At this point, Deion Sanders has more in common with Jim Jones than with Nick Saban.

Jones, of course, is one of America’s most notorious cult leaders. In the 1960s and ’70s, he used a mash-up of Christian theology, Marxism, racial idolatry, and “social justice” to convince a large group of followers to relocate to a jungle in South America. He promised his congregants they would build an oppression-free paradise in Guyana.

A little more than a year after their arrival, on November 18, 1978, Jones talked his church members into drinking cyanide-laced Flavor Aid. Nine hundred and nine people died. Seventy percent of Jones’ followers were black. Forty-five percent of them were black women.

Abused Christian theology, Marxism, racial idolatry, and “social justice” have been combined and used repeatedly to make fools of black Americans. Too often, black people find racialized religious doctrine irresistible.

In hopes of building an oppression-free football paradise in Boulder, Colorado, Deion Sanders has used the same formula as Jim Jones. Coach Prime cast himself as one cup evangelical motivator, a tablespoon of racial justice warrior, a gallon of “American Idol,” and a full-blown useful idiot for Marxists.

Throughout the fall, black celebrities and sports fans flocked to one of the whitest locales in America to worship at the feet of their football cult leader, buying whatever apparel or other nonsense Coach Prime sold. After a 3-0 start, Deion was “Coach Deity,” an untouchable hero, a threat to Nick Saban as college football’s greatest coach. Any critique of Sanders brought allegations of racism or race betrayal.

Coach Prime epitomizes unrepentant idolatry. He’s been the spokesman for the pleasures of idolatry for 40 years.

Coach Deity had turned Colorado’s years-long football whine into life-sustaining water.

Well, late Friday night and early Saturday morning — on November 18, 2023 — the Coach Prime cult suffered its Deiontown Massacre. In the battle for last place in the PAC-12 Conference, the Washington State Cougars destroyed Coach Prime’s Buffaloes, 56-14.

That’s right. For all the hype and bluster, Deion’s rebuilt Buffaloes will finish in the same spot as last year’s team — looking up at every other team in the conference. Even with an unlikely victory in the season finale — a road game against Utah — Colorado cannot escape the Pac-12 basement. At best, it can finish tied for last place with a 2-7 conference record.

For those of you who drank the Coach Prime Flavor Aid, thankfully all you will suffer is wounded pride and ego.

I hope this is a teachable moment about the dangers of falling for a cult of personality and of pledging allegiance to anyone based on skin color rather than a solid set of values.

Throughout the football season, I have been repeatedly ridiculed and demonized for criticizing Deion’s coaching style and methods. I have been accused of being obsessed with the Hall of Fame football legend.

My genuine obsession is with sharing a worldview that leads to improved decision-making and rids people of their idolatry. We live in an era ruled by idolatry, the religious worship of idols, whether it be food, sex, money, popularity, material goods, youth, race, or the alleged “heroes” and influencers popular culture celebrates. Idols control our behavior and interfere with our obedience to the truths spelled out in the Bible.

I suffer from idolatry. The only idol I’ve truly conquered is hero worship. Everything else remains a day-to-day struggle, a battle I fight with prayer, meditation, song, and study of the Word.

I also fight idolatry by engaging in daily conversations about its dangers. Deion and Colorado football provided me with the perfect topic to analyze the pitfalls of idolatry consistently.

Coach Prime epitomizes unrepentant idolatry. He’s been the spokesman for the pleasures of idolatry for 40 years. While claiming Christian faith, he flamboyantly and unapologetically chases money, popularity, youth, material possessions, sex, pride, and racial justice.

His cult followers defend his lack of repentance by arguing, “He’s always been this way. Deion hasn’t changed.” His defenders claim Deion has mastered the art of being “relatable” to kids.

It’s not impossible to win football games with Deion’s immature and secular approach. But games are not worth winning if the approach sours souls rather than saves them.

Their defenses are an indictment. No man should relish his inability to evolve and mature. And no grown man, especially a father and leader, should desire to be “relatable” to kids. That’s not our role. We should want to be seen as wise.

