LAS VEGAS (AP) — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said Wednesday at his first Big 12 media days appearance that he has to operate under an entirely different umbrella when it comes to expectations.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame player is going into his second season coaching in a power conference.

“I’m judged on a different scale,” Sanders said. “My wins are totally different than your wins. Your wins, you just judge football, that’s why I start out (talking about) education and academics and so forth. I have to give you those things so you understand there’s a greater scope.”

Sanders touted the team's GPA, the 16 Buffs coaches and staff members with NFL experience, a 20% increase in student applications to Colorado and a “crazy” economic impact for the school.

After Sanders led HBCU school Jackson State to a 27-6 record over three seasons, including 23-3 with back-to-back Southwestern Athletic Conference titles the last two, he got off to a fast start at Colorado in the Pac-12, winning his first three games last season before going on to finish 4-8. Colorado was picked to finish 11th in the Big 12 preseason media poll.

“I can’t win nine games and our GPA suffers,” Sanders said. “Our GPA can’t be high and we lose another eight games. We can’t not go and grab high school players, and you’ve got a bunch of guys in the portal, out of the portal getting incarcerated. My wins are different. We have to win in every area. That’s the way we’re judged.”

Sanders' sons, senior quarterback Shedeur and graduate safety Shilo, also took part in Big 12 media days.

Shedeur Sanders threw for a school-record 3,230 yards with 27 touchdowns in his first season at the FBS level while completing 69% of his passes. But he was also the most-sacked quarterback (52) in the country.

“I remember first media day when I was in HBCU, I said we won’t lose the game. I’m undefeated in the SWAC, so I already know what the expectation comes with, I know we’re everybody’s Super Bowl," he said. "So, I always stay level-headed, stay grounded because I would never want to be that guy, look back, and not being able to take advantage of the moment that we have right now.”

Shilo Sanders is going through a bankruptcy case he filed last October because he faces a nearly $11.9 million judgment stemming from an alleged assault against a Dallas school security guard who was trying to confiscate his phone in 2015. Shilo Sanders, now 24, was 15 at the time.

The security guard said he suffered a broken spine and nerve damage after getting elbowed in the neck. He immediately filed a police report, sued in a Texas court the next year and was awarded the judgement after Shilo Sanders didn’t show up for hearings in 2022.

“Honestly, that kind of stuff, you’re not gonna win a court case on social media,” Shilo Sanders said when asked about it Wednesday. "And at the end of the day everybody is gonna know the truth about everything. So there’s no point just going out of my way to just do that. So everything’s good.”

Deion Sanders also spoke about Shedeur being recruited by some of his fellow Big 12 coaches — Gus Malzahn when the current UCF coach was still at Auburn — and the younger Sanders playing in high school for current Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire.

“I’m just highlighting a couple of the coaches because they’ve been so kind, they’ve been so considerate. They’ve been so wonderful to me,” Deion Sanders said. ”I remember going there to Auburn and (Malzahn) just has been the same consistent man since. He’s a phenomenal coach.”

Sanders called both Mike Gundy, who is going into his 20th season at Oklahoma State, and Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark legends. He also expressed his love for McGuire.

“Joey has been the same consistent great coach that he’s always been. Joey, if you out there, I love you, I appreciate you. You keep on doing what you do,” Sanders said. "Except when we come to play you, I want you to keep on doing your thing. But I love you, man, I really do. And you’re doing a wonderful work down there at Texas Tech.”

The Buffaloes, who open the season Aug. 29 at home against FCS power North Dakota State, play at Texas Tech on Nov. 9.

The Big 12 will be a 16-team league with Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah officially becoming members at the start of August.

“We have 16 great football coaches,” Yormark said. “I’ve gotten to know Coach Prime really well. I love his energy and I love his passion for what he does. Obviously excited for Colorado coming back into the conference. He’s a football legend. And let’s face it, you know, there’s a big audience that follows him. And that’s going to benefit the Big 12 and all of our schools."

Kansas QB Jalon Daniels ready to play after missing most of '23 with back injury

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Kansas quarterback Jalon Daniels said he would be ready to play a game now. Coach Lance Leipold and the Jayhawks just need him to be ready for the season.

Daniels missed most of last season because of a back injury, playing in only three games before the end of September.

“I try not to ask Jalon Daniels more than once a week how is he doing because I know everybody asks him that,” Leipold said Wednesday during Big 12 media days. “He wouldn’t be here today if we didn’t think he was going to be ready to go for this season. I can tell you that.”

The Jayhawks were picked fourth in the Big 12 preseason media poll, much of that certainly based on the expectation of Daniels being healthy. They open the season Aug. 29 at home against FCS team Lindenwood.

Daniels threw for 2,014 yards with 18 touchdowns and ran for another seven scores in 2022, but was limited to 705 yards and five TDs passing with none on the ground last season.

“I’m excited to see what Jalon will do this season for us," Leipold said. “He’s doing everything that doctors, trainers, strength coaches are having him do, and I can’t wait to get to August.”

Mountaineers finish better

West Virginia coach Neal Brown and his team remembers being picked last year to finish at the bottom of what was then a 14-team league.

