Former NFL great Deion Sanders is ready to take “Prime Time” to the classroom.

The Texas State Board of Education recently granted Sanders approval to open a charter school, the Texas Tribune reports. 

Sanders’s Prime Prep—named for the flashy cornerback’s popular moniker—will focus on both sports and education. There are plans to operate two campuses in the Fort Worth area serving between 650 and 1,000 students each from kindergarten to sixth grade. The academy eventually plans to extend to the 12th grade, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Sanders, 43, starred for the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins, and also pursued a baseball career with the New York Yankees, among other teams.

Now working as an analyst for the NFL Network, he told the Dallas Morning News his inspiration for opening the charter school came three years ago from watching 1,200 kids try out for sports for the athletic youth league he runs.

“I sat up in the top of the bleachers and said, `This would be wonderful if we could educate kids. We could marry the two. Why can’t we do such a thing,’” Sanders recalled.

The application for the charter school was accepted with few real details about the school and its curriculum, which raised some eyebrows.

"I have no idea what the applicant plans to do in the classroom, how they plan to instruct the TEKS," said Texas school board member Michael Soto, referring to the mandated curriculum known as Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.

Sanders’s application was sponsored by Uplift Fort Worth, a nonprofit civic organization.

Contact Terrance Harris at terrancefharris@gmail.com or follow him on Twitter @Terranceharris

(Photo: Michael Caulfield/Getty Images)