Jordan Seaton vs. Jordon Hudson.
Deion Sanders vs. Bill Belichick.
CU vs. North Carolina.
Home and home.
Make it happen, Rick George.
Don’t tell me you don’t want that smoke. You never go down the Deion road in the first place if you don’t want every last bit of smoke west of Vatican City.
Come on. It’s gotta happen. Doesn’t it? Remember those empty seats at the spring game? Travis Hunter and Shedeur Sanders have moved on. You need some juice to get the kids to eschew the slopes and spend their Saturdays at Folsom. You need some sizzle to get Broncos-mad Denver knee-deep in Buffsmania again.
So how’s this for sizzle? NFL legend vs. NFL legend. An iconic cowboy hat vs. an iconic hoodie. Viral on viral. Marshall Faulk leading one running backs room. Natrone Means leading the other.
Who needs AI? These stories practically write themselves!
Ralphie vs. Rameses.
The Flatirons vs. The Stone Knoll.
Chris Fowler vs. Stuart Scott.
OK, so a rumored spring scrimmage with the Hoodie didn’t pan out.
Keep swinging.
If TV executives still had souls, they’d be selling them on eBay for the rights to televise a matchup of Deion and Bill.
“There are a lot of questions,” WBD Sports analyst and Broncos great Champ Bailey told me over the winter. “We all probably have questions about how (Belichick) is going to work, because the structure of college is different from the NFL. It’s just different. There are no boundaries. It’s an evolving thing.”
Remember when Chapel Hill was a hoops haven? And when Boulder was a drinking town with a football problem? Not anymore. Nobody in college sports — not Nick Saban, not Donald Trump — moves the needle right now the way Sanders and Belichick do.
Coach Prime’s got people arguing on social media about the pros and cons of helicopter parenting your way through the NFL draft. Coach Glime’s dating a woman who’s about 78 years his junior.
What self-respecting, ratings-hungry network wouldn’t want a piece of this action?
CU has already seen two of its September 2025 games flexed into prime-time Friday night kicks, where the big money and juicy ad slots reside. Meanwhile, UNC’s opener vs. TCU, the Hoodie’s debut, kicks at 5:30 p.m. MT on Sept. 1 — Monday night football.
Mountain Sun Pub vs. Dingo Dog Brewing Company.
The Sink vs. Merritt’s Grill.
Eric Cartman vs. Barney Fife.
The future dates even line up. Eventually. CU’s earliest published vacancy is Week 1 (Aug. 30-Sept. 1) of 2029, the last season of both Sanders’ and Belichick’s current contracts. Alas, the Tar Heels sadly have that weekend booked, as they’re contracted to host South Carolina on Sept. 1, a Saturday.
All is not lost! The Buffs, as of Monday, don’t have another non-conference opening after ’29 until Weeks 2 and 3 of September 2032, with one home game already booked (North Texas on Sept. 4). There’s also a vacancy on Week 2 of 2033.
The Big 12 requires nine conference games; The ACC just eight. September fight cards get eaten up in a hurry.
Yet lookie here: UNC hasn’t published any scheduled non-conference opponents between 2031 and 2036. Clear sailing!
’32 in BoCo. ’33 in Tobacco Road. Done and done.
“Coach Bill Belichick is a coaches Coach to All us Coaches along with my man Coach Saban!” Sanders wrote on X last December, when Belichick was hired at UNC. “They’re game changers and they know how to move people forward. I know this is a great thing for College Football & for North Carolina. God bless u Coach, if you’re happy I am 2!”
More smoke, please. That genie’s having too much fun right now dancing with Miss Peggy and stuffing its face at Pasta Jay’s. No way it’s ever going back inside the bottle.