Deion Sanders Creates $207M Impact as Kaidon Salter Delivers for Colorado Buffaloes

Business is booming in Boulder. Despite the concerns about the team’s slow 2-2 start in 2025, the money hasn’t stopped flowing. The Buffaloes are now a national spectacle and not just an afterthought of a team, be it in terms of social media followers or student applications. And Colorado has one person to thank: Deion Sanders.

The NFL Hall of Famer inherited a one-win team in 2023. And, in less than three years, he’s managed to deliver 14 wins, a bowl game, and even a Heisman trophy winner in Travis Hunter. However, Sanders’ greatest impact has been on the town of Boulder itself.

Sanders’ presence and the positive changes he brought on have reportedly helped generate more than $200 million ($207 million to be exact) for the region. From the university to local businesses, game day events, and an increase in national coverage have all helped to boost profits.

As far as the Buffaloes are concerned, the team is going through a transition after a generation of talented players, including Shedeur Sanders and Hunter, graduated and turned pro. Sanders has been going about the business of getting things sorted.

Coach Prime has notably rotated through his options at quarterback in the past several weeks. And now that Ryan Staub’s brief stint as the starter appears to be over, he’s got Kaidon Salter back in the saddle for the Buffs’ fourth game of the season against the Wyoming Cowboys.

It seems Sanders made the right call yet again. Not even two full minutes into the second half against Wyoming, Salter was able to connect with wide receiver Joseph Williams for a 47-yard touchdown pass.

That was enough to give Colorado a sure-handed 28-3 lead and Salter his third touchdown pass of the contest. In those first two quarters and the opening moments of the third, the 22-year-old was able to complete 13 of his 21 pass attempts for a total of 251 passing yards.

Salter managed to complete a pass to seven separate receivers in that same time span. Pair that with eight carries that resulted in 40 rushing yards, and we can surely say Salter was the star of the show for the Buffs in Week 4.

With the performance, he’ll likely find himself back in control of the QB1 spot, for now anyway. His outings against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets and the Delaware Fightin’ Blue Hens left a lot to be desired, so much so that he was benched halfway through the Week 2 contest. Salter appears to be back on track for now, and the same is true for the rest of his herd.

The Buffaloes may not be able to reclaim the spot that they held in the national rankings in 2024. But so long as they maintain this kind of pace, then they can certainly do enough the rest of the way to earn themselves another bowl game.

At which point, the community in Boulder will have that much more to thank Sanders for.