On Saturday, Colorado reportedly made Jackson St. head coach Deion Sanders an offer to become the Buffaloes’ next head coach.
In response, Deion should politely tell them “no thanks” and go back to preparing to face Southern at the SWAC Championship.
While Sanders has openly stated that he would entertain offers from P5 programs if the offer is financially beneficial for him and his assistant coaches, he has a much more important task in front of him that outweighs the big money a P5 institution can offer.
He has become the face of HBCU football and he has the unique opportunity to continue leading its ascent back to the power status it once possessed.
With his personality, attitude and influence, Deion can continue to make HBCU programs realistic destinations for four and five-star recruits, just like he did for Travis Hunter and Kevin Coleman at Jackson St.
HBCUs were always viable opportunities for athletes. Yet once media rights deals swelled the coffers of P5 college football conferences, HBCU programs fell out of favor.
But in basically two seasons, Deion has returned the spotlight to HBCUs, much to the chagrin of teams, coaches and media pundits who don’t understand the proud history and tradition of HBCU football.
These programs produced Hall of Famers such as Walter Payton, Jerry Rice, Shannon Sharpe, Michael Strahan, Aeneas Williams, Deacon Jones and Mel Blount.
These athletes made HBCU programs so dominant that college football powerhouses such as Alabama, Notre Dame and Penn State didn’t want to play them.
Instead, they wised up and opened their doors to Black athletes they once denied. That severely limited the once free-flowing talent pipeline to HBCU programs.
Now Sanders has reopened the spigot and channeled the pipeline back to these institutions. He even got ESPN College Gameday to show up at Jackson St this past October.
HBCU programs like Tennessee St. and Grambling followed suit and hired former NFL talents Eddie George and Hue Jackson, respectively, to helm their programs.
If Deion leaves, the pipeline just might dry up again, leaving these schools thirsting for the players that were just beginning to view HBCUs as an option.
Sanders has done what no coach has done since the likes of Eddie Robinson, Jake Gaither and John Merritt, which is exactly why programs like Colorado, Georgia Tech, South Florida and Auburn have him high on their list.
And now that David Shaw has stepped down, maybe Stanford enters the mix.
With the deep pockets of these programs, it would be hard for Sanders not to entertain their calls.
But in this case, purpose and mission should outweigh financial gain.
Deion has an opportunity that no one, maybe except for Alabama’s Nick Saban, has.
He has the opportunity to not only build a program but to craft the direction of an entire conference. He also has the unique ability to affect the entire HBCU football landscape.
I wrote previously about how Sanders could mold Jackson St. into an HBCU Notre Dame, where Jackson St. becomes an independent program with the freedom to secure its own media deals, sponsorships and schedule. And, if they’re really good, become a College Football Playoff (CFP) consideration.
Some will scoff and say that no HBCU could accomplish that feat.
But just because it hasn’t been done before doesn’t mean it’s not possible. Especially for someone like Deion Sanders.
Could it happen soon? No.
But while Jackson St. continues its ascent, Sanders can continue to push the sport toward that level.
Sponsors and money will follow. That enables programs to become more financially stable and add more resources and assets, like football facilities, new stadiums, and new programs like ice hockey and gymnastics.
Deion already donated half of his salary to complete the renovations to Jackson State’s football facility. Imagine the type of talent an HBCU program could attract with a football-dedicated facility that’s even one-fourth the cost of Auburn’s new $92 million facility.
With Sanders at the helm, the coaching pipeline could swell with talent like the player pool. No longer would Black head coaches lack head coaching options after being shunned by P5 programs, particularly those in the SEC.
Instead, they can captain and build their own team in the SWAC, MEAC, CIAA, SIAC, the Ohio Valley Conference or the Colonial Athletic Association.
This is the type of transformative future Deion could help craft for HBCU football.
And all he has to do is tell Colorado “thanks, but no thanks.”
