The University of Colorado gave football coach Deion Sanders a bonus he didn’t earn after the 2024 season and overpaid him by $50,000 for his team’s appearance in Alamo Bowl that year, according to an internal audit by the university obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
The same audit found the university overpaid Sanders’ assistant coaches and staff by $71,333 for the same bowl game and the university lost $1.2 million on the bowl game in large part because it didn’t have a budget for it to regulate spending.
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The audit report was dated June 4, 2026 and was distributed to university leadership. It did not identify intentional misconduct but said “significant improvements” were needed to avoid this from happening again. Such internal audits generally are designed to improve operations and manage risk.
It was the second straight year Colorado paid Sanders beyond the requirements of his contract. In late 2023, it gave him a discretionary bonus of $250,000 that wasn’t stipulated in his contract. The university said it gave Sanders that bonus for the “national recognition” he brought to the university in his first season there in 2023.
Colorado gave Deion Sanders ‘New Year’s Six’ game bonus
In the latest case, the audit said the university gave him a bonus for getting invited to a “New Year’s Six” bowl game even though the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio is not part of the “New Year’s Six” games, which comprise the Rose, Sugar, Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach bowls.
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Sanders’ employment contract called for him to get a $150,000 bonus if his team was invited to a non-New Year’s Six bowl game and $200,000 bonus if his team got an invited to a New Year’s Six game.
The $50,000 overpayment was “paid to the Head Coach due to the misclassification of the Alamo Bowl as a NY6 bowl rather than the non-NY6 incentive provision specified in the Head Coach’s contract,” according to the audit.
Colorado finished 4-8 in 2023 and 9-4 in 2024, which concluded with a 36-14 loss against BYU in the Alamo Bowl. Sanders then got a new contract from Colorado in 2025 that nearly doubled his pay to more than $10 million annually. He finished with a 3-9 record in 2025.
Colorado to revise postseason pay policy
The audit report said assistant coaches and support staff should have received one week of base pay as a bonus but said they were overpaid by $71,333 due to “discretionary adjustments” beyond that.
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In response to the audit, the athletic department said it would revise its postseason compensation policy to eliminate ambiguous or conflicting language, clearly define discretionary authority and eligibility criteria, and establish required documentation and approval standards for any deviations from policy.
The report comes as Colorado’s athletic department faced a $27 million deficit for fiscal 2026, ending June 30. Like many other schools, Colorado has faced budget problems stemming from escalating coaches’ pay and the new cost since last year of paying $20.5 million to players in revenue-sharing.
Lack of event budget for Colorado at Alamo Bowl
The audit report noted Colorado’s expenses for the Alamo Bowl exceeded revenues by $1,238,148. It said the university received $1,996,583 in conference distribution revenue from the game and generated $768,050 from ticket sales, plus $207,475 from a Buffs Bash event. That added up to $2,972,108 in Alamo Bowl revenues.
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But total recorded expenses for the Alamo Bowl were $4,210,256, including $1,796,008 in Athletics-related costs, $802,034 for required ticket purchases and $945,053 for band and spirit program travel and participation.
“The university proceeded with the postseason participation without an event budget, which limited proactive financial oversight and contributed to decentralized spending decisions, resulting in event-related expenses exceeding revenues by $1,238,148,” the report stated.
In response to the audit, Colorado management will prepare budgets to be consolidated and reviewed by the CU Boulder Business, Finance, and Infrastructure Office.
Colorado’s statement on the audit
Colorado offered an additional statement to USA TODAY Sports about the audit.
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“Reviews such as these are valuable tools for CU Athletics to identify areas and processes that are working as well as opportunities for improvement,” Colorado’s athletic department said in a statement. “The findings of this audit are indicative of the excitement of the Athletic Department and university for making a bowl game while providing essential feedback for how we can improve our preexisting processes and implement new policies that will help us reflect best practices in the future.
“We are committed to implementing all of the suggestions outlined in the audit starting this August as we provided in our management response, in order to make our procedures for football postseason play more efficient and transparent, while also working with various campus offices to ensure compliance and proper oversight.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Deion Sanders overpaid for 2024 bowl game, according to Colorado audit
