Deion Sanders Calls Colorado's Late Kickoff Time vs. Stanford 'Dumbest Thing Ever'

College football broadcast partners may be cashing in on the ratings increase that Deion Sanders has provided at Colorado, but the head coach is not pleased with the decision to air Friday's game against Stanford at 10 p.m. ET and 8 p.m. local time.

During an appearance on his Colorado Football Coaches Show (h/t Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today), Sanders said the late kickoff is the "dumbest thing ever" and "the stupidest thing ever invented in life."

He questioned what the team is supposed to do in the hotel all day, especially on a Friday when there aren't other football games to watch like there would be on a Saturday.

"Thank God we're not gonna be in this conference," he added in reference to Colorado's impending move to the Big 12 where there likely won't be as many late kickoffs.

Friday's game is the second part of a doubleheader for ESPN after the American Athletic Conference showdown between Tulane and Memphis at 7 p.m. ET. While Tulane and Memphis are both 4-1 and better teams than Stanford, if not Colorado as well, the network will surely be hyping up the next chance to see Coach Prime's Buffaloes in action leading up to kickoff.

And how could it not?

As Schrotenboer explained, Colorado's Sept. 16 game against Colorado State aired on ESPN and didn't finish until after 2 a.m. ET because it went to double overtime. Yet it drew 9.3 million viewers and was the most-watched late game ever in ESPN's history.

Friday's game likely won't beat that number considering there isn't the build-up of the two coaches talking trash to each other like there was in the in-state clash, but it will surely draw better ratings than many other Pac-12 games would have in the same time slot.

After all, Sanders and the Buffaloes remain one of the biggest stories of the college football season even after losing to Oregon and USC and barely getting past a 1-5 Arizona State team with a late field goal.

The team was an ugly 1-11 last season before the Hall of Famer arrived as its new head coach and is now 4-2 and potentially well on its way to bowl eligibility. That is quite the turnaround even if Colorado is still behind the Pac-12's best teams.

Getting out of a conference with nationally ranked teams such as Oregon, USC, Washington, Oregon State, UCLA and Washington State should only help that turnaround in future years.

The Big 12 is a solid league but will not look the same without Texas and Oklahoma. If Sanders continues to build his program, the Buffaloes figure to only increase their win totals during the coming seasons.

That could mean more Eastern Time prime-time television slots, which would be earlier in Colorado's Mountain Time and more to Sanders' liking.