Joel Klatt: 'There's a chance Colorado is competing to go to the Big 12 Championship game'

Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt expects Colorado to take a big step forward in Year 2 under Deion Sanders. Klatt joined Colin Cowherd recently and went as far as to say that Colorado can compete for a Big 12 Championship and potentially a College Football Playoff berth in 2024.

“There’s a chance that Colorado’s competing to go to the Big 12 Championship Game. If they were to get in that game they would be 60 minutes from the College Football Playoff. It’s not out of the realm of possibility,” Klatt said.

Colorado is coming off of a 4-8 season in Year 1 under Deion Sanders. After getting off to a hot start, the Buffaloes went 0-6 over their final six games. Still, Klatt believes Sanders has been a massive success in Boulder, no matter what metric you use.

He added that in his opinion, Colorado had the “worst” and “most irrelevant” program in Power 5 before Sanders arrived.

“The point of hiring Deion Sanders, among other things, was relevance. Deion has hit it out of the park at Colorado. When you look at what they were, a one-win irrelevant program, and what he has turned them into,” Klatt said.

“I understand that it went wild early in the season, and it didn’t finish the way people thought it was going to finish based on what happened at the beginning of the season. However, look at what he did from an economic standpoint for the program, for the athletic department, for Boulder overall and for the University. … At Colorado they got a 68 percent increase in applications last year – 68 percent – the majority of those out of state.”

Klatt added that he feels like Colorado has made a ton of progress under Coach Prime thus far, even if the results haven’t shown up on the field yet.

He expects a big year for the Buffaloes in 2024 and for the results to start matching the hype around the program.

“Deion has worked. He has worked. And now, I think, the play on the field is going to start to catch up to some of the expectations or hubris you’re talking about that maybe he’s even put out there,” Klatt said.

“I think that Colorado, if they’re able to protect Shedeur Sanders… can win eight games. I think that they can double their win total from a year ago. I think that they can maybe even win nine games. And when you look at their schedule and you look at the entirety of the Big 12 conference and what they’re going to have to play, there is a scenario where if Shedeur Sanders is healthy, and they maintain some of that health with guys on the outside, Travis Hunter, who I think is one of if not the best overall player in college football, there’s a chance that Colorado’s competing to go to the Big 12 Championship Game.”