How many students is Deion Sanders attracting in Colorado?

Radio is often called theater of the mind. So today, I have to imagine what my friend Chip Patterson is wearing. I am going to imagine that he is wearing a tuxedo because Chip is just joining us. Tuxedo is not moving clothes. You know that's not moving clothes. That is not.

No. You cannot, with all the dust and debris that is going to be coming your way, you can't task a tuxedo with being your clothing of choice. How about a tuxedo shirt, a tuxedo t-shirt with the impression of a tuxedo on it? I have one. Yes, the impression, as long as it's a, what is it, sweat-wicking t-shirt or material. I think Under Armour makes a tuxedo t-shirt. Chip Patterson, CBSSports.com, Cover 3 Podcast.

All right, I texted you a question about this particular issue, I think it was yesterday. So Colorado just had this spring game where they sold it out in bad weather. It was foggy and I believe snowy. It was crazy. And they sold it out. They had like, I don't know, 5,000 people for last year's spring game. So Deion Sanders is the head coach now.

Everything is happening. And after the spring game, did I read this correctly? Eighteen players entered the transfer portal after the spring game, including a couple of players who were like stars at the spring game. Yeah, a wide receiver who had 158 yards with one of the 18 players.

And that was just on Monday alone. Look, you almost have to take a step back and look at the roster for the Colorado Buffs at the end of the season and look at who is remaining. And we are down to less than two dozen players. Again, like less than 24 players who were on the roster at the end of the season for Colorado last year that are currently at least tick, tick, tick. You know, we still got a couple of days left with this portal window.

You know, I think it's 43 players in total are, or hit have hit the portal or 46 during this off-season. And my, my colleague over at 24 seven sports, Chris Hummer, he, one of the things that it was a great career move. He just said when the transfer portal started, I'm going to be the transfer portal guy. So he is like a great authority on the transfer portal. And he says, uh, he always says that it's like, um, very new age, forward thinking. And then he tags it at the end and says risky and I'm paraphrasing there, but I'm not paraphrasing about risky because it really explains what Deion Sanders is doing, which is a high risk, high reward proposition that in the modern college football world, you can rebuild a roster through the free agency.

That is the transfer portal. And he looked around that roster and I mean, was giving a message. He said, I think you can be, uh, David open at the athletic has a good piece up right now. The message was, uh, you know, encouraging you can be a great player at the FBS level, just not at Colorado.

See ya. Let me just, let me just jump in and, uh, I, cause I think this is, I read this number and this is obviously not all transfers because, uh, players exhaust their eligibility. They had 85 players on scholarship last year. 67 of them are no longer in the program.

If I, if I, if I read that, that is, that is a staggering number. Uh, so, and, and it does, it does seem like not all of these players are on board with the way this has happened that Deon's whether it's just Deon being brash or Deon being mean. And it does seem like some of this is mean, um, how does this look around college football?

I think that that's why it's a, it almost looks like an experiment. Um, you know, what, Hey, we'll see if he's going to be able to do it. And I, in my little corner of college football on the cover three podcast, which of course includes a lot of like, you know, very nitty gritty roster management type conversations. They are so thin on the lines of scrimmage that I think that there is a belief within the college football community that says, wow, this is an experiment.

Wow. We'll see how this goes. He's got great wide receivers. He's got really good cornerbacks eaten alive. If he doesn't have any depth along the lines of scrimmage, offensive line, defensive line, uh, the way that things are currently looking, um, it does not look good for the bus. They do not have power five level depth on the offensive line and on the defensive line. And I'll say on the offensive side, that is a big red flag because you're not going to go find tackles in the portal. I mean, it tackles that by some, you know, a scout's eye, um, some tackles that just are not considered all that good. They are hitting the transfer portal and receiving top tier offers because of the scarcity of the tackle position right now in college football, are you six three? Are you 330 pounds? Um, like, can you put one foot in front of the other?

Well, congratulations. The power five team will probably offer you a roster spot. So Colorado could be in real trouble. Again, it is not necessarily to me about the way this has been handled with each player. It's a lot of more of a nitty gritty roster construction.

