Colorado fell short of its goal to reach the Big 12 Championship Game in what has been a remarkable turnaround season under Deion Sanders. Still, the Buffaloes return to a bowl game for the first time since 2020. Sanders swiftly shut down any discussion of Colorado opt-outs following a dominant 52-0 win over Oklahoma State. Sanders made it clear that the Buffaloes are committed to finishing what they started in this monumental season.
“Our kids are going to play in our bowl game, because that’s what we signed up to do, and we’re going to finish,” Sanders said. “We’re not going to tap out, because that throws off the structure of next season. There’s a couple of teams that you take note. They laid an egg in the bowl game, and they haven’t recovered since. We don’t plan on doing that. We plan on going out there and fighting just like we fought today, regardless of where we are.”
Heisman Trophy favorite Travis Hunter and quarterback Shedeur Sanders both project as potential top-five picks in the first round of the 2025 NFL Draft in April. Rather than shutting down for the bowl game in order to avoid injury risk and begin preparations for their future, coach Sanders made it clear that his players will fulfill their commitment to the team by playing in the bowl game.
Colorado entered the final week of the regular season with an outside chance at securing a spot in the Big 12 Championship Game, but fell victim to a complicated tiebreaker scenario that split four two-loss Big 12 teams at the top of the standings. Instead, Arizona State and Iowa State advanced to play for a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Despite missing out on the conference championship game, Sanders remains optimistic about the future in Colorado and is already focused on improving the roster for next season — which could mean another heavy transfer portal haul similar to past classes.
“I wanted to win out,” Sanders said postgame. “We want to be undefeated. That’s the moments that I envisioned. We lost three games, got our butts kicked last week. We got our butts kicked in Nebraska. And we lost a close one to K-State. We envisioned the thought process. We know what we have. We know what we got. Now we add the pieces to it. You see it in the recruitment. You’re going to see it in the portal that we’re going to add tremendous pieces to sure us up so we can make a run again. We’re already on that thing to try to fill these voids for next season.”
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A bowl game victory would give Colorado just its third double-digit win season since 1997 and first since 2016.
Carter Bahns contributed to this report.
