Money talks for the Buffs! Or does it? One of the reasons why the Colorado football program is so popular is due to the influence and popularity that stems mainly from Deion Sanders and his sons. Additionally, the team’s star players, Shedeur and Travis, are two of the wealthiest college athletes without actually winning anything yet. Makes you think!

The Sanders men are the sort of sportspeople who don’t shy away from flaunting their wealth. From purchasing an expensive Rolls Royce at the age of 21 to constant vacations and sporting expensive jewelry, the Sanders do it all! Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter are in the top 5 of the most-paid NIL athletes and yet, their team hasn’t moved past the bottom rank of the scoresheet. Moreover, the Buffs went under a major revamp this season when Deion brought in loads and loads of new talents. To the outward eye, it looks like the Buffaloes are all-out prepared for this season but here’s why the flashy new roster might not have been a smart move.

Deion’s cheques are coming back to him with pecks!

Back when he first arrived in 2023, Deion signed 72 new scholarship players. Although 61% of those players have left the team, it became evident that Deion highly believes in the strategy of bringing in new additions. Taking the example of the Tennessee Volunteers, they are ranked at the 5th position in the SEC in terms of recruiting rankings despite not being as loud and under the spotlight as Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. These players and their program don’t let their performance speak up for them but rather live in the unconfirmed reality where they’re somehow better than everyone else.

On the 19th August episode of the Josh Pate show, he threw a subtle dig at Colorado for spending too much money on just bringing in new players rather than employing any sort of strategy in recruiting. Pate talked about programs that believe they look good under “immediate” circumstances and said, “There are some other programs out there, recruiting pretty well, who do not have that depth of NIL structure put together and what that means is you might not be able to tell it on the surface because their results in the immediate look good, but what I’m telling you beneath the surface is, they can’t fulfill on their promises and it will come back to bite them.” 

Thus, Deion better cross his fingers and hope that the major revamp that he ensued in Boulder is worth the performance and miles and miles away from their 2023 state of the team. With that being said, let’s take a look at how the transfer portal affected Colorado this year.

The Colorado Buffaloes and their pedals on the transfer cycle

In 2023, Colorado signed 72 new scholarship players, out of which 60% of them left the team. Only 10 of the scholarship players from the 2022 roster remain within the team as Deion battles this crisis of transfers. Big names like Savion Washington, Tar’Varish Dawson, and Cormani McClain left the Buffs, which made a significant reduction in the team’s overall attributes. When it comes to the transfer portal, Coach Prime is more or less a wizard at it, and hence, the fans expect a lot from the team in their efforts towards redemption.

As per 247 Sports, Coach Prime brought in 42 new players via the transfer portal this year but lost 43. After having a terrible offensive line last season, the team signed on 9 new linemen including the likes of Tyler Johnson, in the hopes of having an exceptional roster for 2024. Deion indeed brought in some fantastic players like Will Sheppard and LaJohntay Wester but will it all fit together in the grand puzzle of the Buffs or will they collapse like last year’s season?