Colorado’s pull under Deion Sanders is still strong enough to land the Buffaloes in the national spotlight right away in 2025.
ESPN is sending “SportsCenter on Campus” to Atlanta for the Week 1 matchup between Colorado and Georgia Tech, with the show set for 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, Sept. 3, ahead of the 8 p.m. kickoff. Matt Barrie will host from the top level of Peters Parking Deck on the north end of Georgia Tech’s Bobby Dodd Stadium, and he’ll also call the game for ESPN.
The move underscores how much attention Colorado continues to draw, even after the early surge of buzz that followed Sanders’ arrival ahead of the 2023 season. The Buffaloes became one of the sport’s most talked-about teams, hit a peak with a 9-4 2024 season and Travis Hunter’s Heisman-winning campaign, and then saw some of that frenzy cool off. Still, the Buffs remain a national draw.
That’s no surprise to anyone who has watched Colorado since Sanders took over. Most of the team’s games have been on national television, and ESPN has already made multiple trips to follow the program closely. The network brought “College GameDay” to Boulder for Colorado’s 2023 game against Colorado State, and another return to Boulder would seem to be on the table if the Buffs put together another winning season.
If ESPN does circle back, the clearest opening may be Oct. 3 against Texas Tech, especially if Colorado starts fast. The Oct. 17 game against Utah and the Nov. 13 matchup with Houston are also possibilities, though neither carries the same appeal as the Red Raiders game.
In Other News...
Buffs Mourn A Trailblazer Who Changed Colorado Athletics Forever
Jane Wahls influence on Colorado athletics still reaches across the university long after her time in Boulder. The first womens athletic director at CU after Title IX, Wahl helped guide the program through a pivotal era from 1975 to 1979, when womens varsity sports were being folded into the larger athletic department and the push for gender equity was still taking shape.
Wahl died Aug. 26 in Gothenburg, Nebraska, at 81, and her legacy at Colorado has already been firmly secured. She was inducted into the CU Athletic Hall of Fame in 2019 and earned multiple honors for the trailblazing role she played in expanding opportunities for womens sports, a footprint Buffs fans can still trace in the department today. [Read more 🡒]
Charles Huff Just Drew A National Comparison Memphis Fans Will Notice
Memphis opened the Charles Huff era with a win, and the early buzz around the Tigers has already pushed their new coach into a national conversation that reaches well beyond the American Athletic Conference. Sports commentator Jason Whitlock used the moment to contrast Huffs hands-on approach with Deion Sanders much more public-facing style, drawing a comparison that Colorado fans know well because Sanders has helped keep the Buffaloes in the spotlight since taking over the program.
The broader backdrop only sharpens the point. Colorado has not been getting the same level of ESPN attention this season that it drew in past years, which has made every national mention of Sanders and the Buffaloes feel a little more noticeable. For a program still tied closely to its coachs image, any outside comparison like this tends to land with extra weight, especially when it is framed around work ethic, media presence and how a team chooses to build its identity. [Read more 🡒]
Colorado's 2026 Outlook Puts Deion's Offseason Overhaul Under Pressure
Colorados offseason makeover has left the program in a familiar spot heading into 2026, with a lot of turnover and not nearly as much certainty. The Buffaloes have reached just three bowl games in the past decade, one of them under Deion Sanders, and this latest reset brought new coordinators along with a heavy wave of transfers. It is the kind of roster and staff churn that can create optimism in one room and skepticism in another, especially for a team still trying to prove last seasons progress can be sustained.
Around the Buffaloes Wire staff, the forecasts reflect that uncertainty. Predictions for the regular season range from 6-6 to 8-4, and most of the expectation settles in the middle ground: a bowl trip feels realistic, but a push into the conference title picture does not. For Sanders, the real pressure of this overhaul may not be about whether Colorado can attract attention in the offseason, but whether all of those changes can finally translate into a steadier fall. [Read more 🡒]