Could Deion Sanders tip college football's power balance toward Black schools?

[Jilly_in_VA]

Deion Sanders is the ultimate jack of all trades. As a college athlete at Florida State he starred at football, baseball and track. Selected fifth in the 1989 NFL draft Sanders instantly proved a triple threat as a cornerback, special teams returner and situational wide receiver. When he wasn’t dazzling on the gridiron he wowed Major League Baseball as a bag-swiping outfielder, becoming the only player to appear in a World Series and Super Bowl. Throughout Neon Deion crackled with charisma and swagger – delighting the masses with his brash fashions, touchdown dances and gift of the gab. In retirement he continued to enthrall as a television analyst, preacher and reality TV star.

Still: when the football hall of famer decided to try his hand at coaching football, it felt like a gig too far. Although he gathered some experience at the high school level in Texas, Sanders looked ill-prepared to make the jump to Jackson State – a south-central Mississippi outpost at quite a remove from the spotlight. A historically black college (or HBCU), Jackson State competes in the shadow of the Alabamas and Michigans of the land and operates under an anemic athletic budget. Sanders’s bold move looked like a bored celebrity trying his hand at coaching and threatened to go down like his attempt to run a charter school, an abject failure.

But in less than a year Sanders has established himself as a whiz at this job, too. This fall he led the 11-win Tigers to their first conference title in 14 years, and was named as one of the nation’s best college football coaches. On Saturday the Tigers play South Carolina State in the Celebration Bowl — the de facto championship game for HBCUs. His son Shedeur, the Tigers’ star quarterback, was recognized as one of the nation’s best freshmen. All the while the Tigers broke attendance records, averaging more than 42,000 spectators.

The star power of Coach Prime – that’s his name; don’t leave out the “coach” part – has turned out to be an effective lure for top-shelf talent. On Wednesday he shocked college football by signing Travis Hunter, the nation’s top-rated high school prospect. A multi-talented player in the Sanders mold, Hunter chose Jackson State after committing to Florida State, the college where Sanders made his name. Clips of Hunter’s dramatic commitment reveal were quickly followed by images of Florida State fans burning Sanders’s jersey. This wasn’t a one-off. This was a turning point.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/dec/17/deion-sanders-jackson-state-coach-hbcus-college-football

[Hoyt]

1. Gotta give Sanders a lot of credit. Apparently, his recruiting is going

really well.

[Jilly_in_VA]

2. I didn't know

until today that the NCAA doesn't allow winners of the HBCU conferences to play in the FCS and that's why there is a Celebration Bowl. Shame on the NCAA!

[SCantiGOP]

3. Jackson State

These schools couldn’t come close to competing with the Power 5 conferences. And their players won’t get the TV exposure or media attention they would get in the SEC or Big 10, for example.
Travis Hunter is an anomaly. He is a freakishly talented player and one of the few who could have gone straight to the NFL, but he wants to play one year before heading to the Pros.

I like Sanders and wish him success, but thinking that these small schools (with budgets less than 1% of the big schools) can be competitive on a national level is not realistic.