Deion Sanders Named Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year After 4-8 Season
Sports Illustrated believes Deion Sanders was the most important person in sports this year, despite the awful record on the field.
SI named the Colorado head coach its 2023 Sportsperson of the Year in a Thursday announcement that is a bit of a head scratcher.
Why? The answer is pretty simple. Deion Sanders and Colorado had an absolutely awful season on the gridiron.
After a 3-0 start that set the college football world on fire, the Buffs finished 4-8 after going 1-8 in the team's last nine games. That's two losses short of bowl eligibility.
It was an absolutely brutal collapse that came with plenty of scorn and drama. Yet, still not bad enough for Primetime to not be named Sportsperson of the year.
Sports Illustrated names Deion Sanders Sportsperson of the Year.
While the play on the field was brutal down the stretch for Colorado, it turns out that might not have mattered much in SI's assessment.
In fact, it appeared to matter very little. What mattered to SI was Sanders' impact on the community and school, which is undeniable.
SI published the following data:
First-year applications are up 26.4% year over year; Black or African American applications are up 80.6%; nonresident applications are up 29.8%; and international applications are up 38.4% from 97 countries, including 16 that didn’t have any applications last year. While those numbers cannot be definitively linked to Sanders, others can be: September sales at the school’s online team store were up 2,544% over the same month in 2022. Every home game in 50,183-seat Folsom Field was sold out for the first time in school history.
Those numbers are impossible to argue with. Sanders put Colorado back on the map. After decades of irrelevance, the Buffaloes are finally, once again, under the spotlight, and Deion is responsible for that.
However, does that make him the best sportsperson in America in 2023? I'd argue no. I'd argue that makes him the best salesman in all of sports.
Those, obviously, are two different things. Being the best sportsperson should be measured by accomplishments within a sport. Deion Sanders has just four wins at Colorado and didn't make a bowl game.

Deion Sanders named SI Sportsperson of the Year. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images)
However, he did give the campus a massive boost in similar fashion to what Alabama saw after Nick Saban's arrival. That translates to way more money in the pockets of the university, especially from out of state students. Again, that's not an accomplishment in sport. That's an accomplishment in sales. So, is the title earned? I say no, but I'm open to disagreements! Let me know at David.Hookstead@outkick.com.