It’s amazing how much difference one person can make in so short a time.

I’m talking about Deion Sanders taking Boulder by storm when he agreed to become the 28th head coach of the woebegone University of Colorado football team.

Sanders has boosted the hopes of many CU fans. Sanders — who prefers to be called “Coach Prime” and leaves little doubt about who is in charge when he enters a room — has given CU fans a giant dose of positivity and expectations.

He has brilliantly mined the nation’s football talent and transferred in football players who proved their abilities on other campuses first. The 2023 college teams NCAA transfer portal ranked CU as No. 1 in football transfers with 27 as of this writing, according to On3’s team transfer portal index site.

Long-suffering Buffs fans hope this means the end of ugly one-sided beatings as happened in last season’s 1-11 debacle.

And happily, there’s been a significant and almost under-the-radar event: Coach Prime can pat himself on the back because his arrival has made more predictable and timely the transfer-credit review process for all students seeking to enroll at CU, not just football players and other athletes.

The percentage of nongraduate transfers who can successfully find their way through the CU admission process is painfully low, according to the Buffaloes Wire. CU Boulder transfer students comprise 20% to 25% of new undergraduate students each year, according to the CU website. (Studies show there were more than 700,000 undergraduate transfer students nationwide in 2021.)

Let’s make it easier for them.

I recently met a transfer student, Nick P., from Oregon State who told me he lost half of his credit hours, thousands of dollars and his time, by moving east to CU. He’s attending the school of engineering.

Sanders has helped turn around the admissions process by pushing for a better transfer acceptance.

The Colorado Sun newspaper recently opined, “This is an opportunity for CU to help nurture a statewide culture where students receive meaningful credit for high-quality coursework, regardless of where they complete it.”

It’s important to speed up the transferring of credits. In general, many transfers lose some credits in the process. The CU plan gives students the ability to apply more nonremedial credits against their elective requirements, even if there’s no matching major at CU.

Incoming CU students must have a grade-point minimum average of C-minus.

The University of Colorado clarified its transfer requirements for me.

• The new transfer requirements allow CU to provide more timely information to all students who are considering whether or not to transfer. Before this pilot, a potential transfer student might have to wait several weeks to find out which credits would transfer and which wouldn’t. Now, prospective transfers will quickly know if their credits are applicable as electives.

• It has been a collaborative effort between the administration, athletics and faculty athletics representatives to develop a creative solution.

• The way the pilot program works is when a student transfers from either a four-year institution or a two-year community or junior college, their academic credits will be reviewed for their acceptability as electives in the CU Boulder College of Arts and Sciences. CU can make a quick determination on whether to transfer elective credits.

• CU calls this a “pilot program,” with the intent to review it after the academic year for possible expansion to other CU colleges and schools.

• The process has no impact on the overall academic mission and does not lower the admission standards. It merely allows the admissions office the ability to quickly review transfer credits from other institutions.

• The campus has been working for several years — before Sanders’ arrival — on a number of ways to improve the speed with which prospective transfer students can get their academic records reviewed for transferable credit. This pilot program is another part of that transfer student success effort.

• There are no new courses or degrees being proposed.

Affordability, accessibility and accountability are the campaign promises we often hear from those running for the CU Board of Regents, where I served two terms. But often, little is done to make CU more accessible to all students, not just athletes.

CU President Todd Saliman sums it up by saying, “One of the things that is important to CU these days is to be accessible. One of the things we can do to make CU more accessible is to make it easier to transfer to CU.”

Transferring from one college or university to another can be a daunting process for incoming students. CU has begun to develop clear and more consistent policies regarding the transfer process for all students.

The University of Colorado’s transfer admissions standards should be a predictable catalyst rather than a gatekeeper for students.

Jim Martin can be reached at jimmartinesq@gmail.com.