I'm pulling this discussion out of the recruiting threads.
Currently the CU Buffs look to return 16 scholarship players from last seasons team.
This is an unheard amount of turnover, and it has garnered shock from from CU players who've been transferred out, from some in the media, and many opposing fans showing anger at what has transpired. Some predicting absolute implosion, some calling Deion Sanders an asshole, others lamenting that these are student athletes who've been betrayed by the school.
Whether this is successful or not remains to be seen.
But I am here to say that the sport has fundamentally changed, and those people criticizing Deion Sanders and CU have not grasped those changes yet. You can love it or hate it, but Prime did not bring these changes about, and is instead operating with full understanding of the new reality.
The players rightly and morally asked for the ability to earn money off their name and their contributions to the school. This has spawned sponsorships and NIL collectives and huge payouts for the most talented players. Players also asked for - again rightly and morally - the ability to control their futures by moving to the school that offers them the best situation without the penalty of sitting out for a year. These are good developments for the players.
When this first happened, it seemed to put all the pressure back on the schools. Budget strapped institutions had to figure out how to pay for all this and entice players to both come and stay. It seemed to carve out a special place for the already rich blue bloods in the sport.
What elite coaches are starting to realize is what College Basketball has known for a long time - these rules also allow them to restructure their roster on the fly. Deion Sanders has taken this to the extreme, but other coaches (most notably Lincoln Riley) did this last year and have been successful. Even coaches who like to subtweet Deion Sanders - such as Matt Rhule - have not been afraid to avail themselves of the transfer portal to provide an immediate injection of talent and to jettison players who didn't fit athletically or culturally.
Coach Prime is a lightning rod. The greatest DB to play the game, and winner of a championships in both the MLB and NFL, he has made a name for himself athletically and by building an effective media empire. This includes an incredible grasp of social media and traditional media. He has three YouTube channels that provide daily reach to hundreds of thousands of people. He has created unprecedented access into the program, which means that people actually get to see what happens in a P5 football program. He has close relationships with media personalities and sports personalities, and knows how to connect with traditional media like ESPN to bring eyeballs to his program.
Some folks argue that this is due to Prime's ego. Yes, Prime does have an ego - you won't find many people who are the best ever at something who don't ooze confidence at every turn. That can make people uncomfortable when there doesn't appear to be any humility. But what Deion Sanders gets is that everything is sales. Every single thing he is doing is to build his brand, build his players brands, build CU's brand and to recruit. Right now, all this aligns for CU, because if any brand has needed rebuilding in the CFB world, it is CU's. Maybe in a couple years Sanders leaves and there is a crater where he left - but in the meantime he is showing that Boulder is a great place. Great campus, great school, great town with great breakfast places with a great AD and great facilities and a fun program. He has wiped the slate clean and is putting on a masterclass in keeping CU in the headlines nearly every single day. Just read the posts on Reddit that garner so much hate, or the massively success that was CU's spring game on ESPN.
But Sanders understands what he is entrusted with. He has to take a 1-11 team that has been garbage for approaching 20 years (except sweet sweet 2016) and make them a contender. The last 5 coaches at CU have tried to do it the traditional way. Mostly because they had to do it that way, but also because they didn't have the pull for major changes. Each of those coaches have failed.
Meanwhile, the same media and CFB fans who are upset today are the ones that have been mocking CU for the past 20 years. They are the same ones who post in game recaps about how CU is outmatched, or the players don't appear to be P5 quality. Now they want to clutch pearls that those same players aren't being treated fairly.
Well, those people don't understand that CFB has changed. Anyone predicting that Sanders will fail based on past models of building programs is still stuck in the past. Those days are over. This is the future that the players asked for, and Sanders has been completely honest from Day 1 about what he was going to do, and what was required. People just have unprecedented access to see it happen, and the rules have changed to such a degree that it is a legitimate option for Sanders to flip 80% of a roster in a single offseason.
I don't blame players for being upset - no one wants to be told they aren't good enough. But Sanders is tasked with changing the direction of a program that has been mocked for 20 years. Sanders could have done all this with kid gloves, but CFB has never been closer to pro-sports, for better or worse, and Sanders thinks he is not doing any favors to these players by doing that.
No one can predict if this will be successful or not - but most CFB fans don't seem to understand that the world has changed, and they are the ones stuck in the past. I know I wouldn't bet against Deion Sanders.
