Colorado's Deion Sanders Named Sports Illustrated's 2023 Sportsperson of the Year

Deion Sanders never won Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year during his illustrious NFL playing career despite being one of the most dynamic forces in all of sports.

One year as the head football coach of Colorado later, however, Sanders has received SI's highest honor.

The publication announced him as 2023's Sportsperson of the Year on Thursday, making him the first college coach in more than a decade to win the award.

In terms of pure performance, Sanders would rank among the least accomplished people to win the award during their year of honor. Colorado went just 4-8 during the 2023 season, finishing last in the Pac-12 and closing the regular season with six straight losses. After roaring onto the scene with three straight wins and a Top 25 appearance, Sanders' Buffaloes whimpered to the finish.

Of course, pure win-loss record far undersells what Sanders has brought to Boulder.

Perhaps above all else, Sanders has injected life into a football program that's spent most of the 21st century as a forgettable also-ran. The Buffaloes went 1-11 in 2022 and were outscored by 29.1 points per game. There may have been no more lifeless program in any Power Five conference.

During the Buffaloes' 3-0 start to Sanders' tenure, there was no hotter ticket in college football. Colorado said it generated more than $90 million in media coverage in September alone.

While four wins are well below Sanders' own expectations, five of the team's eight losses came by just one score. Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter gave the program two foundational stars for fans to get behind, and Colorado spent most of 2023 playing in packed houses—a stark contrast to recent seasons. The program sold out season tickets for the first time in history and had the highest average ticket price in college football in September.

"The climax we gave you early on, we gonna get you back there because I know you liked that ride, didn't you?" Sanders told reporters. "We gonna get you back there."

Sanders knows the honeymoon phase does not last long in football. Four wins is acceptable in a first year when you're rebuilding a program from scratch. The next step is reaching a bowl game and the next after that will be competing for a conference championship.

Colorado moves back to the Big 12 next season after being among the leaders of the Pac-12 exodus, so next year's schedule will be filled with a slate of brand new opponents and rivals gunning for Sanders' team.

How he handles that—and how Colorado performs moving forward—will inform whether Sanders' selection as Sportsperson of the Year for 2023 proves to be prescient or overzealous.