With the hiring of Deion Sanders as CU’s head coach, the Buffaloes have been transformed into a “Prime Time” team despite only winning one game last season. I began my career with the CU Athletics department in August 2022 which was the start of this football program’s 1-11 losing streak. Throughout the past couple of years, I have been able to witness the transformation of this program and take note of some key differences between working games during a losing season versus a now-winning season.
This blog post covers my perspective of the Buffaloes’ revival, along with how the success of the CU football team has impacted the entire athletics program.
The Fanbase
In the 2022-23 season, CU was losing football games by an average margin of 29.1 points. This positioned the Buffaloes to be the worst college football team in the country and the fourth-worst among Power 5 programs in the past 30 years. With a 0-5 start to the season, I remember hearing chants in the crowd directed toward then-Head Coach Karl Dorell in hopes he would be let go to give someone else a chance at turning the team around.
With very little hope left as the season went on, crowds started diminishing to fewer and fewer. There were many games when the student section would be left to just a couple of rows by the end of halftime. That being said, the stands were not empty. I think there is something to be said here as CU had many loyal fans dating back for decades that stuck around during this difficult season to make sure that the team continued to have support.
The only game where this was an exception was the October 15th home game against California. During this game, CU beat the odds and secured their first and only win in overtime resulting in the student body, of course, storming the field. Seeing as the Buffs were still hanging on at halftime, many students stuck around for the last half of the game to see if they could pull off at least one win that season. That was the busiest home game of the year.
This drastically differs from the student body presence this year as every single home game is completely sold out for the entire season; the first time in CU history. According to StubHub, ticket sales have increased by 1,668% making the Buffaloes the top trending team in college football. With the first two home games being wins, Folsom Field has been packed from top to bottom, including the Rocky Mountain Showdown which ended in a full stadium at 12:30am the next day.
When asked what some of the biggest differences are between this season and last, Zoe Gasell, Assistant Director of Marketing & Fan Experience at CU, said, “On game days, it’s a lot of extra bodies and people and eyes and physically it’s a lot more stress and draining, but it’s also so much fun. It’s so cool to have all these people who want to play at Colorado come visit us or fans that are all of a sudden fans of Colorado. Yes, the term band wagon has been used a lot but it’s really cool to be a part of something that people want to be a band wagon of.”
TV, Media & Celebrity Presence
Not only has the season increased the amount of fans at each game, but it has also brought in a monsoon of TV, media, and celebrity presences that would have been unheard of during last season’s losing streak. Every game this season has been nationally televised so far, bringing popular TV programs such as FOX Big Noon Kickoff and ESPN College Gameday. These shows have resulted in a multitude of TV personalities on campus such as Stephen A. Smith and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. Along with these celebrities, Coach Prime has brought in his own circle of friends including well-known rappers Offset and Lil Wayne along with popular athletes such as Shannon Sharpe, Terrell Owens, Derrick White, and Spencer Dinwiddie.
As someone who has seen the impact of these eyes within the office, Gasell noted that, “... it makes things a lot more exciting to be here everyday. I loved my job before all of this craziness has gone down and I love it even more now because there’s always something cool to look forward to and I never know what meetings I’m going to get to be a part of or who I’m going to get to meet or what experiences I’m going to get to have.”
This increase in celebrity and media presence has also significantly impacted the on-field operations as sidelines have become more packed and there is not a moment where any given player isn’t being followed by a camera. One employee on CU’s Creative Team said that there were “around 30 digital interns working” the Rocky Mountain Showdown tasked with getting as much content as possible from the game.
All Hands on Deck
The Creative Team isn’t the only department being impacted by The Prime Era. After only working three of six home games last fall, it’s all hands on deck this season with all ten marketing interns staffed at every game.
During the 2022-23 season, interns were given the opportunity to work one game on the field and two games in Chip’s Kids Club (an area designed for kids to play while the game is going on). This season, every intern spends half of the game on the field and half of the game at the Kids Club so that we are able to experience every game from different roles. This also ensures that there are more interns on the field at any given time to help with the increase in promotions compared to last year.
The Impact on Other Sports
With all eyes on Colorado football comes the opportunity to strengthen and grow other sports within the CU athletics program. The Buffaloes host 17 varsity intercollegiate sports teams within their department including Women’s Volleyball, Women’s Soccer, Men’s Basketball, and Women’s Basketball who each share part of their season with Football.
As one of the key full-time employees working with the Volleyball program, Gasell points out that, “For our CSU Volleyball match, ESPN College GameDay came and brought Desmond Howard and a couple of the other college football personalities and that brought in a lot of students… they were able to giveaway VIP passes to College GameDay and football tickets to students who didn’t have those.”
This is just one example of the many ways that one team’s success can positively impact other programs. I’ve also noticed that Deion Sanders has made an appearance at a lot of CU’s less popular game days to increase awareness of these teams and encourage fans to cheer on all of the Buffs amazing programs.
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As an undergraduate student looking to build a career in sports, the transformation of the Colorado Buffaloes football team has been incredible to see from behind-the-scenes. This has given me the opportunity to compare and contrast marketing strategies based on a team’s performance and has resulted in a huge learning experience that I am incredibly grateful to have.
Make sure you’re following my social media to stay up-to-date on new blog posts and more behind-the-scenes content! Stay tuned for next week’s post following my experience in the CU Athletics office as I spend time preparing and planning for upcoming games. Until then, Sko Buffs and I hope to CU from the sidelines.
Works Cited
Photo 3: Zoe Gasell
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