A child should relate to his peers and seek wisdom from adults. The pursuit of “relatability” acts as a beard for avoidance of the responsibility of manhood. Deion doesn’t want to grow up. He’s made youthfulness an idol. The gold chains, the hoodie, the sunglasses, the friendship with rappers half his age are all symptoms of his fear of aging.

We all can relate to that. I certainly can. I dye my hair three or four times a year. Getting old is uncomfortable and scary. It’s pointless to fight it. Rather than fight a losing battle, we should spend our last days sharing all that we know with the younger generations.

The sharing of wisdom lessens the chance of the next generation repeating our mistakes.

I spent the entire college football season attempting to educate fans about how Deion’s early success was fool’s gold. It was never sustainable. Colorado’s offensive strategy allowed Deion’s son to pad his stats at quarterback, but it undermined the development of the offensive line and cost the team games later in the season.

Deion’s insistence on centering himself and his Coach Prime brand worked against building the kind of locker-room chemistry that could handle inevitable adversity. Deion’s outsized, hey-look-at-me persona guaranteed that his team would always face an emotionally inspired opponent.

Beyond the winning and losing, Deion’s representation of Christian faith was always most problematic. Deion’s remarkable lack of humility calls into question the sincerity of his faith.

You cannot claim the King of kings while making yourself the king. Deion made himself an idol. He sought victory through trying to persuade his players, the media, and fans to worship him.

Of all of his blasphemous slogans, “I am him” is the worst.

More than anyone, I hope that Deion Sanders has learned the most from my Daily Dose of Deion segments and columns. It’s never too late to learn, repent, and transform.

Deion has much wisdom to share if he’s capable of self-evaluation. He can put away his gold chains, the rap music, his desire to be popular and relatable. He can build a locker-room culture centered around uplifting and educating every player on the team.

It’s not impossible to win football games with Deion’s immature and secular approach. But games are not worth winning if the approach sours souls rather than saves them.

With a fifth straight loss this Friday night at Washington State, Deion Sanders can wrap up last place in the Pac-12 Conference.

Yep. Colorado’s 34-31 loss to Arizona on Saturday made the Buffaloes “Last-Place Bowl” eligible.

Colorado versus WSU is the brawl for it all, a clash between the West Coast’s two worst major college teams. The Cougars (4-6, 1-6) are riding a six-game losing streak into the showdown. Just like the Buffaloes (4-6, 1-6), Washington State relies on a one-dimensional, all-pass offense to compensate for a defense that gives up more than 30 points per game in league play.

Friday’s loser will finish the season with no more than two Pac-12 wins, which would guarantee the team at least a share of last place. A loss Friday would make Colorado a heavy favorite to own last place outright, considering it finishes the season traveling to 16th-ranked Utah.

The Coach Prime miracle turnaround in Boulder has a good chance of landing in the exact same spot as Karl Dorrell’s last CU team: looking up at every other team in its conference.

Matching Dorrell would be quite an accomplishment for Coach Prime, corporate and social media’s leading candidate for national coach of the year. He would make history. No coach in Power Five history has ever garnered the level of hype and worship showered on Coach Prime while never rising above his conference’s cellar.

Based on Colorado’s 3-0 non-conference start, which included a season-opening upset of Texas Christian University, sports pundits argued that Sanders should be the next coach of the Dallas Cowboys, should be offered $100 million by Colorado, and should be the top choice to replace Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M. In just a handful of months, “60 Minutes” commissioned two separate profiles of the future coaching legend.

Why build something sustainable at Jackson State, a school with a $57 million endowment, when you can be celebrated for generating revenue for Colorado, a school with a $2 billion endowment?

Coach Prime started the football season demanding that members of the media believe in him and blustering about keeping receipts. Today he’s bunkered in Boulder trying to figure out how to avoid a loss in the “Last-Place Bowl.”

As of today, Vegas oddsmakers favor the Buffaloes securing 12th place. Deion is getting five points.

What will the media establishment do Friday night if Coach Golden Calf locks up last place?

We know what they won’t do: Tell the truth.

