Colorado doesn’t have the money for Deion Sanders’ contract yet

Sometimes during the holiday season you can’t help but treat yourself to a big gift that you don’t quite have the money for yet, so put it on a credit card (or cache) and take care of it later.

That’s apparently how Colorado approached hiring Deion Sanders. Coach Prime is bringing his talents from Jackson, Mississippi to Boulder, Colorado, making official what has been rumored for weeks late Saturday night after Jackson State won the SWAC title. While he didn’t take his buddy Rob Jay to Colorado, he arrived in style and had a press conference on Sunday where he spoke about trying to open doors for other HBCU coaches at the FBS level, his expectations for the Buffs, and even introduced his son Shadeur as the new quarterback at Boulder and confirmed that the former 4-star recruit will be moving to Colorado from Jackson State.

However, the part of the press conference that made the most waves was not said by Deion, but by Colorado AD Rick George, who was asked about the $29.5 million 5-year deal they gave Sanders, the largest in program history. George admitted they didn’t have all the money for the contract yet, but they would.

That raised a lot of eyebrows because it’s not often you hear someone say they don’t have money on someone’s contract yet, and although I’m sure it’s referring to the full five-year amount – and it should be noted that it was fully convinced the money came to them – it’s still very funny to hear. As such, college football folks joked about the Buffs putting Coach Prime’s contract on their credit card and later worried about it.

As SI reporter Ross Dellenger noted, this is actually an oddly common process for college athletic departments, but still not one that’s said out loud in public by most ADs.