Why has Colorado Football had so little success in the Pac-12?

The act of switching athletic conferences isn’t something that happens overnight, but the Colorado Football team should definitely be winning by now.

The Colorado football program has historically been one held in a rather high regard; while never being seen as some sort of powerhouse, it has always been a respectable name on the CFB landscape. That is until it joined the Pac-12.

The Buffs have easily been one of the worst teams in the Pac-12 over the course of its decade as a member of the league, seeing only two winning seasons (one of which was the 2020-21 COVID season, where they saw a harshly-stunted record of 4-2) and four—technically five—head coaches.

This is despite the Pac-12 being widely accepted as the worst Power 5 conference today, and Colorado football playing in what has been the weaker half of it in recent memory. So what gives?

It can’t be the appeal of their brand, as outside of USC, UCLA, Oregon, and maybe Washington, the Buffaloes shouldn’t look any less attractive than most other Pac-12 powers. They are also known for producing a decent amount of NFL talent, having 10 players drafted since 2017.

However, 2022 marks the first time that Colorado football has placed anywhere higher than 8th in the Pac-12 recruiting rankings (5th). This goes without even mentioning that they once sat dead-last in said rankings for four years straight (2013-2016).

And when branching away from the past and looking ahead to the future, Colorado’s uphill battle for relevance does not appear to be getting any easier.

What exactly does Colorado’s future entail?

Between 2022 and 2027, the Buffaloes have several out-of-conference matchups scheduled with superior opponents. Such matchups include but are not limited to away games at Minnesota and Air Force, along with home-and-home series against Nebraska and Houston.

Combining these death sentences with league play that features names like Utah, USC, UCLA, and Oregon makes the future of CU football look quite bleak.

The icing on top of this rather pathetic cake, though, is the fact that the Buffs may have missed whatever chances they had at making a true impact on the gridiron for the time being—their biggest opportunity to do so being their Pac-12 title run back in 2016.

That year, Colorado football took advantage of what was a relatively average slate, finishing the regular season with both a 10-2 record and divisional title. But alas, its pair of postseason games were both total beatdowns, as the Buffaloes lost to Washington and Oklahoma State by an average of just over 30 points each.

The horrendous ending to that season (and the mediocre showings in the years that followed it), left the CU team everyone saw looking like nothing more than a 1-year wonder.

Since then, the South half of the Pac-12 has seen a major boost in overall performance. Utah has finally gotten over the hump and now looks like a consistent contender for the conference title, Arizona State is yet to have suffered from a single negative record, UCLA is coming off of an 8-win season, and USC has a bright future due to its acquisition of new head coach Lincoln Riley.

In other words, if the Buffs weren’t able to compete for a Pac-12 Championship back then, they certainly won’t be able to now.

The goal here isn’t to needlessly dump on the Colorado Buffaloes football team, but there is truly no good reason for the poor image that it has cemented for itself as of late. And when considering the opposite directions that CU and its foes are currently heading, there is no way of knowing when they will be a promising program again.