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Deion Sanders Aims To Broaden HBCU Sports Demographic: 'We Should Open Our Minds And Hearts To Everyone'

"We should open our minds and hearts to everyone and show them love and respect and appreciation," Coach Prime shared. "We have some dysfunction, and we need to fix it."

October 26, 2022 at 8:13 pm

Some high-profile celebs popped in for the recent homecoming festivities at Jackson State University (JSU). Deion Sanders is speaking on what he learned from the cast of P-Valley about fostering an open-minded and accepting HBCU sports community.

During the weekly SWAC Coaches Press Conference, Coach Prime shared that he believes people should embrace some of the underlying values within the popular STARZ series.

“I think it’s very important. You gotta understand [that] P-Valley is a wonderful show, which should be an award-winning show, that touches all demographics, all social climates,” Sanders said, according to FanNation. “Shouldn’t we be like that as men and women? We should not be judgmental by any means.”

“We should open our minds and hearts to everyone and show them love and respect and appreciation,” he added. “I feel like that’s what we should do with HBCUs. We’ve got to open our hearts and minds to changes — to different ideologies and just different thoughts and proceed with those thoughts and make them manifest.”

Coach Prime wasn’t done there, though, as he pointed out that the HBCU community “can’t be narrow-minded and close-minded.”

“No one talks about the truth and matter of [how] we have some dysfunction, and we need to fix it. So, I’m just willing to go out there and step out and say, ‘You know what, I want all to come. I want to invite everybody,'” he explained.

“We’re going to keep on continuing to do what we do. Because we’re trying to reach and teach and touch the majority, not the minority. We’ve already touched the minority,” Sanders proclaimed.

These comments come ahead of ESPN’s College GameDay heading down to Mississippi to cover the game between JSU and Southern University, which is going down on Saturday, Oct. 29.

“I was excited, really excited. But you gotta understand, I expect stuff like this,” Sanders confidently said of the opportunity, Mississippi Today reports, before adding, “It’s phenomenal.”

“I just hope we, as a city and as a school, understand the magnitude of what’s about to transpire. I hope we do our homework as a city and come out and support College GameDay, support what it is and then some,” he added. “We need to put on for our city for real. Southern needs to be a big part of this as well.”

What do you think about Coach Prime’s comments, and will you be tuning in for the match-up between Jackson State and Southern?