Colorado’s 9-4 season in 2024 was supposed to mark the beginning of something bigger. Instead, it now looks like the high point of Deion Sanders’ tenure. After a disastrous 3-9 campaign in 2025 and more turbulence in 2026, the blame has landed on Sanders. Cris Carter, however, has another culprit in mind.
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Colorado’s problems, according to Carter, began the moment Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter walked out of Boulder. Speaking on the ‘Fully Loaded’ podcast, Carter acknowledged that Deion Sanders has shown he can build around elite talent. Still, he argued that his biggest weakness has emerged once that talent is gone: recruitment.
“Colorado’s a hard place to recruit to. Almost all the football players, it’s a plane flight. Like, you can’t recruit Colorado and play Division One football. You’ll get smacked. They don’t have enough Division One football players in that little radius. So everything is a flight. Academically, Colorado can be tough to get into with the transfer credits and things like that,” argues Carter.
The former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver argues that the university will eventually have to make up its mind: be satisfied with the money generated by the “Deion effect” or demand better on-field performances and a legitimate championship push.
“Because of the Deion effect, because they won’t ever make that money again. That was obnoxious, though. That was nobody ever—yeah, saw that coming. Like, they won’t be able to recover. So that’s why they signed him to a contract extension,” Carter further highlighted.
The Deion Sanders effect undeniably turned the Colorado Buffaloes into one of the most commercially valuable programs in college football. Ticket revenue surged from $13 million in FY2023 to $31.2 million in FY2024.
Colorado’s athletic department also generated $146.6 million in revenue during FY2024. However, that momentum has since cooled, with ticket revenue falling to $24 million in FY2025.
This was one of the reasons the Buffaloes extended Deion Sanders’ contract through 2029 in a five-year, $54 million deal. If Colorado fires him before the contract expires, the university would owe him 75% of his remaining salary. For 2026, that buyout stands at a staggering $25.5 million.
Now the question is: how far can the Colorado Buffaloes let this situation spiral into mayhem? The team’s last truly successful season came in 2024, when they went 9-4, powered by Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter. Since the two stars left, however, Colorado has fallen into a steep decline, going 3-9 in 2025 and sitting at 2-3 in 2026.
Last season, Colorado tried three quarterbacks, but none of them worked out. This season, the team has already tried two QBs, and that hasn’t worked either. Carter believes the solution is to recruit better players, as other programs do. However, he also believes Colorado currently has more cons than pros when it comes to attracting players to Boulder.
Colorado’s relationship with in-state high schools has remained a major concern under Deion Sanders. When Fernando Lovo was hired as athletic director in December, strengthening those ties was reportedly one of his key priorities.
Sanders, meanwhile, has made limited efforts to build those connections, with no off-campus high school visits and just three Colorado recruits among the 43 high school players Colorado signed across his last three recruiting classes.
Colorado’s 2026 recruiting class exposed the same glaring problem, as the Buffaloes failed to land a single four-star recruit from their own state. The only in-state high school signee was three-star offensive tackle Josiah Manu from Loveland.
Even more damning, all 17 Colorado prospects ranked ahead of Manu chose out-of-state programs, including Oregon, Texas, Oklahoma, and UCLA.
And while local circumstances play a huge role in roster development, the performances have also not been up to the mark. For a head coach in his fourth year at the program, there is no excuse not to have a special teams coach. Some of the decisions continue to baffle the fans, especially Julian Lewis’ benching.
The schedule is not going to get any easier for the Buffs. If things don’t change, Colorado is staring at another season without bowl eligibility.