Colorado inks new deal with Deion Sanders' manager for Coach Prime docuseries

Amazon Prime crew will film on campus for free in exchange for exposure

Barbara Gauntt/Clarion Ledger / USA TODAY NETWORK

The spectacle we saw play out last Friday at the Colorado Media Day still has everyone talking about the way Coach Prime shut down local journalists from the Denver Post and CBS Denver. The back-and-forth with Eric Christensen was interesting. Deion Sanders said CBS knew what they did was "foul" and refused to answer any of their questions.

What exactly did CBS say or do to become public enemy number one and sparking a controversy with the Buffaloes coach? We won't know officially, but Monday brought better news with "Perfect Timing" for Sanders. His agent, SMAC Entertainment, inked a new deal with the University of Colorado for the Coach Prime documentary series on Amazon Video, as first reported by USA Today. 

This series, which highlights the university's football program under the leadership of Deion Sanders, was renewed by Amazon Prime Video in May. The contract, signed in late July, outlines the terms between the university and SMAC Productions, which represents Sanders and three of his players, including his sons Shedeur and Shilo, as well as Travis Hunter.

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The university sees significant value in the series, primarily due to the publicity it generates. This arrangement is rare in college sports, as it provides wide latitude for filming on the Boulder campus without any direct financial compensation to the university. Instead, the university views the exposure as a beneficial trade-off. This contract is largely similar to the one from the previous season, which covered Sanders' first year at Colorado.

Interestingly, SMAC Productions holds exclusive rights to all television, documentary, and episodic programming related to Sanders and the CU football program, restricting the university's ability to produce competing content. However, the university can still create non-serialized audiovisual content, provided it doesn't directly compete with the series.

The renewal of this partnership underscores the mutual satisfaction with last year’s collaboration, which resulted in a six-episode series following Sanders' inaugural season at Colorado. As the university gears up for the upcoming season, there is an option to extend the filming agreement beyond 2024, though this will be revisited in April 2025. The Buffaloes, under Sanders' guidance, are preparing to kick off their season on Thursday, August 29 against FCS powerhouse North Dakota State.