An 8th-grade Colorado Jewish student was called a ‘stupid k***’ while being strangled by a laptop charging cord, in one of many antisemitic assaults by other students described in a Title VI complaint to Boulder Valley Public School District.
Colorado
Colorado forecasts $27 million deficit after Deion Sanders pay raise, NIL payments
What does Deion Sanders’ raise mean for him and Colorado?
Deion Sanders’ $10M salary signals major investment from Colorado—but how will the school fund rising athletic costs?
The University of Colorado’s athletic department is projecting that it will run a $27 million deficit during the current fiscal year ending in June 2026, in addition to needing $11.9 million in institutional support from the university and $2.2 million from student fees, according to budget figures obtained by USA TODAY Sports.
Those numbers are not final. The athletic department is hoping to bring that deficit down by the end of June with revenue from donations, sponsorships and concerts at Folsom Field. But it has never reported a deficit that big before, which could potentially leave the athletic department in need of more than $41 million in subsidies from the university, including the institutional support and student fees.
It also comes at a critical time:
- Athletic director Rick George announced recently he’s stepping down at the end of the fiscal year in June.
- Colorado nearly doubled the pay of football coach Deion Sanders in March, giving him a new five-year contract worth more than $10 million annually. His team just finished 3-9 in 2025 as attendance started to wane after selling out his first season in 2023.
- Like other major college sports programs, Colorado is committed to providing players with up to $20.5 million in annual benefits and direct payments under terms of the NCAA-House legal settlement. That cost is new this year, with the $20.5 million cap going up by 4% next year and the year after.
The latter two costs are the biggest reasons for the projected deficit — the $20.5 million for players and the $10 million per year for Sanders. Colorado previously told USA TODAY Sports in September it was “to be determined” how it would come up with the money to pay for those two big new costs.
Colorado says it won’t cut sports
The projected answer now is that it will run a deficit with the university as the potential backstop for funding. Asked who would be paying for these expenses if not the university, spokesman Steve Hurlbert said, “The mechanics of that are still to be determined.”
The school said it will “not cut sports nor cut any resources for student-athletes” but will look to cut expenses.
Hurlbert also stressed tuition money and state funds will not be used to address the deficit.
However, some observers who are familiar with Colorado’s budget expressed skepticism about that claim because money is fungible. The money the university provides to athletics also is discretionary.
“This notion that they’re spending resources that otherwise couldn’t be spent on putting more kids through college or funding cancer research is just absurd,” said Jack Kroll, a former member of the university’s Board of Regents. “There’s no truth to that whatsoever.”
‘The university will have to fill the gap’
The projected revenue for fiscal year 2026 is $136.7 million with $163.7 million in expenses. The biggest expense is football at $60.4 million. The department is still finalizing its numbers for fiscal year 2025, which ended in June 2025, but said it expects a “balanced” budget of $141 million in revenues and expenses for that year, including $24 million in institutional support revenue from the Boulder campus and the university’s president’s office.
Colorado isn’t the only school facing these challenges. In fiscal 2024, at least 33 athletic departments received at least $30 million in university support, including Colorado ($31.9 million), Houston ($38.4 million), Arizona State ($51.7 million) and South Florida ($63.7 million), according to public records collected by USA TODAY Sports in conjunction with the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database at Syracuse University.
The House settlement added a potential new $20.5 million expense to their bills starting July 1, 2025.
At Colorado, last year the university projected a small but growing budget deficit for the campus starting in fiscal 2027. It even told faculty and staff to move forward by “being comfortable with being uncomfortable.” This has led to concerns about how football is paying for its big new expenses.
“With a lame-duck athletic director, a dismal football season, who-knows-what to happen with the (transfer) portal, donor fatigue, the distancing of football leadership from football alums — the prospects for making much of a dent in that deficit seem very slim,” said Roger Pielke, an emeritus professor at Colorado who previously taught sports governance in the CU athletics department. “That would mean that the university will have to fill the gap.”
Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com
The ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) has filed a federal civil rights complaint with the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, alleging that Jewish Student A was subjected to repeated antisemitic bullying, slurs, and physical assault by multiple fellow students at Southern Hills Middle School (SHMS) throughout 7th and 8th grade.
In one incident, students in Student A’s PE class attempted to play a game called “Jew touch tag” and said Jews were “dirty” and “contaminated.”
In another, in December 2025, a classmate reportedly fashioned a Chromebook charging cord into a lasso, threw it around the student’s neck and dragged him backward from a chair while calling him a “stupid k***.” This was deemed severe enough that the Boulder Police Department was called in to investigate.
