Deion Sanders’ Buffs lead the way to the Big 12 title game with a win

Opening remarks from Colorado’s 34-23 win over the Cincinnati Bearcats in Big 12 play at Folsom Field.

1. It’s time to do the calculations for the Big 12 title game: With that Nebraska loss on the resume, CU likely has a path to the College Football Playoff: winning the Big 12 championship. And after a home win over Cincinnati on Saturday night, the road to Dallas in early December is starting to clear up a little.

Despite a 4-1 league record, the Buffs will need some help. Well, it’s probably very helpful.

The only item in his hands, of course, is winning, and of the four games on Deion Sanders’ schedule, the only truly terrifying one, on paper, is a visit to Texas Tech, coming off a bye week, on 1 November. 9. After that, CU will likely be the favorite in the final three tournaments: home to Utah (4-4) on Nov. 16; at Kansas (2-6) in Kansas City on Nov. 23; and home to Oklahoma State (3-5) on Black Friday.

That said, it’s crowded upstairs.

BYU (5-0 Big 12) needs to make a mistake at least once, and its two best opportunities are road trips to Utah (Nov. 9) and Arizona State (Nov. 23).

Iowa State (4-0) also has two more slightly less salty road games, facing KU in Kansas City on Nov. 9 and Utah in Salt Lake on Nov. 23.

There’s also a chance Kansas State (4-1 Big 12) defeats the Cyclones in Ames in the annual Farmegeddon showdown. But the Wildcats appear to be the favorites in the three November games before that: at Houston, against Arizona State and against Cincy.

2. Horn takes his own TD: There’s a good chance you’ll see something at Folsom Field these days that you’ve never seen before in a football game, and the Buffs provided two of those moments on the game’s first drive. The initial strange moment came on what looked like a cat-quick 57-yard touchdown catch and run by wide receiver Jimmy Horn Jr. The Buffs senior had so much room to run that he flashed a “Peace” sign with two fingers. to the nearest Cincinnati defender at approximately the 25-yard line on the way to the end zone. The referees were not amused and penalized the CU receiver for unsportsmanlike conduct at the spot of the foul, wiping the TD off the board. Instead, the hosts were awarded a first down at the Bearcat 25-yard line. It only delayed the inevitable, as the Buff scored five plays later, on a 3-yard touchdown pass to Travis Hunter…who then celebrated with an Ozzie-Smith-style backflip in the end zone.