Strike 3: It’s never been a secret that Deion Sanders isn’t long for Boulder. He’s never been long for anywhere. And while he’s brought tremendous attention to college football at the University of Colorado – the entire state, actually – he’s always going to be destined to seek brighter lights.

Reports this week are connecting Deion to the head coaching job at his alma mater, Florida State. ESPN’s Paul Finebaum thinks all it would take is a phone call from Tallahassee and a truckload of cash to lure Deion back home.

But don’t bank on that.

Remember, Deion keeps receipts. His alma mater hasn’t given him the time of day to this point. Plus, the lights aren’t a lot brighter in the ACC than they are in the Big 12. Both leagues lag well behind the SEC and Big 10 in power and notoriety. FSU and the ACC don’t give Deion what he really craves.

Then there’s the idea of Deion becoming the next coach of the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys.

This one has had legs since the season began. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith made the proclamation early on, and has recently doubled down. A couple local radio folks have echoed the idea. Then, recently former NFL head coach and current ESPN talking head Rex Ryan chimed in and offered the same idea. Ryan’s comments made the front of the sports pages in Big D.

That’s because it all makes perfect sense. Deion and Dallas are meant to be.

Start here: There’s only one prominent football person that craves the kind of attention Deion brings as much as Deion. That’s Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones. He would welcome the circus with open arms. Don’t think for one second he hasn’t gone down this road dozens of times in his mind.

Last offseason, after the Cowboys underachieved – again – Jones stuck with his beleaguered head coach, Mike McCarthy when he could have made a change. He also decided to pass on numerous prominent free agents Dallas could have signed. Then, just before this season he gave new contracts to two of his best players, QB Dak Prescott and wideout Cede Lamb. Those moves almost seemed to be done begrudgingly, because otherwise Jones has been doing next to nothing to improve his squad. Now Prescott is hurt and the Cowboys are losing.

Smith said on ESPN that he thinks Dallas should be tanking to get the top pick, which he believes will be Deion’s son Shedeur. The father-son/head coach-QB combo would be the talk of the NFL from day one. Would it work on the field? How many would pay Jones how much to find out?

Can Deion handle an NFL head coaching gig? Yes, as long as Jones allows him to sign two veteran, well-established coordinators. They do the coaching while Deion does the press conferences.

Others have suggested that maybe Deion ends up with the Las Vegas Raiders. While the lights are just as bright, that move just doesn’t seem to have the same pizazz. Vegas is a place coaches go to fail.

Nope. It’s Deion and Dallas. That’s always been a match made in football heaven, and it’s getting closer and closer to becoming reality.