Asante Samuel Asks Deion Sanders If Colorado Buffaloes Compensated Him Properly

"You can never be compensated properly," Sanders said with a smile. "I didn't want to kill them because you gotta understand, you can't just come at me like a normal coach because we affect everything — I mean everything. You got to go and pull up the numbers and the consensus. We made $113 million our first year for Boulder, Colorado. Not Denver and all that, but Boulder, Colorado. It's so many things that we affect: attendance, enrollment. We affect everything, man. The restaurants, the hotels, we affect everything. The apparel was up 700%."

Sanders added that he used those impressive numbers at the negotiating table when talks of a contract extension began.

"We have numbers to justify, so when we go into negotiation, we're giving you those numbers like, 'Hey man, you see this right?' This is what it's worth, this is what we are," Sanders said. "It ain't just about wins and losses. It's about the effect you have on the whole city and the whole state."

Samuel then joked that CU negotiators likely didn't have the means to compensate Sanders for his complete worth but were willing to give everything available. "They were probably just begging with you, pleading with you like, 'Prime, we know how much you're worth. We can't pay you that much, but we'll give you as much as we possibly can,'" Samuel said.

Sanders' response? "It went a little bit like that."

CU athletic director Rick George and chancellor Justin Schwartz were well aware of Sanders' influence throughout the negotiating process. The CU football program recorded a program-high 3.011 grade point average last fall and sold out all but two home games at Folsom Field during the 2024 season. Even more, applications to CU increased 20% over the past year, including a 50.5% increase in prospective students who identify as Black/African American.

Sanders' next challenge will be to win games without the help of quarterback Shedeur Sanders and Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, who were both selected in April's NFL Draft. Colorado's 2025 season kicks off at home against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Aug. 29.