If you don't have depth on the offensive and defensive line, you are not going to be able to play winning football at the power five level. Do you think Chip Patterson joining us here on the Adam Gold show that college football as a whole is rooting against Deion Sanders? Absolutely not. Um, anyone with any stake in your ship? No, I'm not.

I'm graphic. I think I phrased the question poorly. Let me just say this in like in coaching. Do you think they're rooting against Deion Sanders? I don't think that there I I can't speak. I am probably not the best to speak to what coaches are saying off the record about Deion Sanders. I know that there's an immense respect for him as a player and, you know, a Hall of Famer. And I think that the sense I have gotten and I haven't dug into this recently was a little bit more of a Okay, we'll see how this happens with an eye probably towards predicting or projecting that it's not going to work out. You know, especially when you look at the limited experience that he had prior to arriving at Jackson State.

I would guess that it is a, you know, looking out of the side of your eye like, Okay, we'll see very much improve it type atmosphere. But to my earlier point, I understand what you're looking at in terms of rooting for it or against. But I'm rooting for Deion Sanders. Anything we do with Deion Sanders absolutely crushes incredible, incredible numbers, right? I mean, this week, we haven't had Deion Sanders is the biggest thing college football has since Tebow mania.

Like this is an individual whose name just automatically is good for about a 15% increase in whatever you're talking about, just by being involved with it. So like college football, that's why I say anyone with a stake in viewership and downloads and listens and clicks and whatever you are rooting for this to go either amazingly or horrible, because just the presence of Deion Sanders in college football has led to an increased national interest because of who he is. Oh, there's there's no question. And again, I mean, all you got to do is look at the stands in Boulder at the spring game. I mean, they it was as though they were playing Alabama in the season opener already.

It was absolutely remarkable. But we know how like he's new. It's what he's doing is a brand new thing. And I think that there is there is a natural backlash that you're going to get from that. Do you think if it works, you will see a lot of coaches try to do that? No, I think that most coaches would prefer for their own time management to not work the portal as hard as Colorado has in this cycle. And I will say, you know, as hard as USC has in the last two cycles, as hard as Ole Miss had in last cycle or LSU under Brian Kelly, that year one was a heavy, heavy portal roster.

He had a hit on a couple of great ones. But I think that most coaches would prefer to be in the same place as the two time reigning national champions, because you know what Georgia does in the portal says goodbye to players that are going there and then goes and signs another five star coming out of high school, develops them in the program. So then they're going off to the NFL. Coaches would prefer to build out that kind of depth through their own pipeline and then be able to go and use the transfer portal to address individual needs when someone goes pro early that maybe you didn't expect or like in the case of Bear Alexander decides to leave the program. If it works for Deion Sanders, more coaches will be willing to try it, but most coaches would prefer to recruit out of high school, develop in your program and then be able to turn it over just like we see at Georgia and at Alabama.

I was actually talking about this yesterday briefly. NC State in basketball has a lot of new players based on the portal. And this is the way Kevin Keats has basically rebuilt the roster just about every year. There's almost no continuity from year to year at NC State for basketball.

And that I mean, I understand why it's a necessity, but it's probably not the best way to go about creating a program with consistency and staying power. I mean, if you have to reshape your roster every single year. And I know Duke has pretty much had to deal with this a lot, but it's all with, you know, one year high school players, it seems.

I just don't think that's the best way to build your team to having more consistency and continuity is probably better. How different is it in basketball? It's probably more different in basketball.

So wildly different. And like for me, Ed Cooley at Providence flipped rosters and used lean heavily on transfers and, you know, has had a lot of success in the last couple of years, so much so that he got the Georgetown job. A shock of smart at Marquette in his two years has really done a lot of transfer portal work to be able to put a team together.

And the team that Chris Beard put together before he was dismissed that Rodney carry led to the elite eight, like that, that was heavily put together through the transfer portal. And it is, yes, wildly different because of the way the game is played. And because of just basketball in general, being more of a fluid positionless game, that there's not the kind of demands and the kind of stress that you have. Like I was talking about with offensive linemen, right? And do you have enough offensive line depth? So to me, you know, is it a good thing?

Is it a bad thing? You already are going to see more examples of flipping a roster almost entirely through the transfer portal. You're going to see more examples of it working out in basketball than you are in football. Coaches are going to be more willing to do it in basketball and football.

