Deion Sanders and Colorado’s path to a bowl game

The 24 hour rule has long passed since the blowout in Eugene.

Yes, that was a bit of a wake-up call for those dreaming of National Championship glory. And yeah, that’s not going to happen this year.

Even if the Buffs ran the table and won the Pac-12 Championship, they would be at the mercy of the College Football Playoff committee.

Coach Prime said recently he’s about “6-8 dawgs” away from competing for a championship. That number will constantly be in flux because of injuries, transfers, graduates, and numerous other reasons. But, with all the highly rated recruits and transfers visiting Boulder, it’s inevitable that the talent pool will increase dramatically, it just doesn’t happen overnight.

So while the so-called experts and analysts were saying “two wins or worse” and other incredulous predictions, we have consistently maintained that this team is headed to a bowl game.

Before the season began, we divided the schedule into three categories:

Games they need to win:

Colorado State

at Arizona State

Arizona

Nebraska

Stanford

Games they could win:

at TCU

at UCLA

Oregon State

at Washington State

Long shots

at Oregon

at Utah

USC

What we learned:

Whether it was ugly or not, the Colorado State win might prove to be vital come bowl time.

The “long shots” are still just that and, in fact, I would be tempted to move Oregon State and Washington State into that category as well. We’re not saying they can’t win one or more, especially the home games, it’s just everything will need be close to perfect to pull out a victory.

The UCLA game now seems less daunting than TCU. If Buffs Nation wanted to show up on the road, (they most certainly did not travel to Oregon) UCLA and Arizona State would be prime stadiums for a CU takeover.

Conclusion:

If they beat USC today, they’ll likely remain in contention for a Pac-12 championship bid until early November.

If they lose today, even if it’s by 36 points again, do not panic! There’s great chance they’ll be 5-2 in a couple of weeks. They have the talent to go on the road and beat Arizona State and then come home and demolish Stanford.

Crystal Ball:

The 2023 season concludes with a tough loss at Utah. But, six wins means Colorado qualifies for their first bowl game since 2020, and only their third in the last 16 seasons. They are headed to Los Angeles to compete in the Jimmy Kimmel L.A. Bowl! And their opponent from the Mountain West is….oh no, not these guys again…it’s Jay Norvell and the Colorado State Rams. Ugh.