In the days since Deion Sanders announced he was exiting Jackson State for Colorado, many have attempted to grapple with reasons why the coach would bolt a budding HBCU football dynasty.
An online rumor that circulated on Facebook falsely claimed that Jackson State officials had taken a percentage of ticket sale revenue that was contractually obligated for Sanders.
@stephenasmith is there hope in you learning if any of this is factual pic.twitter.com/Eodx3Lr2LA
— Brian (Coach Taz) Dowdell (@DC_Team_Florida) December 9, 2022
The viral post was then later tied to a September interview Sanders conducted with “Earn Your Leisure” where the coach suggested that someone was “stealing” funds.
“How can we have 60,000 people in the stadium and you told me we sold out? I check the receipts and we only sold 28,000 tickets? Y’all better find out who’s stealing because that affects my pocket,” he said.
Sanders has a clause in his contract that states if a JSU game sells more than 30,000 tickets, then he would receive 10% of the total revenue of those ticket sales. Jackson State averaged 42,049 fans, tops in the FCS for 2022.
In response to the rumors, Jackson State officials explained the university “has honored all financial obligations” related to Sanders’ contract.
“The video in question was filmed on September 20 on our campus, the school said in a statement obtained by WLBT-TV in Jackson. “Unfortunately, a seconds-long excerpt using a hypothetical example from an over 60-minute interview is being used out of context and circulated as fact.”
Sanders, who will coach his final game as JSU coach in the Celebration Bowl on Dec. 17, has not publicly commented on the matter.
News does not get out unless someone wants somebody to know. With that said, we have heard both sides and we have heard the numbers. Deion mention about one game, but we know that they played more than one game. Maybe, it was time for this marriage to end. Maybe it was not as good as it was advertised. Oh! We have one more game, and then the best we had a Jackson State goes to Colorado. Well, I guess he was not the SWAC.
So, you are calling everyone a liar.
Clarion Ledger
“For 2022, JSU finished the season Saturday with an attendance average of 44,354, breaking its own FCS record. While Jackson State did lead the FCS in attendance the two years previous to Sanders’ arrival, the 33,762 average in 2019 pales in comparison to what Coach Prime brought to town.”
HBCUs have an unfortunate history of Misappropriation of funds. If the JSU president and staff were smart they would have paid Prime “the golden goose”, and kept him happy. Their actions violated his contract.
This doesn’t say Jackson State misappropriated any funds. It is a paragraph comparing attendance figures.
These people don’t know what the he*l they’re talking about. That troll is on every post on social media post regarding this topic talking about ” a contract was violated. ” He doesn’t know anything about HBCUs nor does he care. These people just love the idea of smearing black people even if they have use another as cover