Colorado football bowl history: Every bowl game the Buffaloes have played in
By Josh Yourish
In the 1990s Bill McCartney elevated the Colorado football program higher than the Rocky Mountains. After the 1990 National championship, the Buffaloes were on top of the college football world and it’s been a downward slide ever since.
Colorado has had just six winning seasons this century and only seven bowl-game appearances. In total, Colorado has 30 bowl game appearances with a record of 12-18 in those games.
The school’s longest streak of consecutive seasons ending with a bowl was nine straight from 1988-1996 under McCartney and then Rick Neuheisel, starting in 1995.
Coach Prime is trying to take the Buffaloes back to a bowl in 2023, and climb back to the mountaintop as the program returns to the Big 12 next season. The future looks bright with Deion Sanders, but let’s take a look back at the past success of the Colorado Buffaloes.
The Colorado football bowl game history
Cotton Bowl (1-1)
1937: Rice 28 Colorado 14
Bunny Oakes led the Buffaloes to an undefeated regular season in 1936 which culminated with the program’s first bowl game in its history. Colorado finished the season ranked 17th in the country, the first time finishing ranked in school history. It would take until 1954 to be ranked again, until 1956 to finish the year ranked, and until New Year’s Day 1957 to appear in another bowl game.
1996: Colorado 38 Oregon 6
In Rick Neuheisel’s first season at the helm, he kept Bill McCartney’s program rolling right along in Boulder. The Buffs went 10-2 and finished with a dominant win over Oregon in the Cotton Bowl.
Colorado finished ranked fifth in the country and has not finished in the top 5 since.