Colorado's rise and regression in Pac-12 football is not quite comparable to the sudden climb of Utah's baseball program in 2016, considering the Buffaloes won only a Pac-12 South championship that year, not the league title.
Yet a similar phenomenon is in play, with the question becoming whether Colorado ever can return to those one-year heights, or permanently has returned to the bottom of the division. The Buffs finished last in 2017, losing 34-13 to Utah in the regular-season finale with bowl eligibility at stake for each team.
“Yeah, it's a lot more fun to be in first place than down where we were,” coach Mike MacIntyre said last month during the Pac-12 Media Day.