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The recent decision on the Colorado Football Program has been criticised for his decision to retire from Travis Hunter's No. 12 and Shader Sanders's No. 2 jersey. Both former Colorado players jerseys officially retired earlier this month at a special ceremony at the Buffaloes Spring Game.
Only four other players in Colorado football's history have been recognized through Jersey's retirement. Colorado football dates back 135 years. The criteria applied to Sanders and Hunter's retirements are different from those faced by other former players.
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Chedur Sanders and Travis Hunter (image)
In the 1990s, student-athletes had to meet graduation requirements before resigning to Jersey. A spokesman for the athletics department confirmed to USA Today Sports that both Sanders and Hunter had not yet graduated as of the April 19 retirement ceremony.
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School officials also made clear that graduation standards were by no means formal policies, and previously said they were “academic counselor preferences.”
(LR) Chedur Sanders #2 and Travis Hunter #12 of the University of Buffalo at the University of Colorado will be speaking to the media at Zouk Nightclub in Resorts World Las Vegas on July 21, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Louis Grass/Getty Images)
Officials added that the athletics department's administration, along with the head coach, can make Jersey's retirement decision at its own discretion.
Michael Jones is one of Colorado's newest football players as fallouts from a controversial decision are furious. Jones suggested that his previous colleges did not have a Jersey retirement process.
Left, Chedur Sanders and Travis Hunter (right), in Boulder, Colorado, responded to Jersey's retirement during a NCAA college football spring game in Colorado. (AP photo/Jack Dempsey)
“They don't have a process to retire from numbers is an acinn for an institution like Colorado,” Jones told USA Today Sports. “It's totally acinin.”
Daryan Hagan, who played quarterback for Colorado, told the outlet that the controversial decision to quit “had surprised him.” Hagan distrusts Sanders and Hunter's contributions to Colorado, but he expressed his belief that he should instead receive honor “someday.”
“We were told there's always a time to wait,” Hagan told the outlet. “There was a policy. I had to vote. I didn't say it was the discretion of the athletic director or the head coach. That was shocking news for me.
Sanders and Hunter played their final match in Colorado uniforms at the Alamo Bowl in late December. Hunter was the second overall choice in the 2025 NFL Draft. Sanders' unexpected decline in last week's draft was closely watched in the sports world and beyond. Sanders was eventually selected in five rounds and began his NFL career with the Cleveland Browns.
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Colorado won the national championship in 1990. Jones pointed to the history of the program and proposed that Sanders and Hunter allowed Jersey's retirement line to be effectively skipped.
Elsewhere, Colorado has strict policies for the Athletics Hall of Fame.
If a player is deemed eligible, the athlete must be removed from his playing career at Boulder for a minimum of 10 years. Individuals must not compete in professional sports leagues for each nomination document.
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