Three years into the Deion Sanders era at Colorado, the program looks nothing like it did when he arrived — and that transformation is now being studied by athletic departments across the country as much as it's being followed by recruiting services.

The numbers tell part of the story. Colorado's athletic budget has grown significantly. Their social media following dwarfs what it was in 2022. NIL deals flowing through the program have made Boulder a legitimate recruiting destination for players who, by traditional metrics, would never have considered the Big 12. What Sanders built isn't just a football program. It's a brand infrastructure attached to a football program.

What makes the 2026 offseason interesting is what comes next. The first wave of Sanders recruits — the ones who came because of Prime Time's national platform and the spectacle of the rebuild — are now upperclassmen. The team's results over the past two seasons have been uneven. The defense, in particular, has given up yards that a program with championship aspirations cannot afford to give up. The offensive system has been productive but predictable against more sophisticated defensive coordinators.

The real test is whether Colorado can recruit not just for attention but for outcomes. The 2025 recruiting class was the most talent-dense Sanders has assembled. Several of those players are now in the starting lineup. Spring practice will tell us whether that talent is being developed at a rate that matches the program's stated ambitions.

Sanders has never been subtle about what he's building. He said he was coming to win a national title. That hasn't happened yet. What has happened is that Colorado football is no longer irrelevant. Whether irrelevant-to-interesting is a stepping stone to genuinely competitive remains to be seen this fall.

The transfer portal remains a critical tool. Sanders has used it aggressively, and the results have been mixed — some portal additions have been transformative, others have not developed as hoped. As the program matures, the balance between portal reliance and developed four-year players will determine whether this is a sustainable model or a perpetual rebuild.

What's clear: the college football landscape is paying attention. Whether they're watching to learn or watching to see it fall apart depends largely on what happens between September and December.