Colorado's Dream Season Has Fans Dreaming Beyond A Bowl Game

The initial College Football Playoff Rankings came out yesterday and much to the surprise of many outside the fan base, the Buffs landed at #15.  It doesn't come to the surprise of true Buffs fans and supporters that have seen this team.  The Buffs rise to this point has certainly been earned. CU has two road wins against programs they had lost by an average of nearly 3 scores since joining the PAC 12 and their home wins have been an average beat down of 47-9.  CU is ranked between 10 and 33 in EVERY major team statistical category.  Yet, the doubt and animosity towards the Buffs seems to be higher than ever.  But rubbing salt in the wounds of others is meant for Twitter.  This piece is to show where CU is and where they can still go from today.

CU plays the 25th ranked, 16th ranked and 5th ranked teams in the initial college football rankings over the last 4 weeks of the season.  If these 4 teams, including the Buffs, can hold serve, then all will likely be moved up a spot to 5-10 spots by the time the Buffs face them.  The main goal for CU is this, win every week and achieve what their initial goal was before the season... WIN THE PAC 12.  If the Buffs win the PAC 12 they are in the Rose Bowl... at the very least.  But the Buffs could still make the Rose Bowl if they lose to an undefeated Washington in the Pac 12 title game since Washington would likely be in the College Football Playoffs.  But CU fans have earned the right to dream big and the road for them to move into the college football playoffs is a fairy tale that would fit this season after 10 consecutive losing seasons for the Buffs.  How can it be done has been broke down by others, but I will give a more concise reasoning and show the path to the playoffs starting with:
17. Baylor and 20. West Virginia-If either team wins out, it hurts.  Both have awful losses in their last games. Either way, one will knock the other out on December 3rd.
14. Oklahoma-Oh, Big XII (-2), why do you do this to yourself?  If you had 12 teams and a conference title game, I may say sure.  Yet, Oklahoma could win out, but their substance of 10-2 would not be greater than CUs 11-2.  They do close out with 3 teams ranked 17-19 in the rankings but losses to a 2 Loss OSU (get to that later).  A loss to Baylor, Okie St or WVU in those last 3 would make it easier and only Baylor would be of worry.  Another Houston loss would hurt worse than USC loss.
13. LSU-They are about to get throttled by the #1 team.  Done.
12. Ped, I mean Penn State-A team that got throttled by a team CU played tough in Michigan and CU being conference champs would be a travesty if 11-2 CU doesn't leapfrog the Nittany Lions.  A loss to a Pitt team is also worse than the USC team CU lost to.  Ohio State at home in an electric game day atmosphere is not more wow than a neutral site win over a Washington team in my eyes either.  I believe CU leapfrogs Penn State if they go 11-2 over 10-2 PSU like the #6 team.
11. Florida-The Gators got beat by a Tennessee team that is now on a 3 game losing streak.  They also would have to beat Florida in SEC title game and get past LSU and FSU to end the season.  Won't happen.
10. Nebraska-When Ohio State whomps that ass this weekend.  Done.
9. Auburn-Has to play Alabama in last game of regular season.  3rd loss.  Out.
8. Wisconsin-The Badgers will likely finish ahead of Nebraska with a very easy schedule in their remaining 4.  However Wisconsin would have to play Michigan and a 3 Loss team won't hold water.
7. Louisville-What a cute story it is.  But I just watched Louisville scrape by against Virginia.  Unfortunately, it will take a loss they shouldn't have ahead.  This team is CUs biggest obstacle to move past. The hope is Houston plays to their level and shocks the Cardinals.
6. Ohio State-Sorry but a 2 loss team won't make it in if they aren't in their title game.  I even believe 10-2 tOSU is probably better than 11-2 CU but committee will have tough time turning away a team w/ CUs resume.  Penn State loss hurts big.
5. Washington-A 1 Loss Washington that loses to CU in the last week won't be chose over the Buffs.  Simple.  It would  be a complete joke and a reason the BCS computers were gone away with.
4. Texas A & M-The other big obstacle for the Buffs.  A & M likely needs to lose one of remaining games.  This despite a very average win over a crappy UCLA and average Tennessee team.

So how it breaks out is this:

CU needs for the 1-Loss teams to beat each other up and end up with 2 losses in WVU and Baylor.  It is likely that Florida, Nebraska and Ohio State will get that 2nd loss.  The other 2 loss teams with CU in Wisconsin, Auburn and LSU will likely add another loss to get to 3.  CU would have to hope for the committee to take all things into account to leapfrog Oklahoma and Penn State (or a Loss).

So the Buffs have 10 teams they likely finish ahead of based off likely losses and schedule taken into account, which leaves only Texas A & M and Louisville in their way.  We will see, but the best case  scenario I see for the Colorado Buffaloes is to end up 6th when the final rankings are out.

The Buffs need a lot of fairy tale things to happen, but for a team that was picked to finish no better than 6-6 by the most optimist of experts and no better than 8-4 by yours truly, there is at least a sliver of hope.  The best news for CU fans is this, they are bowl eligible and a win tomorrow against UCLA would guarantee their first winning season in a decade.  Anything more is just extra gravy on the plate.  Butchering a quote from the wise Ryan Koenigsberg, "Enjoy it Buffs fans.  We may never see another season like this!"

Note:  When Koenigsberg says this he is not alluding to the fact CU won't have a better year than this, but a season where such little is expected of them and every win and every week is just building on excitement, it will be impossible to match unless we have another 10 years of... STOP, JUST STOP.  Soak it in and enjoy it.  Sorry, salty haters, The Rise continues beyond 2016.