No. The pitch to prospective star Colorado football recruits shouldn't be to take a backseat to your head coach when it comes to potential NIL million-dollar payouts. Ipso facto, Coach Prime shouldn't be anywhere near the cover of the EA Sports College Football game; set to release in 2024.
One notable X account, Blue Bloods Bias, believes Deion Sanders should upstage his own son, Shedeur Sanders, his generational two-way recruit Travis Hunter, and hundreds of other top-line college-aged stars around the country to be EA's cover, um, coach?
"Coach Prime revived the Colorado football program last season, bringing the Buffaloes viewership that they had NEVER seen before," the account prefaced before saying, "At the peak of the their season, Denver was the #1 College Football viewing market. The Top CFB TV Market is almost always in the South, this was UNHEARD OF.
"Besides bringing in new fans to the sport, Deion's success on the field brought A-list celebrities & a nationwide cultural renaissance to Boulder. He is the most recognizable figure in all of the sport, & EA will break record sales if they feature him on the cover."
The release would likely break records if it had someone from Sam Houston State or Jacksonville State, Division I FBS's newest additions. Coach Prime's face isn't needed on the cover of a game in which current players can be paid. It's a waste of an NIL opportunity.
Coach Prime: Colorado football 'not an ATM'
Sanders has made it crystal clear that Colorado isn't the NIL opportunity many other schools are advertising to be from a money-making perspective; claiming that the University of Colorado won't be an ATM for any recruit.
"We’re not an ATM. That’s not gonna happen here,” Sanders told on November 21 (h/t Clarion Ledger). “If you come to Colorado to play football for me and the Colorado Buffaloes, it’s because you really want to play football and receive a wonderful education.
“All the business stuff will be handled on the backend. But we are not an ATM. You’re not coming here to get rich unless you’re really coming here with a plan to go to the NFL and get your degree. Not to come here and be Moneybagg Yo. That’s a rapper, right?”
CU isn't going to get sucked into NIL bidding wars? That's cool. But when it comes to Coach Prime taking the opportunities that do come along?
To quote Red from Pineapple Express: "Don't."