By Mark Pszonak
It took awhile for Deion Sanders to sign his contract extension, but when he finally did today, it was worth the wait. Signing a five-year extension, Coach Sanders is now under contract with the Buffaloes until the conclusion of the 2029 season.
The contract, approved by Colorado’s board of regents today, is for five-years and $54M, which comes out to an average of $10.6M per year. This puts Coach Sanders in rarefied air when it comes to collage football coaching salaries.
Deion Sanders' new 5 year, $54M contract with Colorado makes him the 4th highest average paid NCAAF coach.
1. Kirby Smart, $13.2M
2. Ryan Day, $12.5M
3. Dabo Swinney, $11.1M
4. Deion Sanders, $10.8M
5. Steve Sarkisian, $10.6M— Spotrac (@spotrac) March 28, 2025
Now the fourth highest average paid college football coach, the question quickly becomes, “Does he deserve it?” Does he deserve to be making more than Steve Sarkisian and just $300K less than Dabo Swinney? There are a couple of ways to look at this.
If you’re just talking about on-field success, then the answer is 100% no. Coach Sarkisian is 25-5 the last two seasons at Texas, made it to the College Football Playoff Semifinals, and already played in the Sugar Bowl, Cotton Bowl and Peach Bowl. Coach Swinney is 180-47 in 17 seasons with Clemson, made the National Championship game four times, won two of them, and been to a bowl every season he has been at Death Valley. Coach Sanders is 13-12 in two seasons at Colorado and lost the Alamo Bowl to BYU by 18 points. That is his full on-field FBS resume.
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However, Colorado isn’t just paying for his on-field success, which may be odd to for some people to understand. Colorado was quick to point this out during their press release. Since his arrival in Boulder, home games have had an economic impact of $94M, while student applications at the university have grown by 20%. These are off-the-field statistics that universities care about almost as much as on-field success.
So while Coach Swinney’s and Coach Sarkisian’s agents are likely on the phone right now with Clemson and Texas trying to get a contract boost for their clients, Coach Sanders has proven to everyone that he can succeed at the FBS level. How much he can succeed on-the-field without his son, Shedeur Sanders, and Travis Hunter is something everyone will find out pretty quickly, but when looking at the big picture, Coach Sanders is a success story. And Colorado is more than happy to pay him for that.
At least for now.
