“Education Is First and Football Is Second”: Ryan Clark Weighs In on Deion Sanders’ $54 Million Extension at Colorado

Deion Sanders said he wanted to plant a flag in Boulder, and he meant it. Earlier this week, Coach Prime signed on for five more years as the head coach of the Colorado Buffaloes. The deal pays him $54 million, with an annual salary of $10.8 million — good for a tie with Texas’ Steve Sarkisian for fifth-most in the nation. Somehow, given the impact Sanders has had in Boulder, that contract actually feels like a steal.

Sanders has completely flipped the script for the Buffs on the football field. He took a 1-11 team in 2022 and turned them into a top-25 ranked unit that finished 9-4 in 2024. His influence in recruiting is unmatched. When he first came from Jackson State, a wave of players followed him over. Now, with many of those players moving on, Sanders has managed to lure a litany of four- and five-star recruits to Colorado for his 2025 class, including quarterback Julian Lewis.

But it’s not just his impact on the gridiron that proves he deserved that big fat contract (and perhaps an even bigger one). Deion Sanders has transformed the way the University of Colorado is perceived by students everywhere. Former NFL safety Ryan Clark explained how Coach Prime’s success on the football field has made the school more attractive to both prospective students and student-athletes.

“Deion Sanders hasn’t just changed the football program at Colorado, he’s changed the school, he’s changed the excitement in attending the school. All of ya’ll know this, bro: people want to come to LSU because they want to go to football games. They’re gonna get an education. It’s like I say all the time, education is first and football is second,” Clark said via ESPN’s NFL Live.

There was a lot of smoke surrounding a Sanders move to the big leagues a few months back. Specifically, Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made it seem as though Coach Prime was his top candidate for their vacant job. However, Neon Deion stood firm every time he was asked about that opportunity, saying he wanted to be in Boulder for the long haul. Now, they’ve been able to secure that in writing.

“They’re making sure that program is continuing to move in the right direction and that Deion Sanders is secure, so now those guys that he’s recruiting expect him to be there coaching that team for the foreseeable future,” Clark explained.

The Coach Prime effect may seem intangible, but there are ways to measure it. During his first year in Boulder, the athletic department saw record revenues of $146.6 million. That included a record $31.2 million in ticket sales (a massive hike from the previous year’s $13 million) as every single home game in 2023 was sold out for the first time in program history.

A 2023 study by Visit Boulder also found that direct spending by visitors in town for a Buffaloes game accounted for an additional $72.1 million in revenue for the city.

But it’s not just finance and football. As Ryan Clark said, it’s education, too. Sanders is almost like a real-life Coach Carter. Last year, he warned his players after receiving a negative academic letter from a teacher, and they responded.

“Ninety percent, or ninety-five percent of your roster, ain’t going pro. So coaches, we got to emphasize education, we got to emphasize life, we got to emphasize the next step, the next elevation, if it doesn’t work,” he told the students.

The Buffaloes football team has now put up a cumulative GPA of 3.083 in 2024. That set a new record for the program as the first time they’ve ever eclipsed a 3.0 GPA. It was an improvement over their 2.932 GPA from 2023.

Coach Prime is doing it all for the Colorado Buffaloes, and he’s going to keep doing it there in Boulder for some time yet.