Deion Sanders makes telling comment about college football realignment

Jackson State University head football coach Deion Sanders speaks to media during a press conference at JSU’s Walter Payton Recreation and Wellness Center in Jackson, Miss., Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. Photo Credit: Eric Shelton/Clarion Ledger via Imagn Content Services, LLC

Deion Sanders is making it clear that he does not want to be left out of college football’s ongoing realignment.

Sanders appeared on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” on Saturday, and the Jackson State coach suggested that HBCU schools are going to have to strongly consider where they want to stand in the NCAA pecking order. Sanders suggested that Jackson State was already assessing potential new conference memberships, and that other schools needed to consider doing the same.

“Sooner or later, some of the prominent schools are going to have to make a decision,” Sanders said. “What do we want to do? Do we want to sit back and adhere to tradition? Or, do want to put ourselves in a financial situation that our school prospers? You really got to factor that in and weigh those options. There are some tremendous options that a few of those school are going to be faced with. We’re already speaking about it.”

Sanders has made Jackson State nationally relevant, but ultimately they are still an FCS team playing conference games against members of the SWAC. If bigger conferences would like to have them, they would be silly to not look into it. That is especially true if they run the risk of losing Sanders to a Power 5 school if they don’t move up.