Deion Sanders' Buffs open path to Big 12 title game with win

First observations on Colorado's 34-23 victory over the Cincinnati Bearcats in Big 12 play at Folsom Field.

1. Time to Calculate Big 12 Title Games: With the Nebraska loss in the rearview, CU likely has one path to the College Football Playoff: winning the Big 12 championship. And after a home win over Cincinnati late Saturday night, the path to Dallas in early December becomes a little clearer.

Despite a 4-1 record in the league, the Buffs will need a little help. OK, probably pretty helpful.

The only thing they have in their hands, of course, is to win – and of the four games Deion Sanders has on the schedule, the only really scary one, on paper, is a visit to Texas Tech at the end a bye week in November. 9. After that, CU will likely be the favorite in its final three games – Nov. 16 against struggling Utah (4-4); at Kansas (2-6) in Kansas City on Nov. 23; and home to Oklahoma State (3-5) on Black Friday.

However, it is full upstairs.

BYU (5-0 Big 12) needs a slip-up at least once — and its best two chances are road trips to Utah (Nov. 9) and Arizona State (Nov. 23).

Iowa State (4-0) also has two other, slightly less salty road games: Nov. 9 against KU in Kansas City and Nov. 23 against Utah in Salt Lake.

There's also a chance Kansas State (4-1 Big 12) beats the Cyclones in Ames in the annual Farmegeddon showdown. But the Wildcats are considered favorites in the three games prior to that in November – in Houston, against Arizona State and against Cincy.

2. Horn takes away his own TD: These days, there's a good chance you'll see something at Folsom Field that you've never seen before in a football game – and the Buffs provided two of those moments on the game's first drive. The first strange moment came on what appeared to be a rushing 57-yard touchdown catch-and-run by wideout Jimmy Horn Jr. The Buffs senior had so much room to run that he made a “peace” sign with two fingers next Cincinnati defender at about the 25-yard line on the way to the end zone. The referees weren't happy about this and flagged CU for unsportsmanlike conduct at the spot of the foul, causing the TD to be wiped off the field. Instead, the hosts were granted a first down at the Bearcat 25-yard line. It only delayed the inevitable, as five plays later the Buff scored a 3-yard touchdown toss to Travis Hunter … who then celebrated with an Ozzie Smith-style backflip in the end zone.