements. And he was even a cowboy-hat with gold-chain-sporting pigeon in a commercial for DirectV.

Dion is the original athlete marketing machine, Constance Schwartz-Morini, Sanders Longtime Business Partner and Agent, said Athletics in 2023.

Sanders New Deal ends a somewhat uncomfortable impasse. Sanders had been the Big 12s fourth highest paid coach Behind Kansas Lance Leipold ($ 7.5 million a year) says Oklahoma Mike Gundy ($ 6.75 million a year) and Utahs Kyle Whittingham ($ 6.5 million a year). His deal is now blowing away.

During a Cameo appearance on the Morning Run Podcast earlier this month, Sanders made a cryptic remark about money before he left the room as quickly as he came in.

These people better get my money and stop playing. Bye. Hello, he said, leave the screen.

Sanders was asked about his contract at a press conference on March 17, his first meeting with reporters since the end of the season. He said there might have been conversations with the university about an elevation and extension.

Don't know. I'm not worried about me. Let's get everyone right first, he said. Then I'm good.

Why this deal is logical for Colorado

If a head coach from the university has earned a large extension this winter, it is Sanders. Colorado was really horrible before he came to Boulder two years ago.

It was not only the teams one-win season before Sanders arrival, but losing in each of the teams 11 was blown up. In his first game at CU, the buffs declined a ranked TCU team that played its last time out in the Horned Frogs Home in the National Title Game. He made CU almost immediately for the first time in about 25 years of national relevant.

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 staff by hiring defensive coordinator Robert Livingston and giving the former Bengals assistant his first job as a gaming, who turned out to be a brilliant move. Moreover, Sanders went 27-6 in a Jackson State program that had not had a winning season in seven years.

It will be interesting to see how the buffs are doing after Sanders two biggest recruits that Hunter and Shedeur Sanders have transferred to the NFL, but the coach was more doubts and proven that so many people were wrong. It was very logical that the buffs chose to do everything to keep him in Boulder. Bruce Feldman, National College Insider

Sanders does it his way

With the arrival of the transfer portal and the name, image and parable (NIL) that forced university football to change forever, Sanders promised to build his selection such as NFL Free Agency. He did not apologize when other coaches criticized the plan or the controversial implementation. He clapped back. In year 1 in Colorado, Sanders and his staff brought in 87 new players. In 2024 there were 65 newcomers. Adjust the Sanders way, or as he said so often, pack your bags.

I never take a step back, said Sanders in mid -November. I try to take a step further. I am always with my head out of the window: I try to see around the corner and do not try to see it straight. It is normality to see what is for them. I try to see around the corner.

For the conclusion of the regular season of 2024, Sanders said that he had a standard in Boulder, which means that he was not on hunting for a higher job at a university that could splash the money in a way that Colorado could not. Sanders squeezed the speculation in the button before it could get out of hand in November and said: we are not going anywhere. Were about to become comfortable.

He has again brought a backup of the big conversation while the program enters the next phase of the Prime evolution.

Sanders and Company are in place at Quarterback. Colorado provided a commitment of five -star Quarterback Julian Juju Lewis, who kicks off USC. And Kaidon Salter transferred to Liberty. Christopher Kamrani, National College Football Writer

Life after Shedeur, Shilo and Hunter

Shilo and Shedeur Sanders were coached by their father for most of their career. Sanders turned Hunter, the Nations No. 1 General Recruit in 2022, on signing day from the state of Florida to join him in Jackson State, and Hunter followed Sanders to Colorado. Hunter Afafgood Sanders most of his life and Sanders came to call Hunter his other son. In November Hunter called the relationship an unbreakable father and son during an appearance on Foxs Big Noon Kickoff.

After his name was announced as the Heisman Trophy winner on December 14, the tears tumbled down Hunters Face while he fell into the waiting arms of Sanders. On stage in his baby blue colored suit, Hunter said time and again that Sanders changed his life forever. Hunter, in turn, became the perfect test case for what 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 while he continues with Colorado. David Ubben, National College Football Writer

(Photo: Ron Chenoy / USA Today Network via Imagn Images)