Deion Sanders Questions Big 12 Injury Report Accuracy, 'No Way Nobody's That Healthy'

Colorado football head coach and Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders questioned the accuracy of Big 12 teams' participation reports during his sitdown with CU play-by-play announcer Mark Johnson for the Colorado Football Coaches Show (conversation begins at the 18:45 mark).

The talk began when Johnson noted the initial participation report for Colorado's home game against Arizona on Saturday. Colorado has 20 players on its report, while Arizona has just one.

"We always have 100 guys and the other team, I look over there, they only have two guys.s. Are we only ones being honest?"

Sanders also added: "But every week. Well, we're honest. Because I'm like, guys, this last thing I want is my name slandered for lying. I don't lie. I'm not going to placate nothing. Let's tell the truth. And we do. I guess everybody else is lying, because there's no way nobody's that healthy."

Participation reports around the conference were made public on Wednesday. The breakdown is as follows: Cincinnati at Utah (three players apiece), Oklahoma State (four) at Kansas (six), Texas Tech (11) at Kansas State (seven), Arizona State at Iowa State (15 apiece) and UCF (eight) at Baylor (five).

It's also possible Arizona is just getting healthy now, as the team has had at least 13 players on each of its participation reports from Weeks 5-8. The Wildcats notably had 13 players for Week 8 at Houston, 14 for Week 7 vs. BYU, 13 for Week 6 vs. Oklahoma State and 13 for Week 5 at Iowa State.

However, Sanders is right, in that Colorado's injury numbers are always larger than their opponents.

Brent Schrotenboer of USA Today provided some insight.

"The Big 12 discloses injury reports before each game this season in the interest of transparency, hoping it prevents injury information from being traded in the shadows with gamblers. In Colorado's case, Sanders' pregame injury list sometimes has been quite long compared to opponents. It includes backup players or players who haven't played much this season, if at all."

The opposing team's figure has never been as low as this week.

Utah had four players on its report against Colorado in Week 9, Iowa State had 17 in Week 7, BYU had 10 in Week 5, TCU had 11 in Week 4 and Houston had 15 in Week 3. Meanwhile, Colorado has had a minimum of 20 players on its report each week.

The Buffaloes are struggling through a tough season at 3-5 (1-4 in conference) capped by a 53-7 loss at Utah. They hope to get back on the winning track against 4-3 Arizona (1-3 in Big 12). Kickoff at Folsom Field is set for 7 p.m. ET.