Can Colorado make College Football Playoff? Deion Sanders' Buffaloes land in first rankings

Travis Hunter had quite a week last week even though he didn’t play a game.

He went fishing with his coach, Deion Sanders, at Sanders’ rural estate in Texas. He rode a four-wheeler there and chased deer. Then he got on a plane to Penn State, where he appeared on Saturday’s national college football pregame shows on ESPN and Fox.

But now comes a moment of truth for him and his teammates at Colorado. With four games remaining in the regular season, they are still in the hunt for three of the biggest prizes in college football as the Buffaloes (6-2) prepare to play Saturday at Texas Tech (6-3):

∎ A conference championship is still possible.

∎ So is a berth in the new 12-team College Football Playoff. The Buffs were ranked No. 20 in the first playoff rankings released Tuesday.

∎ Hunter, Colorado’s cornerback-receiver, also is a leading contender for the Heisman Trophy after promoting his candidacy on those shows.

“Only Travis has that type of energy that he can go all day like that and go city to city,” Sanders said at his weekly news conference in Boulder Tuesday.

Deion Sanders discusses Colorado's weekend off

The Buffaloes had last weekend off, allowing Hunter and Sanders to retreat from work. But it came with some risk. At around 1 a.m. local time one night, Sanders said he heard Hunter racing a loud four-wheeler around the property.

“I’m just hearing this thinking 'you better not fall off this darn four-wheeler. The whole country is gonna be at my throat if you fall off this four-wheeler,' " Sanders said.

Sanders said he then went to bed late and turned on his television in the morning.

“I wake up and see him on television,” Sanders said of Hunter's appearances on ESPN and Fox. “I just bust out laughing. Like you just left. Like when did you leave? Like I didn’t even know he was going to make the rounds that early.”

Hunter had flown to the site of the Ohio State-Penn State game as part of his Heisman campaign. He's a co-favorite to win it right now, along with Miami quarterback Cam Ward, according to BetMGM. Hunter's selling point is his tirelessness as an elite two-way player who has scored eight touchdowns on offense while allowing zero on defense.

“Nobody ever done what I’ve been doing,” Hunter said on Fox’s pregame show Saturday. “It’s pretty much that simple.”

Deion Sanders on what's next

It helped Colorado’s cause when both Kansas State and Iowa State lost games last week while the Buffs were off. As a result, Colorado now appears to have a simpler path to the Big 12 Conference championship game.

The Buffaloes and Iowa State are now tied for second place in the league with 4-1 records in conference play behind BYU (5-0). If BYU stays undefeated, the Buffaloes would play BYU for the league title if they win their four remaining regular-season games and Iowa State loses at least one more game. Colorado does not play Iowa State or BYU in the regular season and doesn’t want to leave it up to the league’s tiebreaker rules if they remain tied with the Cyclones.

“It’s right there in front of us, and we gotta go get it,” Sanders said.

Asked if his team is ready to seize this opportunity in the final month of the regular season, Sanders said “I would hope so” but also got a little speechless about it.

“Honestly man, I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know. I don’t know. We been through a lot and we’re prepared for the moment. We’re not shying away from what we expect. We expect to be in this. We expect to be where we are. We expect to be better than where we are honestly.”

Deion Sanders talks tortillas at Texas Tech

They’re a long way from where they were at Nebraska on Sept. 7, when they lost 28-10.

That "was just a wake-up call,” Colorado punter Mark Vassett said Tuesday. “We thought we were gonna be really good coming out this season, and it was just a wake-up call that we’ve got to work harder.”

The Buffs since have won three straight road games and now have another one on national television on Fox in Lubbock.

“On the road, we love it,” Sanders said. “We gonna get booed. I heard they throw, is it tacos?”

Close. Fans there have been known to throw tortillas during games.

“Is that legal, to throw tortillas?” Sanders asked.

Not exactly, but it happens.

“We gonna try to make ‘em empty those things,” Sanders said.

Where does Colorado rank in College Football Playoff rankings?

A berth in the new 12-team College Football Playoff also is still possible. The five highest-ranked conference champions receive automatic bids. The remaining seven spots will go to the highest-ranked teams as decided by the selection committee.

The first playoff rankings came out Tuesday, with Colorado ranked No. 20, behind No. 19 Kansas State (7-2), a team that beat Colorado last month, 31-28.

After playing at Texas Tech Saturday, the Buffs finish the season against teams at the bottom of the Big 12 standings: Utah (1-4) at home Nov. 16, at Kansas (1-4) Nov. 23 and Oklahoma State (0-6) at home Nov. 29.

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

(This story was updated to add new information.)