From realignment to TV ratings, Colorado’s victorious return to the Big 12 illustrates Buffaloes’ sports business evolution
By John Riker
Last Updated on September 22, 2024
BOULDER, Colo. — Change was in the air at Folsom Field in Colorado football’s primetime battle with the Baylor Bears. To be more specific, it flew above the Buffaloes’ north scoreboard: a rain-soaked black flag adorned with the Big 12’s Roman numeral-style logo.
Colorado’s 2024 season can’t compare to the sweeping changes and sensational storylines of 2023 — the program’s first under head coach Deion Sanders — but the Buffaloes have remained a fascinating case study in college football’s potential as a catalyst off of the football field. The Buffaloes’ first game competing in the Big 12 conference since the 2010 season provided a glimpse into how major trends in college sports, such as realignment and name, image and likeness, have played out at one of the nation’s most prominent programs.
What does the second year look like from a sports business perspective for Coach Prime’s star-studded Colorado Buffaloes? After Colorado’s thrilling 38-31 overtime win against Baylor, these are the sports business developments Buffs supporters and college football fans alike should track moving forward.
A bigger Big 12
The most visible change to Colorado’s game day experience on Saturday revolved around the Buffaloes’ new conference affiliation. Colorado is one of four teams to move from the Pac-12 Conference to the Big 12, and the iconography of the new affiliation spread from the field to the flag pole to jersey patches to backdrops for the postgame press conferences.
Colorado previously played in the Big 12 from 1996-2010, and they’ve joined a rejuvenated conference that has put the “big” in Big 12. The Big 12’s expansion has increased its size to 16 teams at the start of 2024, and the conference agreed to a massive media rights contract that starts in 2025-26 with an announced worth of $2.28 billion.
Not that Shedeur Sanders and the Buffaloes treated their conference opener any differently than the rest of their regular season games.
“To us, it’s just a game,” the victorious quarterback said in his postgame press conference. “We’re not thinking about each conference and everything like that. We’re just thinking about the next opponent. Each and every game is almost the same — we just have the same focus [and] the same mentality.”
Colorado’s NIL presence continues to grow
With a team as talent-laden and prominent as Colorado, the Buffaloes’ continued embrace of name, image and likeness opportunities makes plenty of sense.
Quarterback Shadeur Sanders and two-way playmaker Travis Hunter, already two of the most prominent athletes in the NIL space last season, have expanded their visibility and earning potential with new partnerships, including Sanders’ recent footwear and apparel deal with Nike. During the pregame warmups, Colorado’s athletic department advertised its Buffs NIL Exchange. Colorado’s coaching staff made waves of its own with a partnership with Aflac that provided them with custom headsets for the season.
NIL surfaced during Deion Sanders’ weekly press conference in a soundbite that made its way to national sports talk shows. In explaining the guidance he gives Hunter, Sanders spoke about how he perceives NIL has changed the dynamic between athletes and the media.
“I want to equip them with the weapons to win life, because football has changed,” Sanders said. “The landscape has changed in football. Once upon a time, you guys never attacked college players. Now, they’re making more money than y’all, and some of y’all are envious and jealous about that.”
A hot ticket
Entry to Folsom Field has become a pricey proposition since Sanders’ arrival, and the student section in particular is becoming increasingly exclusive. The university announced in the spring that applications increased by 20 percent, though CU representatives declined to draw a correlation between the start of Sanders’ time with the Buffs and the year-over-year increase and said it was a great topic for speculation.
Despite steady evening showers and a bleak second-half outlook, the only time the student section emptied was after Baylor’s game-sealing fumble into the end zone by way of a field rush. The excitement that Sanders has infused into the Buffaloes’ fanbase has been palpable over the past two years, and the numbers are starting to back up the claim.
Buffaloes shine in national spotlight
The start to the 2024 season has put to rest any notion that Colorado would slide off the national radar from a TV perspective after their disastrous losing streak at the end of 2023.
According to Sports Media Watch’s collection of television ratings, Colorado’s first three games finished within the top six most-watched college football games in their respective weeks, highlighted by the Buffaloes’ 28-10 loss to Nebraska on Sept. 7. Each of the Buffaloes’ games rated as the most-watched Big 12 game that week, a trend that seems likely to continue this week given Colorado-Baylor’s placement in FOX’s primetime slot.
