Strike 3: Bowl eligibility secured, it’s on to bigger things for both the 6-2 Colorado Buffaloes and the 6-3 Colorado State Rams.
Each has a solid opportunity to go out and win their conference championship.
For the Buffs, winning the Big 12 would mean an automatic entry into the 12-team College Football Playoff.
For the Rams, it would likely mean they knocked conference frontrunner Boise State out of a playoff spot, thereby costing the Mountain West a spot in the 12-team tourney and the big money that goes with that. Then again, who cares? CSU is leaving for the Pac-12 soon enough anyway.
Neither team controls its own destiny to even reach the title game, but in this wild and wacky college football season, winning the rest of their games would very likely put either or both in their respective conference championships.
This week, CU has arguably its toughest remaining contest when they travel to face Texas Tech, a team that just finished knocking second-place Iowa State from the ranks of the unbeaten. The Red Raiders are 6-3, 4-2 in conference play and they still have an outside shot at a berth in the conference title game themselves. If they beat the Buffs, Tech would just have to defeat Oklahoma State and West Virginia to finish 7-2 in the conference and then see how the tiebreakers fall.
Currently, Brigham Young at 8-0, 5-0 in conference play, sits on top. Iowa State is 7-1, 4-1 and in second place by virtue of a better overall record than the Buffs, who are also 4-1 in league. Kansas State, at 7-2 and 4-2 holds the tiebreaker over CU. In other words, CU can’t afford even one more loss.
BYU has four games left, none of which look easy. They’ve got the “Holy War” game with Utah this weekend, followed by a visit to Kansas, a home game against upstart Arizona State and finally a home tilt with surprising Houston. BYU can afford one loss and still likely make the title game.
Iowa State has a trip to Kansas, a home game with Cincinnati, a trip to Utah and a home game with K-State to close it out. They cannot afford another loss. K-State hosts ASU this weekend, followed by another home game against Cincinnati and that huge match up with the Cyclones to close out the regular season.
Buckle up. Who Buff fans should be rooting for (other than their own team) the rest of the way will be a week-by-week kind of thing.
But CU has to take care of their own business first. After the road trip to Lubbock, the Buffs return home to face preseason conference favorite Utah, then travel to struggling Kansas (who was also supposed to be a conference title contender before the season) and host bottom feeder Oklahoma State – yet another underachiever if you buy into the pre-season prognostications. All these games are winnable, and all are probably losable as well.
Welcome to the Big 12 in 2024.
The Mountain West might be a little easier to figure out, but not by much. Since the Rams are unbeaten in MW play, they’re tied at the top with Boise State. If they win their final three games – Wyoming at Canvas Stadium on Friday night, Nov. 16, at Fresno State (where they’ll be underdogs) the following week and their final home tilt against Utah State – then CSU will play in the conference title game, presumably on the blue turf in Boise. The 7-1 Broncos, whose only loss this season is to top-ranked Oregon, play home games with Nevada and Oregon State and road games against Wyoming and San Jose State. They should win out.
Preseason co-favorite UNLV (who CSU does not play this season) has just one conference loss – to Boise State – on their ledger. They finish with a trip to Hawaii, home games against San Diego State and Nevada sandwiched around a road game in San Jose.
If UNLV wins out and the Rams don’t, the Rebels will play in the title game by virtue of a better overall record.
All of this means that this November – finally – offers a chance for both the Buffs and the Rams to win conference titles in football. And just when we thought we’d be forced to start focusing on basketball again.
