CU AD Rick George shares new expectations for Coach Prime

The Colorado Buffaloes have inked Deion Sanders to a giant contract extension, and with it comes new expectations that were outlined by his boss, athletic director Rick George, on Tuesday’s edition of The Drive.

In two years at the helm, Sanders has taken the Buffs from arguably the worst power program in college football with a 1-11 record to a Big 12 championship contender last season at 9-4. Using his sons, top transfer talent and a whole ton of bravado, CU has achieved bowl eligibility, a Heisman Trophy and cultural relevance.

The school hopes the first two years of Coach Prime are just a launching pad for propelling Colorado to new heights in the new world of college sports.

“It goes back to the days when (Coach Bill) McCartney was here and (Coach Gary) Barnett and the crew. We were winning every year, 9-10 games. We were going to bowl games, we were competing for conference championships. That’s what the expectation is,” George told Denver Sports on Tuesday. “We have every belief that we’ve got the tools in place to be successful… we know what our history and tradition is, and our history and tradition is winning, and we’re back to that, and we’re going to continue to be successful under Coach Prime’s leadership.”

Colorado did come up short down the stretch and lost out on a chance to play for the conference championship, then got smoked in the Almao Bowl. There is no denying that the arrow is up from 2022; there’s just not a lot of proof when it comes to pure football of Sanders being on the level of the coaches paid a similar amount as him.

But the Buffs have been a desperate bunch in recent decades, and without Coach Prime, it’s unclear how they would enter the rapidly changing world of college athletics. From the time of Sanders arrival to now, the NIL era and transfer portal have really taken hold. Where Colorado was once behind, they’ve caught up.

“We were at a point at CU before coach prime came here that we were becoming irrelevant, and it was our opportunity to be relevant again,” George said of hiring Prime.

With the House vs NCAA settlement that is expected to pass this month, athletes are expected to get upwards of $20 million in revenue sharing split between school’s sports teams. Most schools do not have enough money to just start paying that much money to the kids. CU has gotten out in front by changing their NIL structures and even installing turf as a method for revenue. But ultimately, it’s the attention that Prime brings that positions Colorado well.

“I’ve been saying that this is our moment in time; we have to grasp it. It’s challenging moving forward when you have to find 20.5 million in your budget to share. It’s not like it’s sitting around,” George said. “So we’ve had to be thoughtful about how we can trim expenses, how we can grow our revenue. But we need support from the greater community, from the Boulder businesses, the Denver businesses, the economic impact that we’ve had on this state the last two years with Coach Prime here is off the charts…. We need that to be returned to us by getting support from these local businesses and in our fan base and our donors; that’s just the reality.”

The school reported last week that this past season, home football games brought a combined $93.9 million in direct economic impact to the City of Boulder and $146.5 million in total regional economic impact.

The turf is part of the school’s latest scheme to get ahead.

“When Judge Wilkins makes a ruling in the middle of April, we’ve got to be ready for that,” George said. “And so for us to be able to host events at that stadium, to increase our revenues, again, it’s going to increase the economic impact that we have in our city and our state. And so, I mean, it’s good for everybody. It’s just a decision that we needed to make. We’re confident in our decision. We’re going to have great turf.”

George also said the turf installation at Folsom Field will make sure CU can host College Football Playoff Games, a concern with real grass given the weather in Boulder in December. And it’s the expectation that Sanders pushes the black and gold into competing for that crown someday.