Deion Sanders, Big 12 switch have CU Buffs fans, administrators singing from same hymnal again. Loudly. “They’ve jumped on board like never before.”

July 29, 2023 at 5:45 a.m.
BOULDER — Faculty zigged. The fans zagged. At times, getting the pieces of the CU Buffs football ecosystem together on the same page felt like herding cats in a hailstorm.
“I think people have wanted to get it back so bad, and this is the biggest ray of hope that they’ve had,” CU radio analyst and former coach Gary Barnett told The Post. “And they just look at what (has been) done — every season ticket’s gone, there was 5 inches of snow and 47,000 people at the spring game.
“They’ve jumped on board like never before. That’s an indication of just how hungry everybody is to have a major change here. And I think for the most part, everybody’s feeling the same way about the Big 12 (move).”
For the first time since Mel Tucker was hired in December 2018, the many subsets within Buffs Nation — fans, boosters, alums, students, administrators — appear to be pulling on the same rope. All while pulling in the same direction.
Joining the Big 12? So far, it’s been a unifying, public-relations hit, especially for boosters over the age of 40 who fumed that the Pac-12’s economic promises were never fully realized.
“It beats the alternative,” said Brock Huard, the Fox Sports football analyst and former Washington Huskies and NFL QB. “By a long way. Right now, by about $32 million.
“That opportunity for these schools — I was at Big 12 Media Day, and you (could) feel the vibe. This commissioner (Brett Yormark), he’s empowered, he’s got a vibe … and now CU is going to have that individual stability and they’re going back to a conference that fits them and where they are esteemed academically.”
Hiring Deion Sanders to coach the football team? A public-relations home run.
“Let’s be honest with ourselves,” former Buffs wideout/return man and Olympian Jeremy Bloom said, “and I’m a big fan of (athletic director) Rick (George) … there was no more balloon, let alone air in it.
“Then you hire Deion and then (the Big 12) happens. I don’t know if the Big 12 is that excited, and I love me some CU, if Deion wasn’t there. You’re looking at a 1-11 team that had been (among) the bottom of the FBS every single year. I don’t know if this deal gets done. I really don’t.
“People complain about how much money you’re paying this guy — look how much revenue he’s bringing. Sold-out tickets. Maybe he plays big (role) in them coming to the Big 12. Now he’s got to go win (games).”
Sources concur with Bloom, telling The Post that the short-term and economic impacts of the Sanders hire over the last seven months has opened eyes at the university all the way up to those of president Todd Saliman. It also gave George, who was under fire last October, the latitude to engage the Big 12 when officials from that league began courting CU in earnest earlier this year.
“I’m really not going to get into the details of the (Big 12’s courting) process,” George said after CU’s board of regents voted unanimously to leave the Pac-12 for the Big 12, reversing the university’s conference switch in 2010. “What I will tell you is that as we looked at this, during this process, it became clear that the Big 12 was the best fit for us.
“And again, (there were) multiple factors that were involved in that decision-making, but we feel really good about where we are today and what the future looks like for CU.”
The buzz around Sanders has created arguably one of the biggest, and most lucrative, “honeymoon” periods for a new coach in modern CU football history. Regents during their public vote Thursday spoke almost in lockstep about fond memories of Buffs football games in the Big 12 and Big Eight and of their hopes for renewed and sustained success at Folsom Field, which has been home to only one non-pandemic winning season since 2006.
From its transfer policy tweaks to ticket sales, CU purporting itself as a football school is cool again. It’s also a far cry from the university and administrative temperature in late 2005, when allegations against the program, including those levied by then-Buffs kicker Katie Hnida, eventually cost Barnett his job after seven seasons at the helm. He’s also, to date, still the last coach in CU history to leave his position with a winning record (49-38).
“When the (Hnida) stuff happened, and when Gary left, I think … (you saw) the support inside the university distance themselves from athletics, I think that’s fair to say,” recalled Bloom, who played for Barnett in 2002 and ’03. “I think that came back, in large part, when Rick George was hired (in 2013).
“I that Rick did a really good job re-energizing the base when he joined (CU) from the (Texas) Rangers. He put together a really thoughtful plan to go raise money to build facilities when the wins weren’t there. We’ve always had money in Colorado, we’ve always had great fans. They just don’t show up when (the Buffs) aren’t winning.
“I’m loving the honeymoon. This is great … talk about going from the basement to the top floor overnight.”
How long will the good vibes last? It depends, for the moment, on Sanders and his near-term results. George is on a roll, but at 62, the CU A.D. has talked about retiring from the position once his current contract expires in June 2026. DiStefano completed his 13th year as chancellor this past May and joined the university back in 1974.
“What happens on the football field is one thing, but in short order CU could find itself without a coach, AD and chancellor all at the same time,” Roger Pielke, a member of the Buffs’ faculty since 2001, told the Post. “They are rolling the dice hoping for a big score, but none of the key decision-makers will be around for the consequences if they crap out. Not an ideal set of incentives.”
Yet CU officials, be it with the hiring of Coach Prime from Jackson State or returning to a Big 12 that will no longer feature Texas, Oklahoma or Nebraska, seem ready to roll the dice.
“I cannot go anywhere without somebody asking me or saying something about CU football and what I think,” Barnett said.
“I don’t think there’s any question, when you look back at where things were (last) Thanksgiving, and even before Thanksgiving, and look at where we are now, it’s remarkable. It’s one of those stories you think could never happen and it does. They keep popping up. Things like this keep popping up. Anything’s possible, and this is a great example of that.”