Deion Sanders and the Colorado football team is going bowling. For the first time since 2020, the Buffaloes are eligible for a bowl game at the end of the season, which means 99-year-old superfan Peggy Coppom is also going to a bowl game.

“Miss Peggy” has been going to Colorado games for the better part of 80 years, and although she couldn't make it to Saturday's 34-23 home win against Cincinnati, Sanders said athletic director Rick George called Coppom after the game to tell her the good news.

“Now we want to make sure she goes to the best possible bowl that she could possibly go to,” Sanders said of Coppom, via ESPN. “That means a lot to us, that really does. She was so appreciative and thankful. She means so much to this program, so we're glad we could honor her in that.

“Now we've just gotta get a private plane to make sure she's comfortable on the way there. Yeah, we ain't putting Peggy on a regular plane, I promise you that.”

Colorado football clinches bowl game, inches closer to potential Big 12 title

Colorado Buffaloes wide receiver Travis Hunter (12) is congratulated for his touchdown by head coach Deion Sanders in the first quarter against the Stanford Cardinal at Folsom Field
Ron Chenoy-Imagn Images

At some point in the last two seasons, many people counted Colorado out. After the Buffs started 3-0 last season, they received mass media attention and became one of the most talked-about teams in the entire country. A blowout loss to Oregon came in the fourth game of the season, though, and was quickly followed by 7 more losses in the final eight games.

After the 4-8 campaign, Sanders and the unusually flamboyant Colorado football program heard the criticism. And the critics grew even louder earlier this season after a decisive, 28-10 road loss to former Big 12 rival Nebraska in early September.

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However, unlike last season, the Buffaloes were able to rebound. Colorado beat in-state rival Colorado State before defeating Baylor in miraculous fashion and then UCF in convincing fashion.

Colorado suffered another loss two weeks ago, though, when they fell to No. 18 Kansas State at home in a game quarterback Shedeur Sanders was largely without several of his top wide receivers due to injury, including superstar Travis Hunter. But again, CU managed to rebound and has since beat Arizona on the road and Cincinnati back at home, each by at least two scores.

Now, two-thirds through the 2024 regular season, Colorado, despite not being ranked currently, has a great opportunity to win its first conference title since 2001. The team's remaining Big 12 opponents are a combined 5-15 in conference play, and Texas Tech, the only team on the schedule that has a winning record in the Big 12, has lost its last two games.

Some things will have to be decided at the top of the conference, though, to give the Buffaloes a chance to compete in the Big 12 Championship Game.

Colorado currently sits at 4-1 in the Big 12, which puts it in a tie for third place with Kansas State, which owns the head-to-head tiebreaker between the teams. In first place sits BYU, which is 5-0 and beat Kansas State earlier in the season. Iowa State is in second with a 4-0 record. The Cyclones, who are now out of bye weeks, have yet to play Cincinnati or Kansas State.

Although BYU and Iowa State do not play each other, Colorado will need at least one of the teams, as well as Kansas State, to fall once or twice more before the end of the regular season. The top two teams at the end of conference play will advance to the Big 12 title game on Dec. 7 at AT&T Stadium.

Colorado has the next week off before traveling to Lubbock for a critical matchup with the reeling Red Raiders.