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The original was posted on /r/cfb by /u/usffan on 2025-07-05 13:03:41+00:00.
The cumulative link to the preseason rankings can be found here.
We reach the 7 week mark to the start of the 2025 season with the 49th ranked team in the consensus rankings, Colorado (high = 48, low = 55). The rankings for the Buffaloes are among the most balanced in the preseason polls, which is pretty remarkable given how widely opinion about them being overrated or undervalued runs on r/cfb. To the surprise of quite a few, Deion Sanders returned for his third season as head coach after his luggage was distributed to Jacksonville, Cleveland and Tampa Bay (and Carolina, and Baltimore) after the 2024 draft. Given the depths that Colorado had hit prior to last year, with only 1 winning season in a non-COVID year since Gary Barnett was forced out of Boulder at the end of 2005, going into the final week of the season with a chance of playing for a Big XII championship and a CFP bid was nothing short of a rousing success, even if they were pretty well outclassed in the Alamo Bowl by BYU. Travis Hunter brought a Heisman to Boulder for just the second time, and he had his jersey retired alongside Shedeur Sanders, a decision that is absolutely sure to age well.
Roster outlook
Probably not surprisingly, the Buffaloes lost a lot of production after last season, ranking 89th, with most of that loss on the offensive side of the ball. Travis Hunter was the 2nd overall pick in the draft, but his fellow WRs Jimmy Horn, Jr. (Carolina) and LaJohntay Wester (Baltimore) were also drafted, as was Mel Kiper’s favorite player Shedeur Sanders. Deion gained a reputation of eschewing recruiting for just building with the portal, but this year he did a good job on both fronts, bringing in 8 4*+ players from high school, which was good enough for the 4th best recruiting class in the Big XII and 38th in the country, but also finishing only behind Texas Tech and their bottomless pockets for 2nd in both the portal (19th nationally) and overall class (24th in the country). Colorado rebuilt their entire OL via P4 transfers, plus 4 star WR Hykeem Williams from Florida State. The only question is whether former Liberty QB Kaidon Salter will start the season or 5 star QB recruit Julian Lewis will get the call. Meanwhile, he also rebuilt the secondary with 4 star safety Noah King from Kansas State and Tennessee S John Slaughter.
Schedule and outlook
Colorado opens 2025 with a Prime Time home game on Friday night against Georgia Tech that could be a bellwether for the entire season. Winning that almost certainly then sees them favored in their next 4 games (Delaware, at Houston, Wyoming and a suddenly Jake Retzlaff-less BYU) before going to TCU to open October. But losing that opener could also lead to a 2-3 start heading into the back half of the schedule that contains Iowa State, Utah, Arizona State and Kansas State (all of whom are ranked ahead of them before the season starts). So those who think Colorado is overrated will likely predict a season that sees the Buffs barely make a bowl, while their ardent believers will see them as a potential Big XII contender and CFP team. Which is what makes that narrow range in terms of their rankings so surprising.