It’s commitment and flipping season for the 2026 college football recruiting class as some of the top recruits in the nation continue to make their decisions on where they will be playing college ball.
In the age of NIL deals, no commitment is safe. Mike Norvell and Florida State found that out the hard way after losing a three-star offensive tackle, one of the Seminoles’ top offensive linemen in the cycle, while he was on campus with another program.
Xavier Payne Decommits From Florida State While Visiting Deion Sanders, Colorado
Xavier Payne is a three-star recruit in the 2026 class and is rated as 247Sports’ No. 67 offensive tackle in the country and the No. 791 overall prospect in the class. The 6’7″, 320-pound tackle is entering his senior year at Edison High School in Miami, Florida, and had been committed to the Seminoles since December 2024.
However, on June 22, Payne announced his decommitment from the Seminoles, reopening his recruitment.
BREAKING: Class of 2026 OT Xavier Payne has Decommitted from Florida State, he tells me for @on3recruits
The 6’7 325 OT from Orlando, FL had been Committed to the Seminoles since December
He holds a total of 34 Offershttps://t.co/9L9iymQ7Za pic.twitter.com/Bo3YBbEqN1
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) June 22, 2025
The timing of Payne’s decommitment is interesting, as he announced it while on an official visit with the Colorado Buffaloes. According to Jay Smith, the host of the “Prime Time for College Football” YouTube channel, this could be a good sign for the Buffaloes.
“He decommitted from Florida State, but he was also reportedly here in Colorado visiting the Buffs this week. So he’s visiting the Buffs and he decommits from Florida State, it sounds like,” Smith said.
While Payne has shown interest in the Buffaloes, it’s not a foregone conclusion that he will choose Colorado, as the young offensive lineman has 34 total offers from programs across the country.
This spring, Payne has been on official visits to Syracuse and Florida State on top of his trip to Boulder. It’s also important to note that just because Payne has decommitted from the Seminoles, it does not mean that he won’t end up choosing Florida State again.
Deion Sanders and his staff will have to push hard to land Payne, who would be a massive addition to their 2026 class and provide some much-needed offensive line help for the Buffaloes.
RELATED: Mike Norvell’s Florida State Accused of Copying Deion Sanders’ Bold Colorado Recruiting Tactics
In an interview with Rivals, Payne said Colorado’s visit “gave him some things to think about” and told them to “don’t count them out in my recruitment.”
The Colorado Buffaloes coaching staff, led by offensive line coaches Gunnar White, Andre Gurode, and George Hegamin, has prioritized offensive line development.
The program’s pitch centers around NFL preparation, with Sanders touting the coaching staff’s professional experience and the seven players from last year’s team who signed NFL contracts.
In 2024, Colorado’s offensive line struggled significantly, with quarterback Shedeur Sanders being sacked 39 times throughout the season. The Buffaloes failed to reach 1,000 rushing yards for the second consecutive season, averaging just 65 yards per game on the ground.
Payne won’t come in and immediately fix all of those problems, but if the Buffaloes are able to land him, he’d be a welcome addition to address their offensive line needs.
Colorado currently has only two commits in their 2026 recruiting class, three-star tight end Gavin Mueller and three-star athlete Domata Peko Jr., making Payne a high-priority target for the program’s future success.
