Steve Hatchell must walk the line between, in his words, "showing respect and being a cheerleader."
Yet the National Football Foundation President and CEO has an easy excuse when it comes to Deion Sanders. Hatchell, a Colorado alum, knows what he is seeing this season is good for the growth of college football in the United States. The Coach Prime phenomenon can only help.
"I travel a lot, and every place where I'm going I'm seeing Colorado T-shirts," Hatchell told Sporting News. "I see them in Boston, I see them in Chicago, I see them in Las Vegas. I think that is really good for college football, period. I think having him and what he does, his persona, the ads that he does, he's breaking some eggs and let's go do this differently."
Colorado will be in the prime-time spotlight against UCLA on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET, and Hatchell credits the vision of Buffaloes athletic director Rick George for taking a chance on Sanders.
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"The vision comes with him as the person he's been in everybody's consciousness since he was a player in two different sports," Hatchell said. "There's a swagger. There's an understanding. He hired a great staff and said, 'Here's where we are going to go.' I think what he has done has been terrific. I have been stunned in a very positive way."
Hatchell also believes Sanders will benefit the growth of football across the country. That happened in 2023. There were four new college football programs added in 2023 and 11 more will be added in the next two seasons. While the FBS will undergo radical changes in the next year – brought on by realignment, NIL, the transfer portal and implementation of the 12-team College Football Playoff.
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Hatchell said with NIL – the largest topic of conversation – the key is to make sure it is done properly in the future.
"I do like the fact and having been in athletic administration, I really do like the fact that young men can benefit financially from playing now," Hatchell said. "Being old school, I don't like it as a form of inducement. I think you have to pick the school you want to go there and go there because you like it as opposed to being paid to go there."
Colorado is not the only success story in the FBS, however. James Madison is off to 7-0 start in just their second season in the FBS. Jacksonville State improved to 7-2 with a 41-16 victory against FIU on Wednesday. Hatchell said the NFF helps advise programs about when to make that jump, and he is impressed with the way JMU and Jacksonville State made their programs FBS-ready.
"If you look at JMU and Jacksonville State, we know that both of them were very thoughtful," Hatchell said. "They worked so hard on their due diligence on what kind of program they wanted to have and what kind of program they could afford and what kind of program made sense for them. They didn't just step off the curb and say, ‘Here we are. We're going to play at this level.' I think they did a case study on how you put a program together and where you want to go."
Hatchell pointed out 58 football programs have been added in the last decade, and 772 collegiate campuses now have the sport. If there was any doubt about the health of the game, this proves otherwise.
"Take out the top 50, that means you have 722 colleges and universities that are playing college football, and we think that is very significant," he said. "We like to balance that with the fact with 0.6% maybe 0.7% of any of the 81,000 guys that are playing any given year are going to get drafted or signed as free agents to the NFL. That means 99.3% are going to do something else in life. That's the promise of football."
Hatchell said the NFF also is working with the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) to increase participation at the high school level. Participation is at its highest mark since 2008. NFF board members include Archie Manning, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, ACC commissioner Jim Philips and several others vested in increasing that interest with the changes coming to college football in 2024.
"Whenever there is a change, unfortunately, people tend to look at the negative," Hatchell said. "The fact of the matter is the games are being played right now, the television numbers seem to be strong, attendance is strong and there seems to be — we haven't don't he analysis of the year because we're in the middle of it – but it sure seems like football is strong right now."
Coach Prime has contributed to that in 2023. Hatchell anticipates that phenomenon will continue for the rest of the season beyond.
"People staying up to watch an 8 o'clock game at night or waking up to see him in the morning, you would think is the national championship game they are watching," he said. "I think it's good for college football, and it's really an exciting time."
