Deion Sanders reflects on Pac-12 tenure ahead of Big 12 move

Deion Sanders is ready for Colorado to make the move from the Pac-12 over to the Big 12 for the 2024 season and beyond.

If there’s one thing Sanders noticed about the Pac-12 in 2023, it was quite a great conference and arguably the deepest this season. The position that stood out? Quarterback.

If Colorado is to have success moving forward, they’ll need tip top play from Shedeur Sanders, who’s expected back in 2024.

“I don’t give messages, but the Pac-12 was tremendous,” Deion Sanders said following the season finale. “I think the thing that people want to ask about the Pac-12 is if you have a good quarterback, you got a chance. And I don’t know too many teams that don’t feature a darn good quarterback, and oftentimes a team that can run the football. So the people that made a tremendous jump, they got stability at quarterback and they were able to run the darn football.”

While Colorado goes back to its college football roots, Big 12 football, Sanders was a little down on the dismantling of the Pac-12 itself.

Once USC and UCLA decided to go to the Big Ten, it was domino effect after domino effect.

“So this is a tremendous conference that I hate to see abandoned, whatever word is proper for what’s transpired,” Sanders said. “And I can’t wait to get to where we’re going. Because that commissioner is a phenomenal human being, a phenomenal friend and I know what he’s going to bring to the table and I know what we’re going to bring to the table. I’m happy that Rick George made that happen tremendously.”

As Sanders alluded to, quarterback play was paramount in the Pac-12 and don’t expect anything different in the Big 12.

In 11 games this season, despite struggles from the offensive line and run game, Shedeur Sanders threw for 3,230 yards, 27 touchdowns, three interceptions and a 69.3% completion percentage.

The Buffaloes finished 4-8 after a 4-2 start to the 2023 campaign. That won’t be acceptable next season for Sanders’ standard, and he explained what’s going to go into the next steps of Colorado’s rebuild as he looks to build a formidable contender in 2024.

“Understanding what we’re capable of, and what it takes to get to that level of consistency, of practice habits, of study habits, of holding one another accountable. Me not having to do all the yelling. The coaches taking a part of that as well,” Sanders explained. “We established some things that are foundational. When these new young men come in here, it’s established in stone.

“They’ve just got to proceed with caution, so to speak. The guys that are here, they understand this is how it is. This is how it’s going to be. We’re going to make sure the standard is the standard.”