One thing you can expect from Deion Sanders’ offseason is that he’s always cooking up some exclusive, ‘sounds cool’ spring plan, only for it to get canceled by the NCAA. After his ideas got overlooked and humiliated twice, Coach Prime is back at it with another bold spring idea that might pay dividends later in the season: the first-ever Spring Draft.

On February 20, Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders ditched the traditional way of splitting teams and instead let his players run the show NFL-style. With almost 50 new transfers joining the roster in Boulder, the goal is basically to get everyone bonding quickly while cranking the competitive energy up to 10. The coach Primes feels very stocked about his innovation:

“I love this,” a resolute Sanders said after the draft on Well-off Media’s YouTube channel. “I love every last bit of it. And I can’t wait to see us compete.”

To make it feel legit, they even played that famous ESPN draft chime every time a name was called. Sanders picked a few team captains and put them in the hot seat. The word is that they get 45 seconds to choose their picks.

However, what really had everyone fuming was freshman quarterback Kaneal Sweetwyne going No. 1 overall, jumping ahead of Julian Sayin himself. The three-star just recently signed with Colorado after de-committing from NC State after his January visit.

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The whole point of this draft is to make the players take ownership of their locker room. Coach Prime told the captains straight up that, since they picked the teams, they’re responsible for motivating their teammates and winning.

They split the roster into two squads: the Black Squad and the Gold Squad, their colors. The real test commences on March 2. They’ll be competing in everything they do throughout spring practice, with the coaches keeping a close eye and a live scoreboard on which side is performing better.

It all leads up to the big Black & Gold Spring Game on April 11, 2026, at Folsom Field. It’s going to be one heck of a Field Day on campus. Other sports like tennis and lacrosse are on the schedule. And the best part of all is that tickets are totally free for fans.

It’s definitely another new era in Boulder. Prime is ensuring everyone stays excited even after getting humiliated by the NCAA over the Syracuse-Colorado spring game.

Deion Sanders’ scheduled spring matchup scrapped again

Last year, Deion Sanders really had the genius idea of lining his Buffs up against Fran Brown’s Syracuse Orange in the Spring Bowl. As expected, the NCAA said a blatant ‘No.’ This year? No again.

The first time, the NCAA explained that the request came too late. Some teams had already started or even finished spring practice. The NCAA said it wouldn’t be fair to let just two schools do something special when others didn’t get the same chance.

So this year, Colorado and Syracuse tried again. They made sure to send their request earlier to avoid that problem. This time, the NCAA said the current rules simply don’t allow teams to practice against other schools in the spring. They also said they didn’t want to approve outside competition without taking a bigger look at the entire college football schedule.

That includes things like conference changes, long trips, and teams having only one bye week in 2026. So for now, the idea is on hold. The NCAA said it might think about allowing joint spring practices in the future. But it’s only after a full review and possibly new rules for everyone. Deion didn’t appeal the decision; he just came up with a new idea that the NCAA has little to no say over.