This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/MOGiantsFan on 2023-11-20 17:23:34.

I did a review of the 2022 End-of-Season Roster, which would eliminate players who left the team prior to the season ending, (i.e. Brenden Rice), and thus, didn’t leave until Deion Sanders came into the program.

After removing seniors and players who returned, I counted 64 players who were not seniors who do not appear on the current 2023 Colorado Buffaloes football roster.

So with that, I asked the question: are those 64 players in a better or worse spot now?

I based it on a few general criteria:

  1. Is their current team having a better season than Colorado? Simply put, did they go to a program that is winning, or at least winning more than Colorado? After all, they left a program that went 1-11 last year. If they stuck around at Colorado, they’d have won 3 more games than 2022. Instead of staying at Colorado, did they put themselves in a program that’s winning more games? And yes, this criteria matters for FCS schools. (One player went to DII Valdosta State, and while they are 11-1, I do not count dropping to DII a “better” spot, frankly.)
  2. In the event their current school has an IDENTICAL record, is that school trending better than Colorado? As a way to differentiate from schools that have identical records (i.e. Jalen Sami at Michigan State), is their program, in my opinion, trending to be better in the immediate future?

Here’s my findings.

Better

Out of the 64 players I evaluated (providing I didn’t miss any players), I evaluated that 34 players (53%) are in a better spot. They are players at the following programs:

Arizona, Arkansas State, Boise State, BYU, California, Coastal Carolina, Florida State, Houston, Liberty (x2), Memphis (x2), Miami of Ohio, Michigan State, Old Dominion, Oregon (x2), SMU, Texas State, UCLA, Utah, Utah State (x2); UTSA (x2); Washington State, Western Kentucky.

As well as the following FCS programs: Austin Peay, Incarnate Word (x2), Jackson State, Northern Arizona, Sacramento State, Southern Illinois.

Worse

29 player were, based on my criteria, in worse spots. They are at the following programs:

Arizona State, Ball State, Charlotte, East Carolina, Hawaii, Kent State, New Mexico.

Along with the following FCS programs: Missouri State, North Alabama, Stephen F. Austin

And one player at Valdosta State.

There are 18 of those players for whom I could not find their names on any current NCAA football roster, thus I determined they were not with a team, and obviously in a worse situation.

Note: One player was a N/A, as he is now playing basketball at UC Davis (Drew Carter) and not playing football. I cannot determine if UC Davis basketball is a worse or better spot for Carter.

Conclusion

When Deion Sanders told many of the players from the 2022 Colorado Buffaloes team to find somewhere else to play, more of those players found themselves on programs that performed BETTER than the 2023 Colorado Buffaloes.

For all the criticism about whether it was appropriate for Deion to do this, I think there’s an argument to make that he was doing many of those players a favor and getting them to programs that are simply playing better in 2023.