Deion Sanders is SI’s Sportsperson of the Year despite Colorado’s last-place finish

Sports Illustrated apparently does not subscribe to the old Herm Edwards axiom that “You play to win the game.”

The magazine has bestowed its prestigious annual Sportsperson of the Year award upon Deion Sanders, despite Colorado losing its final six games and finishing in last place in the Pac-12 with a 1-8 conference record.

The accompanying gushing profile was written by veteran college sports reporter Pat Forde.

“There are numbers that define the Prime Effect upon the University of Colorado in Boulder, a place that hasn’t always had a chummy relationship with football,” the story read.

“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.”

While it’s possible arrangements were made a month or two ago for Sanders to receive this award when the Buffaloes’ stock was higher, the story mentions some of the ups and downs — but not all of them.

“As for the actual football? It’s been an adventure. Colorado is massively improved over 2022, when it was by far the worst Power 5 program. The Buffaloes were outscored by 29.1 points per game last year, compared to 6.7 this year,” the story says.

“Las Vegas set their over-under total at 3.5 wins coming into the season, and the Buffs surpassed that in early October. But there have been pratfalls. For all the acclaim Sanders has received, he’s also gotten criticism for blowing a 29-point lead to a bad Stanford team, for mismanaging the clock in a couple of games, for strangely demoting offensive coordinator Sean Lewis.”

What it doesn’t mention, for example, is that Colorado lost its final game of the season, by six touchdowns, to a Washington State team that had just one other Pac-12 win this season.

Perhaps one day Sanders could earn Sportsperson of the Year honors for a deserving coaching performance, but if you believe in the idea that you play to win the game then this year’s award should have gone to a champion such as Nikola Jokic, Bruce Bochy, Travis Kelce, Novak Djokovic or perhaps even Angel Reese.