The Mountaineers instead went 9-4 overall, with a 6-3 record in the Big 12.

“There’s no question we rallied around that. I stood up here a year ago, and we were picked 14th and I said we wouldn’t be there. And our team proved me right,” Brown said Wednesday. “And I said that a year ago because I knew what we had on both fronts.”

West Virginia, which finished last season on a three-game winning streak, is now picked seventh in the expanded 16-team Big 12.

The coach believes people may be underestimating his team once again.

“Now it’s similar .... with a team that finished strong last year that returns a lot of production, that has one of the most dynamic players in all of college football in (quarterback) Garrett Greene,” Brown said. “I think there’s a similar dynamic that works with this team, too. And, more importantly, to me on a personal level, I believe some of our players are undervalued.”

Big 12 Alumni Council

Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Steve Young and Heisman Trophy winners Robert Griffin III and Andre Ware are among 32 former student-athletes who will make up the first Big 12 Alumni Council.

The council announced Wednesday includes two former athletes, one man and one woman, from each of the 16 schools that will make up the league when Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah officially become Big 12 members at the start of August.

“As we enter into a new chapter as a 16-team league, the insights and perspectives of the Big 12 Alumni Council will be an incredible resource," Commissioner Brett Yormark said.

Other council members include gold medal-winning softball pitcher Jennie Finch, who was part of a Women’s College World Series championship at Arizona, and Cincinnati alumnus Kevin Youkilis, who won two World Series with the Boston Red Sox.

Before Young was a three-time Super Bowl champion with the San Francisco 49ers, he threw for 7,733 yards and 56 touchdowns in 34 games for BYU from 1981-83. Ware was the 1989 Heisman winner with Houston after throwing for 4,699 yards and 46 TDs that season. Griffin took home that award at Baylor in 2011, when he had 4,992 total yards and 47 touchdowns (37 passing/10 passing).

The Big 12 said council members will provide guidance and insights on a variety of topics, including but not limited to brand building, athlete relations, storytelling and digital content.

Homecoming for Fritz

New Houston coach Willie Fritz is already getting requests for tickets when he gets to play a Big 12 game close to home.

The Cougars play Oct. 19 against Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium, home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs. That stadium is less than 20 miles from Shawnee Mission, Kansas, where Fritz was born and attended high school.

“Well, it’ll be fun. I’ve had, I don’t know how many people ... I just got back from Kansas City a few weeks ago, and I’ve had hundreds of requests for tickets when we go up there and play," Fritz said. “I’m sure that’ll be a busy weekend for my wife doling out all the tickets.”

Fritz has been a head coach for 31 years, the last eight at Tulane, but now at 64 is coaching in a power conference for the first time. He replaced Dana Holgorsen, who was fired by Houston after a 4-8 record in the school's inaugural Big 12 season.

“I went to Shawnee Mission Northwest High School, and they were also nicknamed the Cougars. I guess this was going to come to be one way or the other,” he said.

Utah is coming into the Big 12 favored to win a title in yet another league

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Utah has won 26 conference championships in five different leagues, most recently capturing two Pac-12 titles and appearing in four championship games during its 13 seasons in that league.

Now the Utes are favored to win the Big 12 in their inaugural season in the league, according to the preseason media poll.

“It’s much different than when we went into the Pac-12 because we were coming from G5 to P5, and we were not really on an even playing field yet,” coach Kyle Whittingham said Tuesday during Big 12 football media days. “We feel we’re definitely on an even playing field now and we have a chance to compete for a title right away. We’ve got a terrific roster, a great quarterback, and all the pieces are in place.”

Whittingham is going into his 20th season with the Utes, having also coached them in the Western Athletic and Mountain West before they became Pac-12 members in 2011.

Utah is getting a big boost for its Big 12 debut with the return of 6-foot-2 senior quarterback Cameron Rising after he missed last season with a knee injury.

“I’m excited to watch him play again,” Whittingham said. “I mean, he’s a terrific leader, terrific player, really the alpha dog of our football team. He’s got the respect of everybody on the team. He’s got that it factor at quarterback where he makes everybody around him better. And when he’s in at quarterback he just exudes confidence and players believe in him. They believe in him 100%.”

Rising threw for 3,034 yards with 26 touchdowns and eight interceptions in 2022, when he led the Utes to a win over USC and Caleb Williams in the Pac-12 title game.

Wildcat On The Prowl

Avery Johnson took over as the Kansas State quarterback when veteran Will Howard decided to transfer to Ohio State.

Johnson may have been the Wildcats starter this season even if Howard had returned for a fifth season. Johnson's first start came in the Pop-Tarts Bowl after Howard entered the transfer portal, with the former top recruit throwing two touchdowns and running for 71 yards and another score in a win over North Carolina State.

Kansas State was picked second in the Big 12 preseason poll with Johnson going into his sophomore season.

"I feel like it played a big role, just being able to go out there and kind of knock the dust off and get that first start out of the way,” Johnson said Tuesday. “It was a lot of fun, just being able to go out there and play confidently with the guys around me. They really made my job easy.”

