Colorado is back in the Associated Press Top 25 poll.
The Buffs (6-2, 4-1 Big 12) secured their latest win Saturday night with a 34-23 victory over Cincinnati led by another balanced performance from Deion Sanders' team. It marks the first time this season CU has entered the top 25 despite being within striking distance of first place in the Big 12 through Week 9.
Colorado did not receive votes in the last two weeks but the win over the Bearcats propelled the Buffs into the No. 23 spot with Sunday's new release. The last time CU received votes was Oct. 6.
This is not the first time Sanders has had the team ranked with CU reaching as high as No. 19 last year after the Buffs began the season 3-0.
Through just eight games, Sanders already has Colorado bowl eligible for the first time since 2020 thanks to Saturday's victory.
Now, CU has its sights set on sealing the program's first conference title since 2001.
Colorado has flown under the radar for voters throughout the season, and it pushed Sanders to voice his wishes to not have that change following Saturday's win.
"We go one game at a time," the CU head coach said. "We don't even want to be ranked. Don't rank us, please! We don't like that. We’d rather be in the back, in the dark, just chilling in the cut. We good, we cool. We straight. All right, so don't feel pressure to rank us. We’re good, I promise you everybody, we are straight. So we're not thinking about that. We're thinking about going into this bye week."
The Buffs now head into their second bye week with some momentum following convincing victories against the Bearcats and Arizona after a 3-point loss to Kansas State, which remains their only conference loss, back on Oct. 12.