ESPN already O'Ding with this story
Of course they are... It's already irritating.
Either way ESPN and the media wins no matter how it goes. In Sept of '23 Coach Lanning said Colorado was playing for "clicks" and proceeded to beat down Colorado. Deion's first year when things fell apart; Fans, people on site especially and the media were saying Deion was in over head and it was a disaster. This year his team improved from two years prior so in contrast its deemed a success per se.
BUT... If the endgame is NFL for him, If I'm the AD I would encourage him( Deion) to just go. I would not want to go thru this rigmarole at the end of every season. I'm one of the biggest Michigan fans on earth but I saw how Harbaugh flirting with the NFL every year affected recruiting and our depth chart for years.
The majority of the media especially ESPN/NFL are great friends with Deion, you wouldn't see guys like SAS/Sharpe consistently pushing this narrative about linking Deion to the NFL eventually if he didn't want the story out there. Maybe it's unpopular opinion on here, but I feel the jury is still out on him as a HC even in college.