Colorado athletic director Fernando Lovo recently decided to go for a solo stroll around campus. He stopped inside the University Memorial Center student building and noticed a massive banner that serves as a tribute. As another college football season begins, it also marks the passage of time.The banner lists the details of “The Prime Effect” — what Deion Sanders’ arrival as Colorado coach in December 2022 has done for the university, football program and city of Boulder. Lovo described the various statistics plastered on the banner, including the hundreds of millions of dollars of economic impact, the explosion of merchandise and season-ticket sales, the number of CU applicants surging, and the once-gaudy TV viewership numbers.“All those things are real,” said Lovo, who replaced longtime AD Rick George in January, “and you can’t deny the correlation between those numbers and Coach Prime.”But is the banner an indication that Sanders’ most significant impact on Colorado football has already been made?Sanders is entering his fourth season and coming off a 3-9 record in 2025 in which the Buffs won one conference game. After another staff shuffle and roster redo, the Buffs open Thursday at Georgia Tech and the coach, unsurprisingly, is not bothered by preseason pontifications from college football experts around the country that the Buffaloes will once again struggle to compete in the Big 12.“If my kids and my coaches and our staff don’t understand who they are, we have a problem,” Sanders said at Big 12 media days in July. “They’re not going to allow you to identify who we are. Just because our guys were snubbed off a poll that’s probably not going to be consistent with the end of the season, we don’t give a darn.”For some alumni, success in Year 4 under Sanders won’t be measured by the afterglow of the Prime Effect, which included the high point of a 9-4 season in 2024 and a Heisman Trophy. It will be about having a say in the conference standings in October and November.“Obviously more wins. That’s got to be the consensus, right?” said former Colorado wide receiver Mike Pritchard, who was part of the 1990 national championship team. “But the depths from which the program has come to where it is now has been remarkable, to be honest with you. Only one person could’ve done that in today’s environment.”Coach Prime, of course.Colorado was must-see TV in 2023 and 2024 because of Sanders’ unabashed introduction to Power 4 football, his son, Shedeur, the star quarterback, and Travis Hunter, a two-way phenom who eventually hoisted a Heisman Trophy. Celebrities flocked to Folsom Field on Saturdays.After Shedeur Sanders and Hunter left Boulder for the NFL, the 2025 calendar year served as a reminder of how swiftly things can change. Before the start of last season, Sanders’ bladder was removed after a routine checkup revealed a cancerous growth. The Buffaloes lost seven of their final eight games, including a 53-7 loss to Utah and a 52-17 loss to Arizona.“He hates the situation that they’re in, in terms of, he wants to correct it,” Fox Sports analyst and former Colorado quarterback Joel Klatt said.After health concerns last year, Sanders said in July he’s feeling “darn good.” (Stacy Revere / Getty Images)After one of his most taxing years, Sanders decided to shift from a roster-building ethos that was untenable long-term. The Buffaloes ditched chasing transfers who were former four- and five-star high school athletes from blue-blood programs who had yet to be consistent contributors at the college level. They went searching for players who were healthy, reliable and put up numbers no matter where they played before entering the portal, even if that was at the Group of 6 level or lower.