"I graduated from an HBCU": Deion Sanders claps back at FSU questions with his alma mater remarks

Deion Sanders is Florida State football royalty in every sense of the word. His rise to football superstardom started in the Seminoles' colors. Playing college football at FSU, Sanders was a two-time All-American and won the Jim Thorpe Award. So it makes perfect sense to associate Sanders with FSU. But not all the time, apparently.

Earlier this week, he was asked by a reporter about the upcoming Seminoles’ rivalry with the Miami of Ohio RedHawks. Nobody would have expected Sanders’ response to the reporter. The Colorado football coach simply said, “I graduated from an HBCU.” This will definitely come as a surprise to most who’ve only associated Sanders with FSU all these years.

However, Sanders did not graduate from FSU. He graduated from Talladega College in 2020. The school is a historically black university located in Talladega, Alabama. This was why, when the reporter referred to him as an FSU alumnus, he protested.

“I’m a who? I thought it’s where you graduated from, isn’t it?" Sanders said. "Why do you keep calling me that if that’s not where I graduated from? I’m a HBCU grad.”

The term "alumnus" is traditionally associated with the school from which someone graduated, and some hold to the strict definition. However, dictionaries and journalism style allow for the informal use, where the word refers to someone who attended an institution but did not graduate.

How has the relationship between Deion Sanders and FSU been?

It’s not that Deion Sanders has always disassociated himself from FSU. He has proudly associated himself with the school many times in the past. In fact, he interviewed for the head coaching role there as recently as 2020 before the university hired Mike Norvell.

Sanders remained at Jackson State after missing out on the FSU coaching job and has managed to do a little damage to the Seminoles. He flipped five-star FSU commit, Travis Hunter, to Jackson State in 2021 (and Hunter followed Sanders to Colorado). It was a shocking turn of events that established his effectiveness as a recruiter.

Since then, Sanders has asserted himself as a top recruiter in the state of Florida, hijacking several FSU targets. As Colorado's coach, he orchestrated another upset when he got five-star University of Miami commit Cormani McClain to flip to Colorado.

Mike Norvell has claimed he is unfazed by Sanders’ recruiting activities at Florida State. He is more interested in focusing on his job at FSU. As for the players, Norvell told Brandon Marcello of 247Sports that he is excited for them to get the opportunity to play.

Sanders’ recruiting method at Colorado, with its heavy reliance on the transfer portal, has received criticism from several quarters. But Coach Prime is unbothered and is instead focused on building a viable roster in Boulder.