And I agree with you that, you know, the, the way that Kevin Keith has almost made that some of his program and part of the process really is, is a nice zag to the zig. When you look at some of his neighbors in the state, and when you look at some of the, you know, the teams that you're competing with in the ACC, see Forbes, the wake forest, again, also has had a lot of success utilizing the transfer portal, identifying players that can come in and help you be successful. All that said, and again, like thumbs up, I understand if, if there are NC state fans who have that as a criticism, or at least a frustration, I think that that's a valid criticism or frustration. Hey, if you're going to just do it for a couple of years, we understand, but eventually it would be nice if we had program continuity, if you are in an NC state fan and that is your position, I understand it. But I, if I was asked to provide a national, you know, retort or perspective, it would be, look at Marquette, look at Providence, look at Texas.

I mean, these are teams I'm talking about that have been very successful. And so I think that there's clearly more wiggle room in terms of how accepted it is in basketball. Let me go back to Deion Sanders or really the Deion Sanders effect. As much speculation as we have had with conference affiliation, has Deion Sanders at all helped Pac-12 media prospects? I don't think so.

We had Dennis Dodd on the Cover Three podcast and he was doing some digging and usually that's from like the media consultant and some of the people that even might work at some of the major rights holders and media networks. And as of right now, you know, with no games played with Deion Sanders as the Colorado head coach, the response was, look, these are huge decisions. And like one individual coach should not change the number that is associated with Colorado, because if we're being realistic, these are 10, 8, 10, 12 year decisions. Do you think Deion Sanders is going to be in Colorado for the next 8, 10, 12 years?

Every decision maker in the process would say no. So no, as of right now, Deion Sanders has not changed Colorado's value to the Pac-12. It has not changed Colorado's value to the Big 12. If the Big 12, we're looking to do that. Would it make for a splashy way to win the news conference with the news cycle?

100%. But in terms of the decision makers who are doing the offers and signing the contracts, Deion Sanders, as of right now, has not changed the value of Colorado in the conference realignment chess game. I just wonder if the University of Colorado, Deion Sanders or otherwise, is a big player nationally.

My sense is that it really isn't. But because it just doesn't have, there's not a lot of history there. It's not like if Nebraska could ever come back and you and I have talked about whether or not Nebraska has any future at all as a major player, I believe it does not. But because of its history, if Nebraska did, it would have value to television contracts.

I don't think Colorado does. 92% of households that join Peloton early in the year are still active a year later. Because of cycling? We also have a treadmill and Peloton guide. Guide? The thing that counts your reps? Yeah, it turns your TV into an AI-powered personal trainer. And with training programs like A Stronger You, Peloton Guide takes all the guesswork out of working out.

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See additional terms at onepeloton.ca slash home dash trial. Not right now. Certainly not right now. And the sort of long-term projections here are really looking at the same fans and the hysteria that were in the stadium, packing it out for the spring game. I think that from what I've heard, there is a lot of, let's say, soaring expectations bordering on delusional. Is that fair?

Okay. Like around the program, close to it in the community, like there are expectations that far, far exceed what any cold computer or you know, but Elliot is going to say for the winter, right? Like they are going to get a four or four and a half in Las Vegas as their wind total.

And the fans around there are not like they are, they were thinking bowl game minimum. And the way that the fans, if, you know, if we end up closer to the projections and not to the delusional expectations, can the fans hang on? Like, is this going to be a flash in the pan? Is everybody going to check out? Because as much as like the national draw is Colorado and national draw, that is very interesting. They will be immediately.

Can it stick around? But I want to know if they're going to get the support from people around that community, because to make this happen year over year over year, you need the investment. That's going to be able to a power in NIL collected, right? Need the investment. That's going to be able to keep facilities up to speed in the arms race. So that's, that's probably my biggest, like long-term projection is Colorado a player nationally.

It's only beyond right now. He's got to experience a lot of success to change that, but I'm really concerned or interested in what happens locally because currently there is a wide gap between the expectations there and the expectations, you know, in Las Vegas or elsewhere. And so I'm, I'm curious to see how this plays out because they really need to stick around. If Colorado is going to happen, they need to have that environment, which can be awesome.

