Deion Sanders discusses ranking his kids: ‘I’m the only one that’s honest.’

One of the strangest stories in the last while has been the way current Colorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders has publicly ranked his children. Over the years, Sanders has referred to “top two” or “top three” with his five children. Then on Father’s Day last year, he debuted official rankings of all five in a public Instagram post.

Sanders has done that a number of times since. That included this Father’s Day, where daughter Deondra was on top, and this week, when he used a since-deleted Instagram post to wish son Deion Sanders Jr. a happy birthday, and elevated him to No. 1 in the rankings.

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After Saturday’s 43-35 double overtime win over the Colorado State Rams, which included a key interception from fifth-ranked Shilo, Sanders discussed those rankings in a postgame press conference. And he talked about Shilo rising in them.

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“He is moving up. He’s moving on up like the Jeffersons. But Shedeur is straight up balling too, and Bossy (Shelomi) came in and gave me the biggest hug and kiss and appreciation for Daddy that she could ever give me at the end of the game. And Jr’s been balling, what he does on social media is fascinating. So it’s tough, my kids’ rankings are tough. It’s a serious run right now, it really is, it’s a serious run right now. I’m the only one that’s honest about ranking my kids. You guys act like you all love them the same and you don’t. I don’t know why y’all act like that.”

Sanders also talked about this with Rich Eisen this week, saying he doesn’t provide any special treatment to his sons that play for him, and adding his thoughts that this is a widespread thing:

“Everybody else does, but they don’t say it publicly.” And yes, Sanders is probably not wrong that different parents have different opinions of their various kids at different points. Most of them probably don’t post power rankings on social media, though.

But hey, Sanders is coaching in a sport that’s all about releasing often-arbitrary rankings weekly. So perhaps he should be complimented for his restraint in only occasionally updating these rankings. And he generally just posts them to social media rather than conducting a whole TV show about it, complete with often-convoluted explanations. And his formulas are probably better than the old BCS rankings.

Shilo and the other Sanders kids had better watch out, though, as there soon could be a new entrant in the kids’ power rankings. After that game Saturday, where rapper and Undisputed figure Lil’ Wayne led the Buffaloes out of the tunnel, Sanders said “I love Lil’ Wayne like he’s my son.” So we’ll see if he winds up in future rankings.

[Fox College Football on Twitter]