With the College Football Playoff expanding to 12 teams in 2024–25, the doors open for some nontraditional powers to make runs at a national championship. Deion Sanders believes Colorado can be among them this coming season.
Appearing on FS1’s Undisputed with Skip Bayless and Keyshawn Johnson, Sanders was asked if he’s “sticking with” his belief that the Buffaloes can make the jump from 4–8 to national title contention. He didn’t miss a beat.
“Yeah, most definitely. Shoot, I believe, man,” Sanders said. “I don’t just wear this on my shirt and on my chest. I truly believe that what we have in-house—last year, Key watched all these games. We were seven points away from a multitude of wins, probably seven or eight more wins. We just didn’t know how to win.
“We got our butts kicked twice. We got our butts really kicked twice. There wasn’t no winning. When we walked in, it was 30 on the scoreboard. But several of those games, we could’ve won those games. We could’ve really been … definitely a bowl team, but we could’ve been someone who made a lot of noise. We made noise, but now, we gonna make some sounds.”
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“Last year we instilled hope, this year we gotta go do it.”@DeionSanders expects CU to challenge for a CFP spot this upcoming season pic.twitter.com/rsNVEo3L4Z
— UNDISPUTED (@undisputed) January 30, 2024
Sanders isn’t wrong about how the team’s season played out. After opening 3–0, with a statement win over 2022–23 national runner-up TCU in Week 1, Colorado dropped eight of its last nine games, with a three-point win at Arizona State on Oct. 7 as its final win of the year.
Oregon handed Colorado an ugly first loss of the season on Sept. 23, 42–6. On Nov. 17, Sanders’ Buffaloes trip to the Palouse turned into a nightmare, with a 56–14 loss to Washington State.
In the other six losses, Colorado fell by more than one score just once, a 28–16 loss at UCLA.
Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports
As Bayless intimated, this isn’t the first time that the Colorado coach has propped up his team’s CFP candidacy. In December, Sanders told 247Sports that he and his team “plan on being one of” the schools taking advantage of the expanded Playoff field. But in his Tuesday Undisputed appearance, he acknowledged the pressure that the team faces in year two of his tenure.
“Last year, we instilled hope. But this year, we got to go do it.”
