Professor Prime teaches his first class at Colorado
Coach Prime embarked on a new venture this semester at Colorado. It was previously announced that he would take on the role of being a professor and give lessons about the business of NIL and branding. He did that for a group of students this week and was asked an array of questions, including his thought process when it comes to building a roster with the transfer portal being utilized more in recruiting.
The class recently debuted at CU Boulder and was named after the Hall-of-Famer. “Prime Time: Public Performance and Leadership” seemed to be a hit. Sanders was joined by his media team, which consists of his son and Well Off Media founder, Deion Sanders Jr. AKA Bucky, Darius Sanders (No relation) from Reach the People Media and Uncle Neely from Thee Pregame Show. They all went into detail about their experiences with day-to-day activities.
Sanders talked about players who've received endorsement deals for their names, images, and likenesses (NIL). He explained the misconception with the entire system and how there are very few players making money outside being a brand spokesperson.
“Since I got time today, I want you to tell me how many players in college football that you’ve seen in commercials,” Sanders asked the students, who came up with a handful of names.
“All these college athletes and you’ve named five people,” Sanders said. “This is not NIL. This is not the day of NIL. That’s what it’s supposed to be, but it’s collectives, and that’s where it went wrong.”
Two of those names were Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders, who Coach Prime said are the projected top overall picks in next year's NFL Draft. But in the bigger picture, he wants NFL scouts taking that bait to visit and see all the players CU has to offer.
“We got, proposedly, the first and second pick of the whole draft, Shedeur and Travis, so every NFL scout is coming," Sanders said. "But they’re not just gonna come for that because I want them to see the smorgasbord of players that we have and the operation that we have,” Sanders said.
Coach Prime and the Buffs are days away from beginning to finalize the 2024 roster with National Signing Day on February 7. The date for CU's Black and Gold Spring Game was announced this week and comes on April 27.