Buffs move up in second playoff ranking, close to tournament field
Nov 12, 2024, 6:50 PM | Updated: 11:04 pm
If the Colorado Buffaloes keep winning, they’re going to be in the College Football Playoff and Tuesday’s second-ranking showed just how much a big win could help Deion Sanders’ crew.
The Buffs moved up from an initial posting of No. 20 to No. 17 in this week’s second CFP Ranking. With a new format of 12 teams, CU is just on the outside looking in at the tournament which will kick off on Dec. 20.
But the new rules don’t just put a dozen teams in the field, it promises positions to all major conference winners. CU is very much alive given their current number. Even more so, the Big 12 Championship Game winner is guaranteed one of the 12 spots. The final ranking that will ultimately decide the dozen comes out on Dec. 8, meaning Tuesday’s was the second of six rankings slated to be shared over the next several weeks.
To be one of the best 12 in the country, Colorado will likely need to be the best in the Big 12. It’s hard to see the Buffaloes roaming into the playoff field without winning their final three games which would mean a must-win conference title game for a playoff bid.
Last week, the Buffaloes needed to win and get help, well they got a lot of help. Iowa State’s consecutive losses pushed the Cyclones behind Colorado in the conference. While the national picture saw the trio of Kansas State, Pittsburgh and that Iowa State team lose their last game, which was big given those were the three teams placed ahead of the Buffs in last week’s poll.
If the Buffaloes somehow win the Big 12, they’re most likely to get a bye past the first round and straight into the quarterfinal. The winners will never get re-seeded but those games will all be at neutral sites and are being hosted by the Fiesta Bowl, Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl. The winners then play in the semifinal hosted by the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl with the winner of it all decided on Jan 20 in Atlanta’s National Championship Game.
Having won the biggest game left on their schedule last Saturday in Lubbock, Colorado is expected to be favored in all three of their remaining games. The Buffaloes host Utah this weekend then travel to Kansas to face the Jayhawks and finally wrap up by hosting Oklahoma State.
This is just the third season the Buffs have ever been ranked in the College Football Playoff rankings. CU charted every week the poll was available during the program’s magical 2016 season, climbing as high as No. 8 before losing the Pac-12 Championship Game. Colorado was also ranked during the shortened 2020 season. The CFP rank has been the go-to one for season’s end since 2014, ultimately the current incarnation and the previous Bowl Championship Series (BCS) aim to determine a true champion of college football so that a situation like the Buffaloes’ 1990 title can never be shared with another program again.
