Deion Sanders on Conference Realignment Amid Pac-12 Exits: 'All This Is About Money'

The Pac-12 is disintegrating in real time with Colorado leaving for the Big 12, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah potentially joining them and Oregon and Washington reportedly headed to the Big Ten.

"All this is about money, you know that," Colorado football head coach Deion Sanders said at his Friday press conference (h/t Alex Weber of On3).

"It's about a bag. Everybody's chasing a bag, then you get mad at the players when they chase it. How is that? How do the grownups get mad at the players when the colleges are chasing it?"

The Buffaloes are set to leave for the Big 12 in 2024.

Oregon football head coach Dan Lanning offered some choice words for Colorado on its way out of town.

It turns out Oregon is leaving the Pac-12 as well, and Sanders appeared to have some words about that as well when a reporter mentioned how more teams were leaving.

"The same teams who were talking about us, right?" Sanders asked sarcastically while clapping, per Weber. "Oh Lord, that was good."

Ultimately, Sanders only appears to care about winning ballgames, with his team slated to begin the season at national runner-up (and future Big 12 rival) TCU on Saturday, Sept. 2.

"Man I don't care nothing about no different teams moving. We trying to win, man," Sanders said after a reporter asked about the latest conference realignments. "I don't care where we play. I don't care what conference, who we're playing against, we're trying to win."

The Big 12 is notably losing Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC but is welcoming South Florida, Cincinnati, Houston and BYU. Now Colorado is coming aboard with Arizona, Arizona State and Utah potentially following to make the Big 12 a 16-team league.

As far as Colorado goes, the school won't have to pay an exit fee with the program leaving after the end of the Pac-12's current media rights deal, per ESPN's Heather Dinich.

The Buffaloes will join the conference on a "pro-rata basis, which is an average of $31.7 million in television revenue per year over the course of the league's new deal starting in 2025," per Dinich.