Selling postseason hope in Boulder gets a lot harder when you’re fresh off a miserable three-win campaign. Yet, true to form, Deion Sanders refused to blink at Big 12 Media Days. When pressed on Colorado’s 2026 trajectory, Sanders kept his mandate incredibly simple: “We better win.”
It is a bold proclamation, but ESPN’s Heather Dinich isn’t buying the offseason hype, completely shutting down the Buffaloes’ postseason chances while projecting a brutal reality for Colorado this winter.
“Absolutely not,” Dinich said, predicting a tough season for Colorado and Sanders. For Dinich, the Buffaloes even making a Big 12 push sounds like a pipe dream.
“Not only not a Playoff push, but not a Big 12 push. It’s BYU. Houston could be sneaky good. Arizona could be sneaky good. I mean, there’s a lot of teams in the top half that can really challenge Texas Tech for the Big 12 title.”
Colorado isn’t one of those programs for the ESPN analyst.
“Colorado’s not one of them,” she said. “I expect them to be one of the lowest teams in the Big 12.”
Deion Sanders’s Colorado Has Several Challenges
GettyColorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders gets damning prediction from ESPN analyst for 2026 season.
Lowest in the Big 12 is another hot take coming from the opposite end of the debate, and that will perhaps be the biggest challenge for Coach Prime to tackle this season. Besides navigating a Big 12 schedule and their regular season games after a below-average 3-win season, Sanders also faces the near-impossible task of moving the chains with a roster breaking in another massive influx of transfer portal additions.
Relying on an entirely rebuilt roster while returning just 55% of your production is a dangerous game, and it’s the exact reason analysts like Dinich are not buying into Coach Prime’s promises.
Another glaring issue for Colorado this fall would be fighting off the more veteran and reliable Big 12 quarterback rooms like BYU and Texas Tech. After Sheduer Sanders, the Buffaloes’ QB position has been a big question mark. Handing the keys entirely to redshirt freshman Julain Lewis is raising the alarms for all analysts.
Even though he has raw talent, Lewis is currently ranked at the lower end of all Power Four starting quarterbacks due to his total lack of game reps.
Making it even more complex is new offensive coordinator Brennan Marion’s highly unique, fast-paced ‘Go-Go’ offense that Lewis will have to learn on the fly.
“They have a continued question at quarterback,” Dinich added. “They only return 55% of their production from last year.”
Deion Sanders Isn’t Paying Heed to Noise
GettyColorado Buffaloes head coach Deion Sanders gets damning prediction from ESPN analyst for 2026 season.
Deion Sanders isn’t sweating the critics.
He loves what he built this spring. Looking back at last year, a major reason Colorado collapsed was Coach Prime’s brutal health issues, which kept him from truly fixing the team.
Now that he’s back on his feet, Sanders is completely sold on his new-look roster and expects a massive turnaround.
“It’s already turned,” he said Tuesday. “You just ain’t seen the fruit. It’s already there.”
“I feel as though we have the personnel as well as the staff to make those adjustments that we could have been victorious,” he said. “So, we have that now. I’m happy about it.”
Colorado’s Deion Sanders Predicted to Instantly Regret Bold Playoff Claims