Deion Sanders Perfectly Sums Up Hypocrisy of Conference Realignment

The first-year Buffaloes coach offered an honest perspective in the wake of Oregon and Washington becoming the latest programs to defect.

With the world of college sports firmly in flux, Colorado coach Deion Sanders offered a honest perspective Friday on his thoughts regarding the conference realignment taking place around the country.

The topic was, again, front and center on Friday after the seismic reports of Oregon and Washington’s interest in joining, and later acceptance into, the Big Ten sent another round of shockwaves throughout college sports. The defection of the now former Pac-12 programs also came on the heels of Colorado’s recent decision to leave the conference for a return to the Big 12.

When asked about how the shake-ups may impact the Buffaloes, Sanders swiftly shut down the notion, instead choosing to juxtapose the business motives behind the moves with the hypocrisy players face over seeking lucrative NIL deals, which has led to some high-profile transfers.

“Man, I don’t care nothing about no different teams moving, we’re trying to win, man. I don’t care where we play,” Sanders said during his media session. “I don’t care what conference, who we’re playing against, we’re trying to win. All this is about money, you know that. It’s about a bag, everybody’s chasing the bag. Then you get mad at the players when they chase it. 

“How is that? How do the grownups get mad at the players when they chase it, when the colleges are chasing it?”

While Coach Prime’s program is also a part of the discourse surrounding conference realignment, the outspoken Sanders’s stinging yet pinpoint breakdown of the hypocrisy certainly puts things into perspective.

With the move now official, Oregon, whose football coach Dan Lanning took a jab at Colorado’s move, and Washington will join USC and UCLA—both of which defected from the Pac-12 last summer–in the new-look Big Ten. Meanwhile, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah are reportedly in the process of possibly jumping to the Big 12, which would leave Stanford, California, Oregon State and Washington State as the Pac-12’s remaining schools.

As for Sanders and the Buffaloes, the program will continue preparing for an anticipated Sept. 2 matchup against TCU, a future Big 12 conference foe, to kick off their final campaign as Pac-12 members.