BOULDER, Colo. – Shortly before kickoff this year at Colorado home football games, the stadium starts to buzz with various celebrity guests and crew for “Coach Prime” Deion Sanders.
Some wear badges on the sideline in the shape of sunglasses. It’s called a “Prime Pass.” Some lug video equipment up the elevator with shirts that say they are part of the “Coach Prime” documentary film crew. Others stroll on the field with credentials that say they belong to SMAC Productions, part of a talent agency in Los Angeles that features Sanders as a client.
Each has a role in the show these days at the University of Colorado, a public school that has made a series of highly unusual moves to accommodate it and elevate this football coach as the public face of the university.
Many of those moves have paid off. Sanders has led the Buffaloes to a 4-1 start in his second season and will again take his team to the national stage Saturday night against Kansas State on ESPN.
But some are still skeptical about the list of accommodations for Sanders’ football program, including a big change last year in the acceptance of transfer players and even a ban this year on a journalist Sanders didn’t like.
“People have lost their damn minds on this campus,” said Roger Pielke Jr., a CU Boulder graduate and longtime professor.
USA TODAY Sports compiled a list of changes that have been made for Sanders’ benefit and discussed them with longtime observers of higher education, as well as new CU Boulder chancellor Justin Schwartz, who oversees the campus including the Buffaloes’ athletic department.
All the players and the plays: Sign up for USA TODAY’s 4th and Monday newsletter for exclusive NFL news.
Two general viewpoints emerged
∎ 1. The university is making a smart business play and already has reaped massive benefits from it at a time when college athletics is facing turbulent change, especially with players earning money from endorsement deals. This year alone, the Buffaloes have been selected for at least seven straight nationally televised games – on ESPN, NBC, CBS and Fox.
“We are the most innovative university in the country, so we have the most innovative coach in the country,” Schwartz told USA TODAY Sports in an interview. “We have the most entrepreneurial coach in the country, because we are one of the most entrepreneurial universities in the country.”
∎ 2. On the other hand, some say the university is going too far by giving the campus car keys to a charismatic new employee who could crash it and skip town afterward.
“There’s a wide range of things that give the impression that this man and the program he has are on their own, that they can do whatever they want and we’re gonna stand behind it, whatever it is,” said Pielke, a longtime follower of CU football who previously taught a sports governance class in the CU athletic department.
Since hiring Deion Sanders in late 2022, the university has:
∎ Installed a more “generous” acceptance policy for transfer students, helping Sanders remake CU’s roster with 102 newcomer transfer players since last year. This change was considered critical to keep up with recently relaxed rules for transfer players in college sports and was announced at Sanders’ introductory news conference. It was in the works before then, but no other group on campus benefited from it more last year than his football program, as documented in a report by USA TODAY Sports. The university said it also contributed to an increase this fall in Colorado residents transferring to CU.
∎ The university gave Sanders a $250,000 gift that wasn’t in his contract for all the publicity CU received in his first season last year.
∎ It has allowed SMAC Entertainment, Sanders’ talent agency in Los Angeles, to act as an unofficial arm of the athletic department in some respects with publicity and game-day access for celebrities and VIPs.
∎ It has given SMAC wide latitude to film a documentary series on campus at no cost and allowed it to help regulate access to the sidelines and the locker room at games.
∎The university has sanctioned a ban on a Denver journalist that prevents him from asking Sanders questions at news conferences.
∎ It has permitted Sanders to disclose his outside income from endorsements in an unusual way − orally to university officials instead of in writing. That’s not against NCAA rules, but it is unlike virtually every other public school in major college football. And it keeps these disclosures out of public view.
∎ It produced a national commercial last year to promote the school based on the “Prime” theme.
And there’s more.
“In today’s competitive environment, schools may need to be innovative in order to compete,” said Harvey Perlman, a law professor and the former chancellor at the University of Nebraska. “However, a University that loses ultimate control over its campus or its employees faces considerable risks of it blowing up in their faces.”
