Deion Sanders at 2025 Big 12 Media Days: Unpacking the best and worst from Colorado’s polarizing coach

Big 12 Media Days are underway in Frisco, Texas, and Colorado took center stage on Day 2. Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders always commands a crowd when he steps up to the microphone, and this year’s session came with its usual batch of fireworks. From the insightful breakdown of his quarterback competition to his reluctance to answer a question about his personal health — bashing a media outlet for its so-called “bulljunk” in the process — Sanders was in rare form on the dais.

The ability to bounce between thoughtful, detailed football-specific responses and off-the-wall quips has long made Sanders a wild card in media availability settings. Wednesday’s highlights and lowlights were another demonstration of his range.

Here, we take a play-by-play dive into the moments that stood out the most from Sanders’ appearance on the Big 12 Media Days main stage as he enters his third season at Colorado. 

Sanders dodges question about health

It has been a largely quiet offseason from Sanders as he stayed out of the public space for much of the spring and summer amid health concerns. He reportedly missed a speaking engagement and said in May that he lost about 14 pounds during his break from the spotlight.

Sanders, who in the past battled blood clots, had emergency surgery in 2023 and had two toes amputated in 2021, previously said he would provide an update upon his return to Boulder, Colo (he has been recovering from the unspecified health issues at his home in Texas). But when asked about his situation at Big 12 Media Days, he shot down the question from The Athletic’s David Ubben.

“Athletic, sometimes y’all be on that bulljunk, so I’m really not gonna tell you much,” Sanders said. “You know that. But I’m not gonna talk about my health. I’m here to talk about my team.”

Later, Colorado athletic director Rick George told Ubben that he expects Sanders on campus “in a week or two, probably.”

Update on Colorado’s QB competition

Colorado, coming off a 9-4 record in 2024, sent two quarterbacks to Frisco, and that was by design. Sanders noted that he brought both Julian Lewis and Kaidon Salter with him because he does not know which of the two will start — taking the reins from Deion’s son, Shedeur, in the process — when the season arrives.

Lewis arrived on campus earlier this year and represented a key high school recruiting victory for the Buffaloes as a four-star prospect and the No. 10 quarterback in the 2025 class. He flipped his commitment from USC in a splashy move to become Colorado’s projected signal-caller of the future. Salter is the more veteran option, though, and transferred in from Liberty with four years under his belt, including one when led Conference USA with 32 touchdowns and quarterback rating (176.6).

“As long as they’re doing their jobs and we’re winning, we definitely want to continue to develop JuJu, but Kaidon is unbelievable,” said Sanders. “Kaidon is off the chain. He’s been there, done that. He can get the job done. I wouldn’t have brought him here if I didn’t trust him. But JuJu is coming on around the mountain when he comes. I love him. I love what he brings to the table. I don’t know how it’s going to play out, as long as it plays out. We can’t lose either way with either of those two.”

Sanders jokes about Texas Tech’s NIL money

Texas Tech was the story of the offseason in the Big 12 with its investment surge and the transfer portal victories that came with it. The rising NIL force caught Sanders’ attention, and he made a tongue-in-cheek request to Red Raiders coach Joey McGuire.

“Joey got some money,” he said. “Joey, where you at, baby? Spending that money. I love it. I love it. Once upon a time, you guys was talking junk about me going in that portal. Now when everybody go in the portal, it’s okay. It’s cool when they do it, but it’s a problem when I do it. … Can you send a few of those dollars to us so we can get some of those players, too?”

McGuire coached Sanders’ oldest son, Deion Jr., in high school and the two have a tight relationship. 

Committed to transfer-heavy recruiting approach

The 33 transfers Colorado picked up during the 2025 cycle were the fewest of the Sanders era and marked the second straight year in which a smaller batch of newcomers joined the program. That is all relative, though, after the Buffaloes set an unmatched precedent the last two offseasons with by far the largest portal classes in the country. Only eight teams secured more transfers this year than Colorado, even with the lower volume of players flocking to Boulder.

That transfer-heavy approach is not going anywhere.

“I have a simple formula: 40-40-20, the grad transfers, transfers and high school kids,” said Sanders. “I stick to what we do and what we know that works for us. It may not work for somebody else, but it works for us and it’s been working for us. So I’m pleased with it.”

Big 12 nixes preseason poll to help shape narrative — should national college football rankings follow suit?

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Sanders sets Big 12 championship goal

The Big 12 axed its preseason poll this year after last season’s edition proved wildly inaccurate. The 247Sports expert panel came to a consensus, though, and ranked Colorado 10th out of the league’s 16 teams after Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders and many other talented players moved on. 

The Buffaloes’ +3100 odds to win the conference (per FanDuel Sportsbook) are also quite modest and only the 12th-best in what projects as a wide-open race.

But no conference is as competitive as this one, and after last season’s surprises, Colorado’s potential to flip the standings on their head should be recognized.

“We want to win at all costs,” said Sanders. “We want to be in that championship game, not here in The Star but over in that other big house that Jerry’s built. That’s what we want to do, and that’s what we’re gearing up for. That’s all we’re playing for. We play to win. We don’t just play to compete.”

Sanders calls for rule changes on and off field

Some of Sanders’ most passionate responses came after he fielded a question about rule changes. If he had the time, he said he could have gone on and on about the alterations he wants to see. Among the on-field moves Sanders pushed for were the implementation of NFL rules to the college game, such as pass interference as a spot foul. But he also went more big-picture and joined the cacophony of calls to regulate tampering in the transfer portal.

“It’s gotta be a salary cap on this stuff, because this stuff is going crazy and nobody knows where it’s going to land, where it’s going to end,” said Sanders. “You have so many different doors. I would see a player that said he got an offer from another school, and I’m trying to figure out why you guys haven’t investigated it, and how is that possible when the guy is not in the portal? How is that? If that was one of my players, you guys would be all over it.”

And in true Sanders fashion, he went out of the box to say college football needs to tighten up its uniform policies.

“We got guys out there in biker shorts,” he said. “That makes me sick, because I’m a football guy. I played this game at a high level, and I have so much respect for this game. How can we allow guys out there in biker shorts? No kneepads, no nothing. Literally pants up under their thighs, and that’s cool. I think there should be a fine implemented for that stuff, and let’s have more respect for this tremendous game.”