Following this particular incident, the Boulder Police Department opened a Juvenile Court Referral for third-degree assault.
ADL says no meaningful action taken by school district over assault
As a result of these incidents, Student A no longer wears a Star of David necklace and does not share his religious identity with anyone.
ADL and the family allege that the school took no meaningful action despite being informed of the situation on multiple occasions. For example, the complaint says the school failed to enforce the no-contact order between Student A and the classmate involved in the Chromebook assault.
The complaint also says that the burden was consistently placed on the victim, such as reassigning his study hall class rather than restricting the aggressor, forcing him to miss a school trip, and asking him to leave class early to avoid crowded hallways.
“The record here is overwhelming: written pleas from the student’s parents, formal school reports, and a police investigation all point to the conclusion that antisemitic harassment at Southern Hills Middle School was pervasive, escalating, and severe,” said James Pasch, ADL Vice President of Litigation.
“Despite the family’s pleas for help to stop the harassment, the school district failed to effectively address it, a clear violation of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. No family should have to fight this hard to ensure a Jewish child’s safety at school, and certainly no Jewish student should face the threat of assault or harassment because of their Jewish identity.”
Susan Rona, ADL Mountain States Regional Director, noted that 167 antisemitic incidents were recorded in Colorado in 2025, a “stark reminder that antisemitism is not something abstract – it is showing up in our communities, in our neighborhoods and even in our schools.”
ADL is requesting that the US Department of Education require the district to take steps to comply with Title VI and ensure that this student and all Jewish students feel safe and protected.
Boulder Valley School District said that while it does not comment on ongoing legal matters, “we take all allegations of discrimination and harassment seriously.”
“We continue to focus on improvements to our policies, reporting systems, practices, and education efforts – all with the goal of ensuring every BVSD student feels safe, welcomed, and a strong sense of belonging.”
When you walk inside the Conoco station at the corner of University Boulevard and Bonnie Brae Boulevard in Denver, you can’t help but notice the history on the walls.
“Here’s the 40s. The 50s and my dad and uncle in the 70s,” says owner Ken Wilson pointing to the pictures on the wall.
Ken is the third generation of the Wilson family to own the gas station and service center.
“Grandpa Ken started to lease this out in 1942. My dad bought the business from my grandpa and my uncle worked his whole career here for my dad and for me,” Ken recalls.
In all, the Wilson family has owned the Conoco station for more than 80 years.
“I started working here in 1978 when I was 12, just part time in the summers. I worked through high school and through college and then did my own thing, and I’ve been back here about 15 years,” said Ken.
“It means so much to our family. It’s been a great business.”
But Ken is the end of the road for the Wilson family ownership. In February, a for sale sign went up at the Bonnie Brae Conoco.
“We’re just looking now. We’re not in a rush. It’s not like we’re going to sell and be done this year. We’re going to get a price we want to get, and if it takes us years to do that’s okay,” he said.
Wilson has seen a lot of change during his time working at the station and service center.
“There aren’t a lot of garages anymore. They used to be everywhere. There were four of them on this block when I was a kid, he said.
When asked what he’ll miss most, Ken points to his relationship with his customers.
“I’ve had customers now where I actually waited on their grandparents. And then their parents. And now them.”
As for what his grandpa would say if he could see the place now, Ken says, “I think he’d say he was really proud of what we’ve done. Both my father, my uncle and myself. Hopefully he’s still hanging around here once in a while.”
The Colorado Buffaloes are still putting the finishing touches on their 2027 class over the next few months, but their 2028 recruiting plan continues to take shape.
Earlier this week, Deion Sanders’ staff extended an offer to one of the top prospects in the class of 2028, composite five-star wide receiver Jaylen Addai. Addai now holds 43 offers, including one from nearly every blue-blood program in the country.
247Sports’ Composite currently ranks Addai as the No. 12 overall prospect in the 2028 class, the No. 3 overall wide receiver and the top player from the state of Texas.
At 5-foot-11, 165 pounds, the Pearland, Texas native fits the mold of the modern-day receiver. He seems likely to fill into his frame given his youth. Addai is a multiple-sport athlete with elite athleticism on the field, on the basketball court and on the track.
Given how early it is in Addai’s recruitment, several teams are in contention for his commitment, with Notre Dame and Ohio State leading the way early. When the 2028 cycle picks up later this year, who really has a chance should come into focus, especially when visits begin.
Colorado’s 2028 class does not have any commitments yet, but has offers out to 28 different wide receiver prospects.
Follow Charlie Strella on X, Threads and Instagram.
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