‘Our kids ain’t getting in trouble’
Schwartz described it as just a different way of doing things for a different kind of coach, a nationally famous Pro Football Hall of Famer and marketing machine who has been in the public eye since the late 1980s.
Sanders has revived a football program that went 1-11 in the season before his arrival and since has led it to appearances on “60 Minutes” and the cover of Sports Illustrated. Schwartz points out that Sanders has appeared as guest faculty at business, law and media-related classes at the university and has overseen a team that earlier this year posted its highest cumulative grade-point average in program history (3.0).
Unlike at some other schools, Sanders also noted this week, “Our kids ain’t getting in trouble.”
The new chancellor went over some of the items on the above list after taking over July 1.
The journalist banned from asking questions
Before the season, the CU athletic department said in a statement that it would no longer take questions at football-related events from Denver Post columnist Sean Keeler. CU said Keeler had made “personal attacks” on Sanders in his columns. But those “attacks” also could be perceived as skeptical pushback against Sanders making bold claims about his team’s potential this year despite finishing 4-8 last year. Keeler had called him a “false prophet” and the “Bruce Lee of B.S.” in a column in February.
“We’re being transparent,” Schwartz said. “We’re saying coach made that decision. It’s his choice to do so. We support him, and we will credential another reporter, who can come and ask questions. We’ll answer them. This reporter can submit questions in writing. We will answer them. We’re not preventing information from getting to the Post, in any way, shape or form.”
Sanders’ contract with Colorado requires him to interact with “mutually agreed upon members of the media,” language that was not in the contracts of his predecessor or other coaches at CU.
‘How much control does a university have?’
Keeler is not banned from attending games as credentialed media, just asking questions at football events. That strikes some as Sanders being thin-skinned while a state university that teaches journalism is censoring questions from a journalist who criticized him.
“I just think when you’re the most visible face, the highest-paid person at a public institution, you’re fair game for the press and you should answer questions at any time,” said David Ridpath, a sports business professor at Ohio University and longtime member of The Drake Group, which pushes for reform in college sports. “You’re still at a taxpayer-supported institution. I don’t think even (former Alabama coach Nick) Saban did that. At the end of the day, how much control does have a university have over a high-profile coach? It probably comes down to very little.”
Schwartz said the university told the Post it could send another writer to ask questions instead. But news organizations generally don’t want to let the institutions they cover to dictate coverage decisions.
“We’re just letting you know… What we would consider or coach considers crossing the line, coach is probably not going to call on you and answer your questions,” Schwartz said.
Star-studded sideline at Folsom Field
Hip-hop artists and former star athletes have been frequent guests at games under Sanders, including NBA legend Julius Erving, rapper Lil Wayne and Hall of Fame football receiver Terrell Owens. This generates buzz for the university and showcases the program’s cultural relevance with potential recruits. Other schools would love to have this but don’t have a coach like Sanders to attract it.
To get a sense of how the university has been dealing with celebrity access at games, USA TODAY Sports requested CU’s policy for such sideline passes and corresponding guest lists for Sanders.
The university said in July that it didn’t have a policy for 2023.
“We don’t have any lists or system to track sideline passes for games,” the university said in response to the request in July. “These are just informally arranged on a case-by-case basis over email, phone, conversation, etc.”
By contrast, Texas and Nebraska turned over sideline access lists and policies upon request, with some redactions.
New Colorado sideline policy in 2024
USA TODAY Sports then rechecked this with Colorado last week and was told there is a new policy for 2024. It is described in a documented entitled, “Game Day Operations for Folsom Field – SMAC 2024.’
It covers those with Prime Passes − guests of Sanders, including celebrities and friends.
It says SMAC is to designate who is allowed into the locker room before and after the game. The document from CU also says for SMAC to remind the “Prime Pass” guests “that if they do not exit the field and the officials deem that we have too many folks on our sideline, then CU can get penalized for this and no one should want to put CU at a disadvantage.”
‘SMAC is given a set number of passes and distributes them, which is not unlike a TV network like ESPN getting a number of access passes from us and handing them out to their crew members,’ said Steve Hurlbert, a CU spokesman. He said access to Folsom Field is still determined and enforced by the CU athletic department.
