Strike 2: Say what you will about Deion Sanders as a college football coach, but even his strongest critics will agree that as a promoter, the man has almost no peer.

For Deion, nearly every action qualifies as “Reality TV.” And he tends to make the most out of those opportunities.

His latest idea, to hold NFL-style “joint practices” in the spring – followed by a spring football game against an actual opponent drew plenty of supporters, even if there are a number of big hurdles that would need to be cleared before Syracuse or anyone else could pay a visit to Boulder next month for what would be a first of its kind spring exhibition game. For now, the NCAA forbids it, but as everyone knows, the NCAA isn’t exactly packing a powerful punch these days. If this thing went to court, let’s just say Deion’s side would be a good bet.

This is all happening during a time when many big college programs are cancelling their longtime tradition of holding a spring intersquad game over fears of injury (with rosters being reduced to 105 starting this fall and all the players sharing in substantial revenue-sharing) that could have a very harmful impact in the fall. Some coaches, like Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, have also voiced concerns over players showing out in a spring game and then getting poached by other programs as soon as the transfer portal re-opens.

Numerous top programs, like Ohio State, Texas and Southern Cal joined Nebraska in cancelling their spring intersquad games this season. And likely forever. More are sure to follow.

Deion isn’t having any of that. In the true spirit of Super Promoter Don King, Deion wants to go bigger, not smaller in the spring game. Even if he’s not successful in getting guys in different uniforms to participate in an actual spring exhibition, there’s other ways he can keep making April a big month for Colorado football. Remember, before Sanders arrived in Boulder, spring football was less interesting than hot air ballooning around the Flatirons.

Deion changed that before he ever coached a game that counted. Now his new challenge is to continue to top himself.

There’s also the matter of the annual “Pro Days” at CU for prospective NFL players like Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders. This year, each of them chose to blow off the workouts that were held at the NFL Combine, and again when the Big 12 Conference did a combine of their own. They did so knowing that the Deion Show was still on the docket for April, when CU’s singular Pro Day is sure to become another of the Sanders family’s Reality TV episodes that all attract a huge audience.

Before he’s done, Deion will have successfully reinvented spring football in a way that will very likely combine a spring game of some sort with a Buffs-only pro day extravaganza, along with other events like the NFL puts on in place of the Pro Bowl. There could even be a flag football game that features CU alums, in the spirit of the old “Varsity v Alumni” spring football games that were prevalent on campuses across the country until the early 1980’s.

Whatever form it takes, it will be a big event. The kind of “Made for TV” events that you’d expect from a Reality TV star. It makes you wonder what coaches at other big programs like those who’ve cancelled their spring games for this year will do when given the choice to try it Deion’s way or to shutter the old fashioned spring games forever.