I admit it.

If “Neon” Deion “Coach Prime” Sanders were to depart for the NFL – let’s say to Jerry’s Cowboys or the guy with the funny haircut’s Raiders – I’d watch. Intently. As a fan of sports and the man himself, I’d take the bait, hook, line and sinker. I’d be just as fascinated with what Coach Prime might do in the NFL as I have been with the minor miracle he’s performed at one of the most downtrodden college football schools in all the land.

He’s worked magic once; I have no reason to believe he couldn’t cast a similar spell at his next stop, regardless of the league or level.

This weekend, with the temperature hovering around zero and a couch situated on the 50-yard-line of each of the five most significant football games of the season, I happily took in 15 hours (give or take) of hi-def, high-stakes, pigskin bliss. And aside from the obvious takeaways – which teams would be playing in the NFL’s conference championships and the crowing of Ohio State as the first-ever 12-team CFB “playoff” national champ – I eased into my Monday night slumber with one thought in mind.

Coach Prime, please, please stay. This is not the time to leave Boulder. It’s not the time to test your mettle as a coach in the National Football League.

Let’s start with college football. Ohio State, with a record of 10-2, was ranked sixth in the country following Week 16; a month and a half later, they’re planning a national championship parade. The Buckeyes were ranked as high as No. 2 and as low as No. 7 and in between the lost to dreadful, unranked Michigan and No. 1 Oregon. Last season, Ohio State had a similar run in the AP Rankings – a low of No. 10 to finish the season and a high of No. 2. Had the bracket been “a thing” last year, who knows what might have happened.

This, Coach Prime, could be your Buffs.

If there was one advantage the Ohio State had last night against the Irish, it would be speed. The Buckeyes were simply faster. Speed, or so it would appear, is something you and your staff have recruited very, very well. In the new landscape of college football – along with the appeal of the “Coach Prime” brand – there’s no reason the University of Colorado can’t build a championship team on the heels of a 9-4 season.

As the assembly of a good college football team looks more and more like a big business acquiring assets, building an overnight winner is more and more doable. Nobody proved this more than Prime at Colorado. Even though the NFL is the epitome of “big business,” everyone is playing by the same rules; the on-field product feels more like science than construction. Make no mistake, college football is won with athletes – not typically gameday coaching. Sure, a great playcaller never hurts, but the best roster rarely loses. That was evident in the Ohio State-Notre Dame finale.

In the NFL, that’s debatable. The difference in talent from one team to the next, especially as the postseason progresses, is negligible. As the talent levels out, the best gameplans tend to win the biggest games (see Washington over Detroit); games are often decided by a small handful of plays. There’s a robotic feel to the NFL these days and Prime or his roster at CU is anything but robotic.

Brash. Bold. Exciting. Fast. Resilient. Malleable and motivated. Those are the traits of a Coach Prime team, traits necessary at any level but most maximized in the college game. Would any of that mumbo-jumbo really work on the best of the best, pampered athletes making the kind of money that even NIL can’t touch?

More food for thought: If the NFL landing spots for Coach Prime are accurately speculated – either Dallas or Las Vegas – the landscape is anything but favorable.

This is not to say Deion Sanders has ever been afraid of a challenge (that’s not in his DNA), but it looks as if the Cowboys must contend with the Eagles and Commanders – NFC Championship game opponents and divisional foes – for the foreseeable future. If Vegas is the move, the AFC plays host to at least four – maybe six – of the game’s best quarterbacks, and they’re all relatively young. Four of them started in the Divisional Round this weekend. Two of them play in the Raiders’ division (and Bo Nix, who picked apart the Buffs in 2023, might not be far from inclusion in the conversation). Sounds like a gauntlet that can’t be navigated by flash or moxie; it’s a riddle that won’t quickly be solved.

Prime is a winner, and regardless of how miraculous his turnaround at CU has been, there’s still unfinished business. The good news, however, is that competing for a spot in the College Football Playoff suddenly looks like Mission: Possible – not Mission: Impossible. Winning a national title at the University of Colorado (or anywhere, for that matter) won’t be easy, but it’s doable. Finishing the job – especially without the services of Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter – would transform “mystique” to “legendary.”

A hefty, revised contract from the University of Colorado allegedly sits on the coach’s desk. Any reason not to sign it? I sure can’t think of any.

It’s a prime time to stay, Prime. The Shield can wait.