New college football power rankings project Colorado to finish near bottom of the Big 12

The college football season is just over two months away for Coach Prime and the Colorado Buffaloes, and the preparation for the season-opener against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets on Aug. 29 continues to ramp up every day as the program gears up for year three of the Prime era.

This season is going to look a lot different for the Buffs, as many of the guys who have been around the program for the past two years and have revived the football landscape at the university have ran their course and headed to the pros. Travis Hunter is down in Jacksonville, Shedeur Sanders is up in Cleveland, and a handful of other players who lit up Folsom Field on a weekly basis are scattered around the NFL, leaving behind big shoes to fill.

Coach Prime has made a handful of moves to restock the roster, including landing a former five-star receiver, two very talented quarterbacks, an Alabama lineman and more, but the metrics aren’t convinced that he’s done enough work in the transfer portal and the high school recruitment front to have the Buffs ready to compete like they did in 2024.

In a new set of rankings from Kelley Ford Ratings, Colorado is projected to finish in 11th place in the Big 12 this upcoming season, with just 3.8 projected conference wins out of nine games.

Projected Big 12 Standings v1 pic.twitter.com/vfzfYwSJmK

— Kelley Ford (@KFordRatings) June 17, 2025

This speaks to both the fact that the Big 12 arguably has the most parity out of any conference in college football, but also to the fact that Colorado has a lot of work to do to retool the roster, something that they haven’t exactly capitalized on. This is the same league that had four teams tie for the top spot in 2024 with three teams just a game back with upsets left and right down the home stretch of the season.

The model also only gave Colorado at least a 50% chance to win just three of their conference games, a very surprising number.

The latest power rankings from @KFordRatings have @CUBuffsFootball projected to finish right around 6-6, win less than four conference games and finish 11th in the Big 12 #CUBuffs pic.twitter.com/UcxSSD44Kp

— Trent Finnegan (@trent_finnegan2) June 17, 2025

The Buffs certainly have their work cut out for them with all of their road games except the Houston matchup. TCU, Utah and Kansas state are all projected to be better than the Buffs, and are hosts to a very difficult road environment, while anything can happen during a long trip East to Morgantown to play West Virginia, despite them being projected as the worst team in the Big 12.

While Colorado seems likely to start the season 4-0, the going gets tough right away with a rematch against BYU. That program has only gotten stronger while the Buffs have taken a step back, and don’t forget what happened at the Alamo Bowl back in December. In reality, the only win that *should* be guaranteed after that four-game stretch to open the season is the Arizona game at home in Week 10. That gets the Buffs to five wins, and one more win at home would make them bowl eligible for a second straight year.

The schedule also isn’t favorable for Colorado, as the black and gold play their toughest competition at home but their easier matchups on the road. Is the trade off of making the hard games easier but the easy games harder one that’s worth it for a team looking to reload after a big season a year ago? The power rankings don’t think so, but the only way to find out is when the pads are on and the lights at Folsom Field are shining bright.

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