How does Colorado’s loss to Arizona State affect Coach Prime’s Future?
Updated: 37 minutes ago
On Christmas Day in 2024, the Colorado Buffaloes were preparing for a bowl game.
Head coach Deion Sanders' 9-3 Buffs squad featured a Heisman, four future NFL draft picks and the deadliest pass game in the conference. The Prime Effect was undeniable and in full bloom.
However, Colorado lost that bowl game emphatically. On Dec. 28, 2024, Big 12 foe Brigham Young University led 20-0 at halftime on the way to a 36-14 victory. The Buffs appeared unprepared and were simply unmatched against BYU’s creativity and ability on both sides of the ball.
That same assessment is now exasperatingly repetitive for the current state of Colorado football. Under Coach Prime, the Buffs have gone 6-15 since 2024’s Alamo Bowl. In that stretch, CU has won just two of its last 15 conference games, including Saturday’s 20-10 defeat to Arizona State.
The Prime Effect has faded. Even with the 14th-highest-paid coach in college football, the Buffs have once again slipped into irrelevancy. ESPN’s ratings of Colorado’s nationally televised games dropped 67% from 2023 to 2025. The glitz is gone, the glamour has vanished, but the university continues to pay for it like it’s 2024.
Word has spread about CU entertaining a divorce from Sanders. That said, the Buffs can’t just dramatically fire him and immediately transition forward to the future.
Following 2024, the program dedicated $54 million to Coach Prime through the 2029 season. The Buffs have won two Big 12 games since that contract was signed.
If CU fires Sanders before the new year, the university owes him $25.5 million as a farewell package. If it happens after Jan. 1, that drops to $17.25 million.
That number sounds burdensome, but Colorado’s athletic department has been weaving around debt lately nonetheless. Sanders’ annual salary, on top of the university's name, image and likeness settlements, projected a $27 million deficit for CU’s athletic department in the last fiscal year (June 2025-June 2026).
Even if Colorado takes the contract buyout this year, it’d ultimately save the university money in comparison to Sanders completing the contract.
CU isn’t close to the product on the field matching the value of the paycheck in Coach Prime’s pocket. The Prime Effect was magical when it worked, but that magic has run out.
Saturday’s loss to Arizona State was representative of that. The Buffs’ offense didn’t pick up a first down until the second quarter. Penalties took away touchdowns. The defense stayed susceptible to big plays.
It was another dull loss in a long line of 16 of them in the last two years. And once again, Sander’s press conference after the game supplied zero constructive thoughts on how to improve. He continuously supplies assessments any basic football fan could reach from simply looking at a score sheet.
All of this said, Deion Sanders is an incredible motivator. His focus on being a role model as a coach in creating great young men is done well and should be praised. When he was both a father and a coach to his son, Shedeur Sanders, everything clicked.
But this era of his Colorado tenure has failed.
Sanders gets three final games – if not less – to prove he deserves to stay on staff. The Buffs get a short week before hosting No. 14 Houston on Friday. The Cougars open as 10.5-point favorites.
If Coach Prime can rip off three consecutive wins, expect his job to be safe. If not, the coming weeks will determine the next era of Colorado football.
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