‘It is an unusual relationship, but we have a really, really great partnership with SMAC,’ Hurlbert said.
Why does any of this matter?
“I would be concerned about the University giving up traditional administrative controls on what happens at the University and I think these run some risks,” Perlman of Nebraska said of these issues in general. “Allowing a coach to control or restrain media access is not consistent with the transparency expected of what is still a ‘public’ university.”
CU said that is not the case. Messages seeking comment from SMAC were not returned.
The Coach Prime media machine
Sanders brings more intense news media coverage, which means a different way of doing business in some respects on campus. “There is a different level of spotlight,” Schwartz said.
At other universities, media requests to interview the head coach go through the athletic department communications staff. With Sanders, it typically involves getting on his schedule through SMAC.
Sanders, 57, also prefers to craft the media image of his program through three favored YouTube channels that are granted exclusive access to his program, including the channel run by his eldest son, Deion Jr. The video bloggers who produce them are not employed by the university. One was flagged at least once for a minor NCAA rules violation last year involving how a recruiting prospect was publicized, leading to NCAA rules education for the coaching staff and the “creative team,” according to CU documents.
But they otherwise reach thousands of daily viewers online, helping promote Sanders’ program to potential recruits while leaving out anything he might not want viewers to see.
“In five or 10 years, how many coaches do you think are going to be doing that?” Schwartz asked. “It’s innovation and entrepreneurial. And you know, if nobody watches it, then it’ll stop. But there doesn’t seem to be a lack of interest in all media channels for all things Prime.”
‘I know how this thing is supposed to look’
Likewise, the “Coach Prime” documentary series on Amazon Prime is produced by SMAC Productions, which has editorial control over the project with input from CU, according to its contract with the university signed by SMAC co-founder Constance Schwartz-Morini, Sanders’ business manager.
The university gets no financial compensation for the series to film on campus but instead gets the benefits of the overall Prime publicity operation, which in turn has helped fuel a record number of applications for the fall semester and a 50% increase in Black applicants. Enrollment at CU Boulder this fall is a record 38,428.
“You’ve got to give me some kind of credit for knowing this game of football,” Sanders said Tuesday at his weekly pregame news conference. “I played it for 14 years. I covered it for 20 years. I covered more than some of you guys have covered it (in the media). And I know television. I know this game. I know people. I know management. I know what my expectation is. I know how this thing is supposed to look.”
Colorado is paying Sanders $5.7 million this year, and he is arguably underpaid given all the publicity and ticket sales he generates. That pay ranks fourth among public schools in the Big 12 Conference.
“We hope that Coach Prime finishes his career here,” CU athletic director Rick George said at a news conference Tuesday. “I think he can do significant things for us long-term… He and I are on the same page about where we want this program to go. It’s not a short-term fix, and we want to set it up to be sustainable for the future. I think what he’s done has been incredible.”
What is the risk?
By themselves, some of these tradeoffs might not matter to the average fan. But added together, Pielke sees the risk of the university giving away too much control to one person or sports team.
He’s seen it happen before in the early 2000s, when CU was engulfed in allegations that women were raped at a party for football recruits and that the football culture at CU had led to enticing recruits with sex and alcohol. Several top CU officials left the university amid the scandal. The university then reached a settlement in 2007 with women who sued the university. CU also made other changes as a result, and the football team mostly has struggled ever since.
“The way that the university administration has fallen in line behind the football program, to me, gets the dog and the tail mixed up,” Pielke said.
Schwartz, the chancellor, used a common term to describe the football team’s role with the university – the “front porch” that faces the public and gathers the university community. Similar front porches everywhere face reconstruction because of seismic changes in college sports, which includes universities soon needing more money to pay players for the first time.
To compete and keep up, Colorado believes it needs its main revenue-driver in sports to stay relevant in the digital age. Sanders is helping deliver that.
“We need football to be successful,” George said Tuesday. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. We still got a long season ahead of us in football. But I like where we’re positioned today.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com