Is the luster fading from coach Deion Sanders’s Colorado for college football TV networks?
Following a 3–9 season last year, the Buffaloes might not be as big of an attraction to national broadcasters such as ABC/ESPN, Fox Sports/FS1, and TNT Sports/truTV, sources tell Front Office Sports. Especially if they get off to a slow start in the 2026 season, which kicks off Sept. 3 at Georgia Tech on ESPN.
When Sanders took over for the 2023 season, Colorado quickly became a TV phenomenon. With Coach Prime prowling the sidelines, and Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter starring on the field, the national networks fought for the school’s game telecasts. In September 2023, ABC drew an eye-popping 10.03 million viewers for Colorado’s blowout loss to Oregon, even topping the 9.98 million for a Notre Dame–Ohio State telecast on NBC Sports that same day.
But the “Prime Effect” on Colorado game viewership is wearing off. Take the program’s recent history on ESPN. During the 2023 season, the five Colorado games televised by ESPN averaged 6.1 million viewers, say sources. The next year, ESPN averaged 3.4 million over four games. During last season’s disaster, it fell to 2 million viewers over seven games. That’s a 67% drop over a three-season span.
On Fox’s broadcast channel, Colorado games averaged 4.7 million viewers over the past three seasons, sources say. Across Fox broadcast and its sister cable channel, FS1, combined, they averaged 3.8 million viewers.
The Big 12 has released the TV schedule for only the first three weeks of the season, as well as select other games. Here’s what we know so far about Colorado’s national TV schedule.
The Buffaloes are booked so far for two games on ESPN: Sept. 3 vs. Georgia Tech and Nov. 13 vs. Houston. Another will be streamed on ESPN+: Sept. 12 vs. Weber State. Fox or FS1 will air Colorado’s visit to Northwestern on Sept. 19. The rest remains to be seen, but the Buffs’ TV schedule is likely to be a far cry from their 9–4 campaign in 2024, when all 13 of their games (including the Valero Alamo Bowl) were nationally televised across ABC/ESPN, Fox/FS1, CBS Sports, and NBC Sports.
Sure, Sanders could pull off another miracle in Boulder. With his Hall of Fame résumé and Super Bowl credentials, the NFL legend will always be a TV draw. Unfortunately, there’s not much optimism around the program heading into the new season; Colorado ranked 15th out of 16 teams in a preseason Big 12 media poll, and the school is not ranked in the Associated Press’s preseason national top 25.
Meanwhile, Sanders has been subpoenaed to testify in the bankruptcy trial of his son Shilo Sanders, who previously played at Colorado. It remains to be seen how much of a distraction that will be as the 59-year-old coach enters his fourth season in Boulder.
ESPN and Fox both declined comment for this story. TNT Sports, which gets a couple of Big 12 games in exchange for licensing Inside the NBA to ESPN, says it’s awaiting more info on the Big 12 schedule.
