Colorado does not yet have money for Deion Sanders’ contract

Sometimes during the holiday season you can’t help but spend a big gift that you don’t quite have the money for yet, so you put it on a credit card (or check) and deal with it later.

That’s apparently also how Colorado approached hiring Deion Sanders. Coach Prime takes his talents from Jackson, Mississippi to Boulder, Colorado, making official what had been rumored for weeks late Saturday night after Jackson State won the SWAC title. While he didn’t give his buddy Rob Jay a ride to Colorado, he did arrive in style and had a press conference on Sunday where he talked about opening doors for other HBCU coaches at the FBS level, his hopes for the Buffs, and even stated his son, Shadeur, as the new quarterback at Boulder, confirming the former four-star recruit will transfer from Jackson State to Colorado.

The part of the press conference that caused the most waves, however, wasn’t something Deion said, but instead came from Colorado AD Rick George, who was asked about the 5-year, $29.5 million deal she offered Sanders. gifts, the largest in program history. George admitted that they didn’t have all the money for the contract yet, but they would.

This raised a lot of eyebrows, because it’s not often you hear someone say that very often they still don’t have money for someone’s contract, and while I’m sure he’s referring to the full five-year figure – and it should be noted that he was fully convinced that the money would come their way – it’s still very funny to hear. As such, people from all over college football made fun of the Buffs putting Coach Prime’s contract on their credit card and later worrying about it.

As SI reporter Ross Dellenger pointed out, this is actually an oddly common process for college athletic departments, but still not one most ADs say out loud in public.