Deion Sanders, Big 12 Coaches Make Headlines This Week

What’s going on in the Big 12 and beyond? I expand and explain every Sunday in Postscripts at Heartland College Sports, your home for independent Big 12 coverage.

This week, Deion Sanders finally revealed his medical issue, Matt Campbell made a sweet deal, and Kenny Dillingham needed two days to call out his Sun Devils. Plus, no returns or exchanges when it comes to former members.

DEION’S HEALTH SCARE FULLY REVEALED

When you see a story that a sitting head coach is going to have a press conference about his health, flanked by the doctors that were treating him, well, the mind races.

Those were the couple of days leading up to Colorado head coach Deion Sanders’ press conference on Monday in Boulder. This time of year, coaches are talking about the first days of practice. Sanders was talking about life and death.

Sanders finally revealed the health issue that caused him to miss a football camp in June — bladder cancer. He dodged questions about his health in July at Big 12 media days, saying only that he “felt great” and that he wasn’t going to address it. His call to answer it or not answer it. But the question had to be asked.

One of the smartest things he did on Monday was bring his doctors with him to answer the medical-related questions. Sanders obviously saw it as a “teaching moment,” hence his urging men his age to be tested for cancer and not ignore symptoms. Having those experts with him added credibility to that urging.

Hearing that he now must “depend on Depends” due to the complete removal of the bladder added some humor and humility to his ordeal. If he doesn’t have a deal with the adult undergarment company by the end of the year, I’ll be stunned.

I was blown away by the fact that he chose not to tell his sons, Shedeur and Shilo, and only shared it with his son, Deion Jr. In those situations, support systems matter and it’s helpful to have that entire support system.

Aside from the fact that Sanders beat it, the most important part of this is a discussion about how medical screening can help athletes and coaches can help detect medical conditions early. Student-athletes and coaches are fortunate, especially at the highest levels, to have access to that kind of testing. In some cases, it’s as extensive as what they’ll see if they reach the professional ranks.

Sanders’ case shows how important it is to leverage that opportunity whenever one can. It shows how important it is to not ignore your body when it’s telling you it’s not well (and let’s face it — we all do it).

In his case, it was a regular check-up for the vascular issues that has led to him suffering from blood clots in his legs.

Now, with Sanders past his cancer, he can talk about what he wants to talk about, namely football. It’s Year 3 in Colorado and his first college season without his sons on the team. It’s the next challenge for the polarizing coach, one made easier after a hard summer of beating a disease that many don’t.

Oh, and take his advice. Never Google medical stuff.

MATT CAMPBELL’S SMART DEAL

Iowa State football coach Matt Campbell got his extension finalized this week. He’ll be paid $5 million per year through 2032, with incentives.

Now he’s well-paid, of course. But he did two smart things. First, he negotiated an expansion of his assistant coach payment pool, which should make it a bit easier to retain assistants, or lure them from other schools when needed. The second is that he negotiated an additional $1 million in revenue sharing for NIL, per ESPN.

I suspect we’ll see more coaches embrace these sorts of deals. Not that Campbell is really taking a pay cut. But, understanding that player and coach retention is already a part of Iowa State’s culture, and knowing that NIL and revenue sharing can help, being able to tap into more ways to do that should allow Campbell to continue to sustain the success he’s had in Ames of late.

KENNY DILLINGHAM IS ALREADY ON HIS TEAM

It took Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham all of two days to get on his Big 12 defending champions.

What did he call out? Those little things that make a team a team.

“We threw one pick,” Dillingham told reporters after the second day of workouts. “Like we didn’t practice bad, we didn’t practice with passion. We didn’t care if we scored a touchdown. We didn’t care if there was an interception,” he said. “We didn’t care if somebody made a great play.”

For coaches, not caring is like getting the wind knocked out of them. They accept mistakes — those happen. They can’t accept a lack of passion or a lack of camaraderie. Those can derail team chemistry and, thus, a season.

That’s why Dillingham called it out so early. He knows he can’t allow that to fester.

By the way, Arizona State wants to create an indoor tailgating scene with its new practice facility, which they hope is ready in two years.

If you’ve been to Tempe in September and October, you know why.