They need to have that environment be something that you want to put on TV, not just for the fact that of the head coach. All right. Final thing for chip Patterson. Then we'll let him go pack boxes or unpack boxes. Are you in the pack mode or unpacking mode at this point? We are closing up the pack mode. I've got some, some great friends here helping me.

The truck's almost loaded. Then we'll a quick stop by a storage unit and then onto the new house to, to unpack for the next several hours. Good for you. All right.

Final question is this. So I, I am not against in any way, shape or form storming the court or storming the field. Why is Greg Sankey against fun? Jermaine Burton might've ruined it for us. And for those who don't remember Jermaine Burton, who wasn't Georgia, now he's at Alabama, Alabama wide receiver. I think it was the LSU game overtime loss at Baton Rouge. They stormed the field. Think he hit somebody. I don't like, I'm not reporting that.

Like I would have to go back before. Really. It was like, there was at least a cell phone video of Jermaine Burton and a fan.

And it was somewhere between like get off of me, get out of my face and a strike. Right. And it was, it was concerning enough that I think that the league office was looking at liability and was like, we just, we, we can't not create stiffer penalties for this. And I it's still in the working group.

Am I correct on that? Like, I don't think you're going to lose a home game. I don't think that we're going to get to that point. Um, I think that it's one of those, they throw out really dramatic potential penalties.

Then they reel it back in just a little bit. Um, but I that's the, like, I'm with you. I like storming the court.

I like just running on the field. I like all of it, but a player might've allegedly hit a fan. If a fan were to hit a player, like I just, you know what we call that natural selection. If a player hits a fan, I, I, I just understand why that incident made somebody in the league office with all of the big numbers in front of them.

I understand if that made them a little bit on me. It's all comes down to money. Uh, chip Patterson, you are the man. He ruined it for us, right? We can just blame Alabama.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I see. I don't blame the player for stress. I do not blame the player in that situation. I'm sure the player doesn't want to strike the strike the fan. I'm sure the player felt seeking.

There was no seeking it out. That's for sure. Right? I just, I don't, I blame the person. If you are in a position and you are about to get bowled over by a football player when you're storming the field or a basketball player, when you're storming the court, by the way, they did great protecting the, uh, the kid in the wheelchair at NC state, right? Um, if, if, if you're a, if you're going to be that fan, I got no problem if you get decked, just like I have no problem. If security tackles you on the baseball field, when you're trying to do, uh, a, a marriage proposal, when you run on the field to do that, you deserve to get blindsided.

Don't be a doofus. So listen, I, I think that, uh, I think that storming the storming the court moments make incredible atmospheres home team. And I want to go back to this state beating Kansas, the octagon of doom and Jerome Tang stands on the scores table. He asked for the mic, the students are on the floor, the arenas packed, and he gives sort of just like a pep talk.

And you can't tell me that the confidence, cause if I remember it was like, you know, your classic Jerome Tang love each other, you know, crazy face. And he's, he's got a solid, he's got like four or five hits on his debut album that we, you know, we're going to keep hearing in concert for years to come, but he inspired so much confidence within that program and that fan base, starting with that mid season land against Kansas. And I just, I want those moments for college basketball, college football. Like, I don't know, man, Clemson lets them on the field all the time. Like for college basketball, I would really like rushing the court still be there. And you know, we've done a good job, like you mentioned, of being able to protect the visiting team and coaches. So, you know, we'll, we'll see what comes out of the working group on that. Chip Patterson, you're the best. Go move. I appreciate your time, man.

Sounds good. Y'all be well. Chip Patterson here on the Adam Gold Show.

I went too long with Chip, but I had to ask about the Greg Sankey thing. I don't understand. I mean, college athletics is like 90% atmosphere. Yeah. It's, it's 90.

Well, actually, that's probably not fair. Let's say college athletics is 60% atmosphere. 10% tailgating. Well, no, it's 90% atmosphere.

I forgot to tailgate. 60% atmosphere, like 25% game. Yeah. And 15% drama. Oh, yeah.

But to me, that's college sports. Why are we taking away the atmosphere part of it?