Three weeks into the college football season, Colorado’s Coach Prime era has delivered on the field — and might be making an even stronger impact off it.
Deion Sanders’ unbeaten start has accounted for three of the five most-watched college football games this season.
Despite finishing after 2 a.m. ET, Week 3’s Rocky Mountain Showdown against a winless Colorado State team still delivered 9.3 million viewers on ESPN, making it the network’s most-watched late primetime college football game ever.
Before that, Colorado-Nebraska brought in 8.73 million viewers on Fox in Week 2, and Sanders’ Colorado coaching debut against TCU was Fox’s most-watched Big Noon Saturday Week 1 game ever with 7.26 million viewers.
On Saturday, No. 19 Colorado begins Pac-12 play against No. 10 Oregon at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC — the network’s first Coach Prime game of the year. Next week, No. 5 USC will travel to Boulder for another high-profile matchup that will be broadcast yet again by Fox Sports in its premier “Big Noon Saturday” slot on Sept. 30.
The Bright Lights of Boulder
The Coach Prime phenomenon has not only started a new war between ESPN and Fox, but also made Boulder the Hollywood of college football.
Meanwhile, Sanders’ Coach Prime line of sunglasses with Blenders has received at least 67,000 preorders before it goes on sale Oct. 12 — which will roughly generate $4.5 million in revenue.
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