Unlike most coaches at SWAC Media Day, or any other media day, Deion Sanders isn’t afraid to talk beyond Xs and Os.
When Sanders sat down on the couch to talk to HBCU Gameday in Birmingham on Thursday, he talked as much about business as he did about the five-star talent he brought in Travis Hunter.
Here’s what Deion Sanders had to say about merging the MEAC and the SWAC, conference re-alignment and the possibilities for Jackson State and the rest of the conference.
Deion Sanders on MEAC/SWAC combo
If Coach Dancy at Mississippi Valley had the resources, wouldn’t nobody try see him. If Coach Simmons, Coach McNair, all these guys, man, if they had the resources that they need and they wouldn’t have to deal with the bull junk going to work every day and putting out fires and starting fires and flaming things. It would be phenomenal.
That’s my prayer that some kind of way we get the resources. Now you made me think about business. I’m thinking about SWAC and I’m thinking about MEAC, and I’m just trying to figure out why “SMAC” — SMAC, that’s my business — why SWAC and MEAC hadn’t married?
Keeping options open
They’re talking about money, man. They ain’t talking about conferences consolidating. They’re talking about who gonna get what and all that. “When you see somebody move anywhere life is about word money. I don’t leave this job to go to that job without money being involved. All right. Because I’m good. But if money’s involved, I could be great.
So that’s what all those talks about moving up are. And we would be remiss if we didn’t. This conference is unbelievable. It’s very competitive and it’s a great conference. I love what we’re doing. But I’m not one not to look forward. Everything about me is protruding forward, including my feet.
So I got to look ahead. That’s just how I’m built. So I have to think about the possibilities.
What are the possibilities for JSU, the SWAC?
First of all, we got to dominate. I’m going to go back to that. We’ve got to dominate and there are going to be tremendous possibilities. And I don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but let’s keep the main thing, the main thing. But I would be crazy. When you start talking about that. People talk about leaving the SWAC — ain’t nobody thinking about that right now.
That’s not my thought. My thought is, how do I improve this university and make sure financially we’re where we need to be? That’s my thought. How do we do that business-wise? How do we change the business practices? How we elevate to another level where the profit share of the SWAC is even greater than television revenue is even greater?
That we have a system now that the attendance, the parking, the concessions are all adequate and profound and we get real numbers. That’s my thought process. That we really do business.