Colorado’s AD Said They ‘Don’t Have The Money Yet’ For Deion Sanders’ Contract And Fans Had Layaway Jokes

Sometimes during the holiday season you can’t help but splurge on a big gift that you don’t quite have the money for just yet, so you put it on a credit card (or layaway) and deal with it later.

That apparently is also how Colorado approached the hiring of Deion Sanders. Coach Prime is taking his talents from Jackson, Mississippi to Boulder, Colorado, making official what had been rumored for weeks late Saturday night after Jackson State won the SWAC title. While he didn’t give his buddy Rob Jay a ride to Colorado, he did arrive in style and had a press conference on Sunday where he talked about trying to open doors for other HBCU coaches at the FBS level, his expectations for the Buffs, and even introduced his son, Shadeur, as the new quarterback in Boulder, confirming the former 4-star recruit will transfer from Jackson State to Colorado.

However, the part of the press conference that made the most waves wasn’t anything said by Deion, but instead came from Colorado AD Rick George, who was asked about the 5-year, $29.5 million deal they gave Sanders which is the biggest in program history. George admitted they didn’t have all the money for the contract just yet, but that they would.

This raised a lot of eyebrows because you don’t often hear someone say they don’t have money for someone’s contract just yet very often, and while I’m sure he’s referring to the full five year amount — and it should be noted he was fully confident that the money was coming their way — it’s still very funny to hear. As such, folks from around college football had jokes about the Buffs putting Coach Prime’s contract on their credit card and worrying about it later.

As SI reporter Ross Dellenger noted, this is actually an oddly common process for college athletic departments, but still not one most ADs say out loud in public.