Coach Prime calling Colorado football box office in 2023 deemed valid by one analyst
Coach Prime calling his Colorado football program "box office" in the aftermath of FSU being snubbed from the College Football Playoff was a valid assessment of the state of the Buffs, according to YardBarker's Colum Dell.
"While it's impossible to prove or refute Sanders' claim, he makes a valid point that the Buffaloes were 'box office' in 2023, which could have swayed the selection process had they actually been in such a position," Dell wrote.
"Colorado's 36-14 win over Nebraska in Week 2 drew 8.73 million viewers, making it the 10th-most watched and second-most streamed regular-season college football game ever on Fox. Additionally, 9.3 million viewers tuned in to the following week's 43-35 double-overtime victory against Colorado State, which was the most watched late-night college football game ESPN had ever aired."
Coach Prime told Stephen A. Smith during a December 22 interview that if he was in that same situation, there'd be no way Colorado was snubbed in the same fashion.
"Coach [Mike] Norvell coached his butt off, and we can't take nothing away from him," Deion Sanders told Smith before saying, "But the real question that you have is, would you leave me out of the college playoffs? Ain't no way in the world. We're box office. You got to see this unless you're crazy. I wish I had the problems that coach Norvell has."
Colorado football analyst doesn't believe Coach Prime's point was about FSU alone
BuffsBeat's Josh Tolle doesn't believe Coach Prime was specifically making the point about FSU; rather, he feels the four-team playoff arrangement equally robbed Georgia and Ohio State as well.
"What happened this year was the scenario the College Football Playoff committee has been dreading for years," Tolle prefaced before saying, "However, it's the setup with five top conference and four spots available to fill. In previous seasons, November upsets have occurred and playoff selection chaos was often avoided. This year, not so much.
"That was the point Coach Prime was making, but with a 12-team playoff won't be a issue in the future. This was not a shot at Florida State. The Seminoles were robbed, but you can make the case the Georgia Bulldogs and Ohio State Buckeyes were as well. It wasn't to the same degree as an undefeated team being left on the outside. It would be crazy to suggest that any of those teams couldn’t win out in a four team playoff."
Discussing if Colorado football would've gotten the same snub FSU did is irrelevant in many ways, but had the Buffs been the Pac-12's champion, their road would've been far more difficult than the Seminoles' anyway.