It has to be killing George Kliavkoff that he will get only one year of Deion Sanders at Colorado. For only one year will the Pac-12 get dramatically increased eyeballs on its football product thanks to Coach Prime and his big-time Buffaloes, who have instantly become a box office attraction in college football.
Deion Sanders is such a hot item in the media sphere that CBS’s 60 Minutes program has sought him out for a second interview in two years. The show interviewed him one year ago when he was at Jackson State. As interviewer Jon Wertheim said in introducing this past Sunday’s second Deion segment, it’s rare for 60 Minutes to return to the same public figure so quickly. Usually, that’s not how it’s done.
There’s nothing usual about Deion Sanders himself, or about the things he is doing at Colorado.
The Pac-12 would have had a long-term goldmine on its hands, with CU’s ability to get eyeballs. Alas, Kliavkoff failed to exhibit strong leadership and tell the Pac-12 CEO Group it needed to accept ESPN’s 2022 deal which would have paid out $30 million per school. That deal would have kept the conference together. It would have given ESPN consistent and reliable inventory. It would have given the Pac-12 the stability it needed to withstand the gut punch of seeing USC and UCLA leave for the Big Ten.
Instead, here we are, witnessing the death of the Pac-12 while its football product gains huge new degrees of popularity and national attention.
What a waste.
There’s more to this story about Deion Sanders’ success at Colorado, starting with the TV ratings for CU’s recent win over Colorado State. We have the details below: