Former Colorado stars speak out amid Shedeur Sanders, Travis Hunter's controversial jersey retirements

The Colorado shot program's caller determination to discontinue Travis Hunter's No. 12 and Sheduer Sanders' No. 2 jerseys was met with immoderate criticism. Both erstwhile Colorado players' jerseys were officially retired earlier this period during a peculiar ceremonial astatine the Buffaloes outpouring game.

Only 4 different players successful Colorado shot past person been honored via a jersey retirement. Colorado shot dates backmost 135 years. The criteria applied to Sanders' and Hunter's respective retirements differentiate from what different erstwhile players faced.

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Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter (IMAGN)

In the 1990s, a student-athlete had to fulfill a graduation request anterior to a jersey retirement. An diversion section spokesperson confirmed to USA Today Sports that some Sanders and Hunter had not yet graduated astatine the clip of the April 19 status ceremony.

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School officials besides clarified that the graduation criterion was ne'er an authoritative policy, saying it was antecedently the "preference of an world counselor."

(L-R) Shedeur Sanders #2 and Travis Hunter #12 of the University of Colorado Buffaloes talk with the media astatine Zouk Nightclub astatine Resorts World Las Vegas connected July 21, 2023 successful Las Vegas, Nevada. (Louis Grasse/Getty Images)

Officials added that the diversion section administration, on with the caput coach, tin marque jersey status decisions astatine their ain discretion.

Michael Jones is 1 of the latest erstwhile Colorado shot players to talk retired arsenic fallout from the arguable determination rages on. Jones suggested his erstwhile assemblage outright lacks a jersey status process.

Shedeur Sanders, left, and Travis Hunter, right, respond to their jersey retirements during Colorado's NCAA assemblage shot outpouring game, Saturday, April 19, 2025, successful Boulder, Colo.  (AP Photo/Jack Dempsey)

"For them to not person a process for the retiring of a fig is asinine for an instauration similar Colorado," Jones told USA Today Sports. "It’s conscionable wholly asinine."

Darian Hagan, who played backmost astatine Colorado, told the outlet that the arguable status determination near him "flabbergasted." Hagan did not discredit Sanders' oregon Hunter's contributions to Colorado, but alternatively expressed his content that helium should person the grant "someday."

"We were ever told determination was a waiting period," Hagan told the outlet. "There was a argumentation successful place. It had to beryllium voted upon. I was ne'er told that it was astatine the discretion of the diversion manager oregon the caput coach. That was shocking quality to me. It was hard to stomach." 

Sanders and Hunter played their last crippled successful a Colorado azygous successful precocious December successful the Alamo Bowl. Hunter was the 2nd wide enactment successful the 2025 NFL Draft. Sanders' unexpected driblet successful past week's draught was intimately watched crossed the sports satellite and beyond. Sanders was yet selected successful the fifth-round and volition statesman his NFL vocation with the Cleveland Browns.

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Colorado won the nationalist title successful 1990. Jones pointed to the program's past and suggested allowing Sanders and Hunter to efficaciously skip the jersey status enactment contributed to "a superior ERASURE of our shot legacy," helium wrote successful a societal media post.

Elsewhere, Colorado does person strict policies successful spot for its athletics Hall of Fame.

If a subordinate is to beryllium deemed eligible, the athletes indispensable beryllium a minimum of 10 years removed from their playing vocation successful Boulder. The idiosyncratic indispensable besides nary longer beryllium competing successful immoderate nonrecreational sports league, per information documentation.

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