Deion Sanders returns fire after Oregon, Washington opt to leave Pac-12: 'Same teams that were talking about us, right?'

Colorado were the early birds that got the worm during this sudden late-summer conference realignment shakeup. The Buffaloes inked their deal to depart for Big 12 country in recent weeks, sparking efforts from other Pac-12 schools to escape the league they’ve long been apart of.

Head Colorado football coach Deion Sanders isn’t concerned with conference movement at all. In year one of his tenure in Boulder, Coach Prime is focused on one thing: winning football games. He shared that sentiment at his Friday press conference, some of which aired live on ESPN:

“Man I don’t care nothing about no different teams moving. We trying to win, man,” Sanders responded to a reporter who asked about the latest major programs changing conferences. “I don’t care where we play. I don’t care what conference, who we’re playing against, we’re trying to win,”

Deion Sanders also made it clear that these developments are purely motivated by money, which he finds ironic.

“All this is about money, you know that. It’s about a bag. Everybody’s chasing a bag, then you get mad at the players when they chase it. How is that? How do the grownups get mad at the players when the colleges are chasing it?”

The reporter softly responded, “yeah, that’s true” — with Sanders emphasizing, “I know that’s true.” Lastly, the reporter added that more Pac-12 teams would likely move again today, which prompted this response from Sanders:

“The same teams who were talking about us, right?” he asked sarcastically and clapped before saying, “ooh lord, that was good.”

Deion Sanders raves about 2023 team

Amid all this conference realignment madness, Deion Sanders seems to not have a care in the world and is just focused on preparing his team to win games against a tough schedule this fall — a process that he says is coming along quite nicely.

“I love going to practice each day,” Sanders said later on in his press conference when discussing practices so far. “Witnessing the battles that we have at certain positions. Receiver battles, offensive line, defensive line, defensive backs, corners, kickers —it’s unbelievable, man. And I love the depth that we’re displaying right now. I really do.

Deion Sanders also emphasized the togetherness of the team and coaching staff so far.

“It’s a whole new team and these guys are really solid and they’re really unified — and they know what the common goal is and that’s to win. And they wanna go pro. They wanna get to the next level. They want to be a pillar in the community.

“I love what I’m seeing. Coaches are doing a phenomenal job of blending everything together. But these kids, we have to give them credit for what they’re accomplishing. It’s not an all-white table at lunch, you know, it’s not an all-black table at lunch — it’s a team and I love that.”