“No Shot Kalen Deboer Would Have Done It”: Deion Sanders’ Revolutionary Impact on College Football Hailed

Despite having a humbling 4-8 record, Deion Sanders led Colorado’s staggering rise in the multi-media frontier, thanks to the marketing masterminds at Boulder. Deion Sanders led the front with his suave dressing sense and cosmopolitan personality. While this has always been Sanders’s biggest weapon since his NFL days, his eldest son, Deion Sanders Jr. leveraged the best out of it through his media start-up Well Off Media. The YouTube channel soon became the fans’ go-to sanctuary for all things Sanders, from their in-house banters to their behind-the-scenes practice sessions.

The result? Shedeur and Shilo Sanders landed the Louis Vuitton deal. And that wasn’t the only pricey baggage Prime Time brought in Colorado this season. It was also the 51% jump in sponsorships in the multimedia space as compared to 2022, as quoted by Learfield, the behind-the-scenes manager of multimedia rights (MMR) at CU. While that is monumental in itself, that’s not the only thing Deion Sanders left his mark behind with. The ‘brand’ of Deion Sanders extends much further than that, a taste of which Adam Breneman gave on his podcast.

Deion Sanders’ radical media revolution

The NextUpWithAdams host reflected on the before and after of CFB after Deion Sanders swarmed in his way, leaving an impact on each head coach to come into the sport. Breneman believes that Prime has ” completely changed the game from branding to what it means to really be a head coach.” The reason? Deion Sanders prompted other head coaches to step out of their comfort zones with the help of the brand he created. Sanders set new norms at CFB, like speaking about one’s life on podcasts, something that other head coaches rarely engaged in five years down the line, all thanks to the reputation he built at CU.

“I think five years ago, there’s no shot that Dan Lanning would’ve sat down for an hour to talk about his life. There’s no shot that Kalen DeBoer would’ve done it or James Franklin or Shane Beamer. It would have been frowned upon,” Adam Breneman said.

The Penn State alum also highlighted how Sanders popularized sitting down and talking with the media, along with sharing fun things on social media and appearing on podcasts. It was not “cool” before. Now, it is.

The results that Sanders would reap from this per Breneman? “Brands win championships — and Deion is a great example of building a program with a brand-first mindset.” Well, it’s not the first time the brand-building mindset of Sanders has been lauded at Buffs, and surely, it won’t be the last, since there are many lessons that Sanders has to teach about his elite branding mindset.

READ ALSO: How Multi-Millionaire Deion Sanders Led Colorado’s Staggering Rise in Multi-Media Frontier – A Reality Check

Also, the reason why CU has started a course inspired by Deion Sanders called Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership. It focuses on teaching young athletes to capitalize on and learn their rights in their NIL deals, building a brand out of them.

READ MORE: After Generating $90M in Revenue, Coach Prime Becomes the Most Wanted Man in College Football