Colorado’s fall from media darling to the bottom of the Pac-12 standings is no real surprise. At no point during Deion’s 11-month tenure as CU’s head coach has he conducted himself in a manner that would produce consistent winning at the major college level. From day one, when he filmed himself telling the existing Colorado players to hit the transfer portal and boasted “I’m coming,” he has led a circus.

He’s been far more Homey D. Clown than the second coming of Bear Bryant or Eddie Robinson.

The Louis Vuitton recruits he brought with him from Jackson State — quarterback Shedeur Sanders, two-way player Travis Hunter, and safety Shiloh Sanders — significantly upgraded Colorado’s roster. But Deion has undermined those upgrades with a chaotic, distraction-riddled culture.

He leads the most penalized and undisciplined football team in all of college football. When it comes to penalties, the Buffs rank 133 out of 133 Division I teams. They average 9.5 penalties per game. That’s four more than a year ago.

When you stuff your sideline and locker room with rappers, celebrities, and media grifters, it should come as no surprise that your team lacks focus and discipline.

When you combine a circus atmosphere with a Pee Wee coach mentality and helicopter parenting of the team, you create the perfect scenario to wind up in the Pac-12’s basement.

All season, despite an inexperienced offensive line, Coach Prime has insisted on a pass-heavy, everyone-out-in-a-pattern offense intended to make his son, Shedeur, a Heisman Trophy candidate and first-round NFL prospect. The scheme has produced 12 more sacks (49) than offensive touchdowns (37). When it comes to sacks surrendered, CU ranks 132 out of 133 Division I teams.

Coach Prime’s desperate attempt to elevate his QB son has also required all-world cornerback Travis Hunter to see extensive double duty. He’s averaging more than 100 snaps per game because he moonlights as Shedueur’s top receiving target.

I know, I know, I know. I can hear the Deion worshippers in the comments: “You’re too hard on Coach Prime. The Buffaloes only won one game last year. What did you expect?”

I expected the media to do its job and provide context for sports fans to properly evaluate “The Miracle in Boulder.”

Four wins are not a miracle. That’s standard. In seven of the previous eight seasons before Deion Sanders arrived, Colorado won at least four games. Last year’s one-win season was an aberration.

If you look beyond a single season, you could make a compelling argument that the program Jedd Fisch inherited at Arizona was in worse shape than the one Deion inherited in Boulder.

Plus, no Power Five coach before Deion has ever been authorized to run off his entire roster. Deion is a mercenary coaching a group of transfer-portal mercenaries. He’s not leading a miracle revival. He’s running a demolition derby. The goal isn’t to rebuild Colorado football. The goal is to burnish a brand that profits Deion, Shedeur, social media influencers, and television networks.

The “Miracle in Boulder” is really the next iteration of MTV’s “Real World Boulder.” Coach Prime is “Puck,” the troll from MTV’s “Real World San Francisco.”

The goal of every “Real World” cast member was to use the show to increase his or her fame. That’s all Deion is doing at Colorado. He’s pretending he’s there to help kids and empower aspiring black coaches. He’s throwing a giant party for black elites. There is nothing black elites relish more than integrating white spaces and isolating themselves from the black masses.

Wakanda is for the movies. It’s a fantasy no black elite has any interest in seeing happen. It requires too much work. Why build something sustainable at Jackson State, a school with a $57 million endowment, when you can be celebrated for generating revenue for Colorado, a school with a $2 billion endowment?

Most people would choose the same path as Deion. It’s easier. It’s a lot more fun. It’s safe. There are no real expectations for him at Colorado. He can finish in last place in his conference and it will be hailed as an amazing success. The television networks need his clownish persona for ratings, so ESPN and Fox Sports will avoid legitimately scrutinizing his performance. Black people are so ruled by racial idolatry and celebrity worship that we will reject any uncomfortable truth revealed about Deion.

Deion can’t lose Friday night. No matter the final score or final standings, Coach Prime is the biggest winner of the football season.

In a society that no longer values merit, the biggest losers are the predetermined winners.