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Breaking down Deion Sanders, Colorado's chances of earning bowl eligibility

On3-Social-Profile_GRAYby:On3 Staff Report•11/14/23
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Joe Rondone/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

One of the more interesting subplots to the end of the regular season is the race for bowl eligibility, with a handful of teams like Colorado down to their last gasp.

The Buffaloes are 4-6 on the season, having lost six of their last seven following a very encouraging start to the Deion Sanders era in Boulder. They need to win two straight — on the road at Washington State and on the road at Utah — to get to six wins and qualify.

On3’s JD PicKell doesn’t see it happening. In fact, he doesn’t see another win on the schedule.

“I don’t,” PicKell said on the Andy Staples On3 show. “I don’t, just because of the sheer fact of, and we had this thought too during the season, hey this team, they’re hot, they’re 3-0, vibes are high, but also it’s a completely new roster, what happens when they start losing?” PicKell said. “And I don’t know that it’s a thing where one loss has led to the next, but it’s starting to feel like once that thing gets moving a certain direction with a bunch of guys that didn’t know each other before the season, you wonder where they’re competitively at.”

Colorado has been competitive in several of its losses.

The team lost by a touchdown to USC, by a field goal to Stanford and by a field goal to Arizona. Even losses against UCLA and Oregon State were by just two scores.

But close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, they say. It certainly won’t help for bowl eligibility purposes.

PicKell broke down why he doesn’t see this weekend’s game going Sanders’ way at Colorado.

“So Washington State, kind of in that same situation,” PicKell said. “If I’m coming down to picking this one I just think the line of scrimmage for Washington State is probably better than what Colorado has, which isn’t saying a ton, but I think that’s the difference.”

Washington State has won the last three meetings in the series, though the two programs haven’t met since 2019. Colorado’s last win came in 2016, at home.

The two programs are set to meet in a late-night Pac-12 game on the West coast, with the game kicking off at 10:30 p.m. ET with a broadcast on FS1.