Strike 3: Is Deion Sanders simply ahead of the curve? Have we already entered a new era of the “celebrity”/CEO-type college football coach? Does he get it and the rest of field is just now starting to catch up?
That’s a real possibility.
As we’ve learned over most of the past decade, the only constant in college sports is change. And more changes are afoot in what remains, for the moment, the sport of “college” football. After watching the last of the four-team college football playoff play out, along with the end of an historic conference, there’s now talk of a new 80-team “Super League” pretty much replacing all the conferences and revamping the whole playoff system. That should surprise absolutely no one at this point. After next season, when Stanford, California and SMU field teams as members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, and Washington State and Oregon State compete under the banner of the Pac-2, all bets will be off. A new “Super League?” Bring it on.
There’s a good chance football and basketball players will soon become tax-paying “employees” of Universities, getting paychecks instead of scholarships, and signing contracts instead of Letters of Intent. They could well be selecting union reps instead of team captains. And while Deion is upset about getting scathing reports from University of Colorado professors voicing their dissatisfaction with the academic effort of his student-athletes, he may not have to worry about that much longer either. The “student” part could become optional or even obsolete. No need for the football staff at CU to actually worry about showing players where the classrooms are physically located.
All this means Sanders’ new and very unusual methods at CU may soon simply be mainstream. Very soon, he may not be the only attention hogging celebrity coach roaming the sidelines while gathering Instagram followers.
Who might be next? Perhaps Tim Tebow taking over as the celebrity/CEO head coach of the Florida Gators? Terrell Owens at Tennessee? There are plenty of attention hounds out there. There could be a whole collection of divas wearing headsets.
Deion could become one of the many instead of one of one.
In some odd way, perhaps his CU program is something of a “lab rat” for those calling the shot on the future of college football? A testing ground of sorts for what’s possibly to come?
Imagine a Super League that was more like the NFL. As employees, players would not be required to attend classes unless they wanted to. Trades instead of Transfer Portal. Player movement more regulated, controlled by contracts – like free agency. And rather than a head coach traveling to visit a potential recruit at the players’ home, high school prospects would be invited to visit the programs they’re interested in.
Wait. That’s already the Deion way. “In-home recruiting visits” are so last year.
These celebrity coaches could bring in other celebrities as assistant coaches, the way Deion is bringing in Hall of Famer Warren Sapp, a big name with exactly zero coaching experience. But Sapp will bring Instagram followers of course.
In this new scenario, it’s going to be better to have a high-profile, glad-handing used car salesman as the lead guy for your program rather than a gruff old coach like say, Bobby Bowden showing up at your house, especially if you’ve got a big family and siblings running around. Who wants to see that?
Deion is first and foremost a celebrity, a pitch man and a marketing machine. Thus far, he’s not proven to not be much of an actual football coach. Then again, that’s what assistant coaches are for. Especially now.
In a couple weeks, they’ll be holding the second annual “Deion Fest” at Folsom Field, complete with a rap concert. The opening act will be a scrimmage football game. TV will be there and Deion will get the air time he craves on the national TV outlets. There will be a similar scrimmage game up at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, but only a handful of folks will be on hand to watch that, largely because it will be lacking in celebrity star power.
The folks in the Fort will learn soon enough.
Everyone is going to have to change with the times.
