Jackson State University, and Mississippi sports fans as a whole, will be sorry but not surprised that football coach Deion Sanders is moving on to bigger things.
After three incredibly successful years at JSU, Sanders took the job as head coach at the University of Colorado right after the Tigers won their second straight Southwestern Athletic Conference championship last weekend.
You cannot blame Sanders. Colorado, as a member of the Pac 12, simply is in a different league than Jackson State. Coach Prime is multiplying his pay by more than 10 times, to $6 million a year. And as he said in a recent “60 Minutes” interview, he has to think about his assistant coaches, who deserve more money, too.
Jackson State and the SWAC owe Sanders a debt of gratitude. He revived the Tiger program and brought extra attention to the conference. He has written the template; now the challenge is to find a successor who can keep it going.
