Deion Sanders Wins SI Sportsperson Of The Year After Going 4-8

Uhhh ... ok. Your 2023 Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year is Deion Sanders, head coach of the 4-8 Colorado Buffaloes.

You can probably guess what the reaction to this has been. Every single quote tweet either says some variation of, "The votes must have been due in September," or, "The AI must not know what happened to Colorado the rest of the season." Hell, one of those things may even be true.

I feel somewhat conflicted about this. It does seem absurd that Coach Prime is the Sportsperson of the Year after winning four games — none after October 7 — and going over Colorado's preseason win total by just half a win. He did about what was expected of him in his first year. And yet, it's easy to forget what September was like now that the season is over and all the conversation is about the College Football Playoff. The Colorado Buffaloes were the talk of not just college football, but sports in this country for an entire month. Nobody has a neutral opinion of Sanders and the Buffs.

I definitely think it's weird that Deion won this, but I also think he might almost deserve it. And who else would you give it to, Shohei Ohtani? Nikola Jokic? People aren't buying magazines or talking online about SI if one of those guys is the Sportsperson of the Year.

I get why people think this is a bad choice — I'm still not convinced I don't think it's a bad choice. But the fact that Coach Prime made an undeniable impact on college football and American culture while going 4-8 could arguably mean he deserved this award more.