Paul Finebaum: Colorado should not have received a vote in preseason AP Top 25 Poll

Colorado received one vote in the preseason AP Poll Top 25 rankings Monday, but it wasn’t from Paul Finebaum.

The ESPN and SEC Network commentator said the Buffaloes did not deserve a vote to begin the season. Of course, things can change, but Finebaum didn’t see why a team coming off a 4-8 season should be considered for ranking.

Finebaum elaborated on SportsCenter following the poll’s reveal.

“There’s no way I would vote for Colorado,” Finebaum said. “I mean, this is a program that is living off of its head coach, not off of its school reputation, because they have none. Other than a national championship about 30 years ago. They shouldn’t have gotten a vote. And quite frankly, I’m sure that’s going to get me in trouble with Coach Prime. I’m sure he’s going to yell at me like he did the local media on Saturday, but I really don’t care.”

Finebaum referred to Sanders sparring with a local Denver columnist, saying the latter doesn’t “like us.”

The columnist told Sanders that he wanted to ask a football question, but it’s clear that something he said or wrote in the past is still bothering the Colorado head coach.

“You don’t like us, man. Why do you do this to yourself?” Deion Sanders asked. “No, I’m serious. Why do you do this? Like you know you don’t. Like why do you do this?”

Sanders continued, asking for specifics as far as what he or his program did wrong.

“It would be hard for me to really engage in someone I don’t like or someone I don’t like. I’m just asking why? Like why? What did I do?” Sanders repeated.

Not only that, but Sanders didn’t take a question from a local CBS reporter. On3’s Staples pointed out many outlets reported the story of son Shilo Sanders’ lawsuit. So it had to have been something else for the Colorado coach.

“What CBS did do, a vote of the CBS Sports staff and the 247 Sports staff, because they’re all owned by the same company, ranked Deion 15th out of 16 Big 12 coaches,” Staples said on his show Monday. “That’s probably where he’s mad. That’s probably what he’s mad at. But he’s taking it out on a dude from the CBS local affiliate that pays to talk to Deion, who probably was gonna lob him another softball.” 

Things haven’t really changed for Sanders and Colorado. The team is simply just trying to improve from a 4-8 campaign in 2023. This is a program with a lot of hype, but not of results, at least yet.