Colorado’s 2026 roster is built to be older than most, and the Big 12 numbers back that up.
After a three-win 2025, the Buffaloes are heading into next season with a heavily revamped group, and that overhaul shows up in the age data. RotoWire’s 2026 college football roster breakdown puts Colorado at an average age of 20.63 years old, which ties the Buffs for 16th oldest in the country with Kansas and Virginia.
Within the Big 12, that places Colorado in a tie for third oldest in the league alongside Kansas. Only Oklahoma State and UCF sit ahead of them in the conference rankings. RotoWire’s full Big 12 average roster age list has Oklahoma State first, followed by UCF, then Colorado and Kansas, with Baylor, Texas Tech, Arizona, Iowa State, BYU, Kansas State, Utah, Arizona State, Houston, Cincinnati, TCU and West Virginia rounding out the rest.
A big reason Colorado lands near the top of that list is its portal-heavy roster build. The Buffs have leaned hard into incoming transfers, while bringing in fewer high school recruits than many other programs. That means fewer true freshmen and a roster that skews older by design.
Colorado’s 2026 high school class includes 21 commits. In the transfer portal, the Buffs have added 43 incoming players.
The age gap across the Big 12 is pretty tight overall. Oklahoma State sits at the top of the conference with an average roster age of 20.75 years old, a number shaped by a full roster reset in the portal after the program hired a new head coach this offseason. West Virginia is the youngest team in the league at 20.19 years old, leaving just a 0.56-year difference from top to bottom.
The age rankings don’t line up neatly with the betting board, either. DraftKings Sportsbook has Texas Tech as the favorite to win the Big 12 at -105, even though the Red Raiders have the sixth oldest roster in the conference at 20.50 years old. BYU has the second-best odds at +550 and ranks ninth in average age, while Utah is next at +650 and sits 11th.
For now, the numbers suggest that being older or younger in the Big 12 isn’t automatically a ticket to the top. The season will decide whether any team near the top or bottom of the age chart can turn that into a league title run.
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