Believing In Vegas

Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark mentioned Las Vegas nine times during his opening address, emphasizing how important it was for the league to establish a long-standing relationship in what has become a sports hotbed. That could lead to an eventual association with the Las Vegas Bowl, which remains committed to the SEC, Big 10 and the previous members of the Pac-12 Conference for the next two years.

“I’m confident at the right time we will have a formal affiliation with the Las Vegas Bowl,” Yormark said. “This market is critically important. ... We need to be here in Vegas for all the right reasons. ... Entertainment and sports capital of the world, so critically important market for us in the future.”

Las Vegas Bowl Executive Director John Saccenti, who was in attendance, said with the Big 12 now well-represented across the country, it makes sense to eventually be aligned with the league.

“With these conferences expanding to more teams and with them all having national footprints, I want us to be in a good position to have some flexibility with as many folks as possible to continue to put the best matchup that’s good for the destination," Saccenti said.

Sideline Surfaces

The Big 12 and Microsoft announced Tuesday that the technological giant will provide Surface devices to each football program this fall to use on the sideline and in the coaching booth.

The tablets will enable players and coaches to access immediate footage for review of in-game action. They are the same devices used by all 32 NFL teams.

The NCAA Playing Rules Oversight Panel approved the use of tablets to view in-game videos earlier this year. Teams can have up to 18 active tablets for use in the coaching booth, sideline, and locker room. But the tablets can't be connected to other devices to project larger additional images and cannot include analytics, data or data access capability or other communication access.

Commissioner Brett Yormark says Big 12 has solidified itself as one of nation's top 3 conferences

Brett Yormark believes the Big 12 has clearly solidified itself as one of the nation's top three conferences in a period of drastic change in college athletics, and the commissioner said the expanding league is more relevant than it has ever been in its nearly three-decades history.

“We are truly a national conference in 10 states, four time zones, and all eyes are now on the Big 12 for all the right reasons,” Yormark said at the start of league's football media days Tuesday in Las Vegas.

While the league's past national champions, Oklahoma and Texas, left for the Southeastern Conference, a move that became official last week, Yormark touted the additions of the Four Corners schools from the Pac 12: Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah. Those schools are participating in media days before their Big 12 membership formally begins at the start of August to make it a 16-team league for the first time.

“On the football front, we will be the deepest conference in America. Every week will matter,” Yormark said, then repeating that for emphasis before moving on. “We have star power and parity. We boast some of the top players and coaches in the game. November will be incredibly exciting and we will brand it as a race to the championship.”

The SEC and Big Ten, the wealthiest and most powerful conferences, have worked together and at one point this year had proposed multiple automatic bids for their conferences in the College Football Playoff, which expands from four to 12 teams this season.

Yormark, going into his third year as the Big 12 commissioner after years in the entertainment industry, including a stint as CEO of Roc Nation, said his only thought each day is making the Big 12 the best version of itself. The Big 12 in 2022 extended its media rights deal with ESPN and Fox Sports through the 2030-31 school year, a move that came with two years left on the old deal and created stability and clarity for the league.

“Everything else doesn't really matter. And if we take care of business, we're going to be just fine,” he said. “Not only have we had a great 24 months, but we continue to get better.”

The Big 12 last month announced that the 14 schools that participated in the 2023-24 academic year shared a record $470 million of revenue distribution, an increase of about $30 million from the previous year. Without giving specific numbers, Yormark said the Big 12's sponsorship business grew 79% in the first year after that was streamlined to be handled directly by the conference instead of outside parties and that ticket sales grew 23% across the league.

Yormark said the league's top priority as a business is growth and creating value for its schools.

“As we build our brand, we will continue to build our business,: he said. ”We will not stumble into this new era following settlement. In fact, we will be aggressive and very proactive."

That settlement is the agreement in May by the NCAA and the nation’s five biggest leagues to pay nearly $2.8 billion to settle a host of antitrust claims. That decision sets the stage for a groundbreaking revenue-sharing model that could start steering millions of dollars directly to athletes, expected to be more than $20 million per school per year, as soon as the 2025 fall semester.

“We are going through a change, but I would rather call it a necessary reset," Yormark said. “In 10 years, I think we look back at this period as a positive moment in collegiate athletics history."

The commissioner said the settlement provides a very “crystal clear future and path forward” for college athletics and the Big 12.

“I often refer to our league as a mature startup,” Yormark said. “This means our brand can be younger, more progressive, and innovative compared to some of our peers.”

Yormark said the league is exploring all options, including Big 12 naming rights and private equity. But he didn't want to get into a conversation about private equity, then later said nothing is imminent on naming rights.

When he became the Big 12 commissioner two summers ago, Yormark was an executive with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and a former CEO of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. He spent almost 15 years with the Nets and previously was with NASCAR, where he oversaw a $750 million agreement with Nextel Communications for naming rights to the circuit’s top racing series.

“Do I believe in naming rights? I do. I’ve done quite a few in my career,” Yormark said. "I see the value, if they’re the right naming rights, and it’s the right partner. So we’re going to explore it and we’ll see where we land.”