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It just doesn't make sense for Coach Prime to leave Colorado in 2024.
Alright everyone, let’s all take a collective chill pill. Deion Sanders isn’t going to leave Colorado to take the vacant head coaching job at Texas A&M. After A&M made the decision to kick Jimbo Fisher to the curb after six underwhelming seasons with the Aggies, rumors quickly spread online that A&M was eyeing Deion for the job. Hell, even Steven A. Smith went on ESPN Monday morning saying that Coach Prime should jump ship to College Station and the SEC. Despite all the media attention and frenzy that swept over Twitter, it just doesn’t make sense for Coach Prime to leave Boulder after the 2023 season. Here’s the three main reasons that Deion is going to stick around and coach the Buffaloes, at least for one more year.
He’d have to leave Shedeur and Travis Hunter behind.
If Coach Prime did end up going to A&M, he wouldn’t be able to bring Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter with him. Both Shedeur and Travis already used their one free transfer to come over to Colorado from Jackson State with Deion. After their second transfer, the NCAA requires players to sit out an entire year before they are eligible to play for their new school. That means that if Shedeur and Travis decided to leave Colorado with Deion to go to A&M, they wouldn’t be able to play in 2024.
Coach Prime found out the hard way that the NCAA doesn’t mess around with transfer waivers before the 2023 season. The organization forced Buffs offensive lineman Tyler Brown to sit out the entire season due to Colorado being his second transfer, despite external circumstances that likely should have warranted him an exception. If Deion did take the A&M gig, he’d would either have to leave Shedeur and Travis behind in Boulder or have them sit on the sideline for all of 2024. Sitting out the entire next season would likely cause Shedeur and Travis’ draft stock to take a massive hit. It’s a lose-lose situation for Deion and his best players if he were to go to College Station, so it just makes far more sense for him to stay in Boulder.
It’d leave Shelomi Sanders in a terrible situation.
For those who don’t know, Deion’s daughter Shelomi Sanders is a member of Colorado’s women’s basketball team. If Deion was to leave Boulder to go to A&M, he’d have to take the job smack dab in the middle of hoops season. That would leave Shelomi in a really ugly situation, as she’d have to awkwardly finish the season in Boulder before transferring to A&M with her dad. Shelomi would be stuck at Colorado alone, fielding questions about why Coach Prime left and when she’d follow him. That just sounds like an absolute nightmare of a situation that Deion wouldn't leave a family member in. Coach Prime has proven himself to be a great father, so I doubt he’d put his daughter in such a bad spot for a bigger paycheck.
Plus, Shelomi would have to sit out all of 2024 due to NCAA’s transfer rules. Much like Travis and Shedeur, Shelomi transferred to CU from Jackson State in 2023. A&M would be her second transfer, just to add another complication into the equation.
It just doesn’t make sense financially.
When Deion came to Colorado, he inked a five-year contract worth $29.5 million. Deion is only getting paid $5.5 million for his work this year, but he gets an additional $200K bonus for each year he stays. Also written into Coach Prime’s contract is a clause that requires him to pay the school money if he leaves before his contract expires, the amount for which goes down exponentially with each year he stays. If Deion was to leave Colorado at the end of the 2023 season, he’d owe the school a whopping $15 million. That would mean that Coach Prime would lose an astounding $10 million if he decided to leave Boulder for the A&M job.
Money probably isn’t playing a big factor in Coach Prime’s decision to stay in Boulder, but the future of his kids and star players is. Deion is extremely unlikely to leave Colorado until Shedeur and Travis Hunter declare for the NFL Draft, which seem like it’ll be after the 2024 season. Coach Prime is going to stay put in Boulder, at least one more year. There’s going to come a time when Buffs fans should actually worry about Coach Prime leaving Boulder, but that time is at least a year out.
by RylandScholes
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