Colorado’s path through the 2026 season looks especially brutal in October.
That month stands out immediately on the Buffaloes’ schedule, with four games packed into a five-week stretch and a bye week dropped in the middle. The run begins Oct. 3 at home against Texas Tech, then Colorado gets a break before facing Utah on Oct. 17, traveling to Oklahoma State on Oct. 24, and closing the month at home against Kansas State on Oct. 31.
It’s a demanding slate for a team trying to bounce back from a 3-9 season in 2025. Texas Tech enters as the defending Big 12 champion, while Utah finished third in the conference and narrowly missed the Big 12 title game.
Kansas State finished tied for seventh, but is expected to rebound. Oklahoma State was winless in conference play last season, though it arrives in 2026 with a new coaching staff and roster.
Three of the four opponents Colorado sees in October are among the leading candidates to win the Big 12. DraftKings Sportsbook has Texas Tech as the clear favorite at +100 to win the conference title game.
BYU is next at +550, though Colorado does not play the Cougars in the regular season. Utah sits third at +650, followed by Kansas State at +1400.
Oklahoma State is ninth at +3000, while Colorado has the worst odds in the league at +12000.
That means the Buffs are likely to be underdogs in every game during the month. If they want to get back to a winning record, they’ll need to pull off a few surprises.
DraftKings has Colorado’s season win total at 4.5, with the under priced at -160 and the over at +134.
There is one small advantage in the October gauntlet: three of the four games are at home. The only road trip is to Oklahoma State, and Colorado was 0-5 away from home last season.
The bigger picture under Deion Sanders is a mixed one. Since taking over in 2023, Colorado is 16-21 overall.
Before Sanders arrived, the Buffaloes went 1-11 in the year prior. His first season produced a 4-8 record, then 2024 brought a major jump to nine wins and an Alamo Bowl berth.
But 2025 sent the program backward again, and the offseason brought another round of changes. Colorado added 43 transfer players and turned to new coordinators in Chris Marve on defense and Brennan Marion on offense.
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Colorados rushing game has been a work in progress, and Brennan Marion has made it clear he intends to change that. The Buffaloes offensive coordinator has been pushing to lift a ground attack that finished near the bottom of the Big 12, and his background suggests he has a plan worth watching. Marion has already shown at previous stops that he can help turn around a run game, which is part of why his arrival carried real expectations for a unit that needs more consistency.
A viral scrimmage clip offered a glimpse of how direct Marion is being with his backs, and it also seemed to resonate with Deion Sanders. Richard Young is among the players Colorado hopes can fit into Marions Go-Go offense, which is expected to lean more heavily on two-running-back looks and a deeper rotation of ball carriers. For a team trying to build a tougher identity on offense, the message from the sideline was hard to miss. [Read more 🡒]
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The bigger question now is whether that mix can translate into actual stability, especially on a defense that was overrun against the run a year ago. Marve inherits a unit that needs a major turnaround, and Colorados front will be watched closely as newcomers settle in and the Buffs try to figure out what kind of identity they want to carry into the season. [Read more 🡒]