In reaching the coveted six-win mark on Saturday night, the Colorado football team not only achieved bowl eligibility, but made sure that just about everything else is on the table, too.

Heading into November, a spot in the Big 12 title game, and therefore a chance to get into the College Football Playoff, is very much a possibility.

“We don’t think about the playoffs right now,” head coach Deion Sanders said after his Buffaloes knocked off Cincinnati 34-23 at Folsom Field. “We go one game at a time. We don’t even want to be ranked.”

Coach Prime took that a step further, jokingly saying to top 25 voters, “Don’t rank us, please. We don’t like that. We’d rather be in the back, in the dark just chilling in the cut. We’re good, we’re cool.”

Whether he likes it or not, voters didn’t listen — perhaps because many were already asleep by the time Coach Prime’s press conference began after midnight (and after 2 a.m. in the Eastern time zone). On Sunday, CU jumped into the Associated Press Top 25 at No. 23.

In the Coaches’ poll, Buffs were just outside the top 25, with 75 points — one point behind No. 25 Memphis.

This is the first time CU has been ranked by the AP since vaulting to No. 19 after a 3-0 start a year ago. This ranking feels more deserved and sustainable, however. The 2023 Buffs fizzled out after that 3-0 start, while this year’s team is getting better. This is just the third time since 2002 that a CU team will go into November among the AP Top 25 (also in 2005 and 2016).

“Each win definitely gives us a confidence boost going into the bye week,” said quarterback Shedeur Sanders, who threw for 323 yards and accounted for three touchdowns on Saturday, lifting the Buffs to 5-1 in their past six games.

CU returns to action Nov. 9 at Texas Tech (5-3, 3-2) and this isn’t a team that figures to lay off the gas pedal because the first goal was obtained. Since the end of the 2023 season, the only goal Coach Prime has publicly stated is bowl eligibility, because he wanted that for 99-year-old super fan Peggy Coppom.

On Saturday night, however, Coach Prime said, “That ain’t the goal. I mean, I wanted to do that for Peggy, so that was kind of me, that wasn’t about us. That was kind of what I wanted for Peggy, because she deserves it. We had to have a rallying cry for some rhyme or reason, but we want so much more. We want so much more. That’s the way we practice. That’s why we go at it the way we go about it. So, we want so much more. That was just … that’s just the beginning of what we desire around here.”

When the Buffs return from their bye week, they’ll try to make a push for a spot in the Big 12 title game, but that won’t be easy.

No. 9 BYU (8-0, 5-0) and No. 11 Iowa State (7-0, 4-0) have the inside track to get the two spots for the title game, held Dec. 7 in Arlington, Texas. Those two teams don’t play each other and CU doesn’t get a shot at either one.

Third place Kansas State (7-1, 4-1) is tied with CU in the standings, but the No. 17 Wildcats have the tie-breaker because of their win in Boulder on Oct. 12.

CU has to keep winning and hope it gets some help along the way.

CU didn’t get to this point by worrying about bowls, rankings or title games, though, and the approach going forward will be the same.

“We’ve got to practice a lot, and I talked to dad about that,” Shedeur said. “We have to practice a lot of over the bye week. It really helps everybody mentally, I would say. You put in a lot of hard work, day in and day out, and you gotta get the results that you put in. So we all study, we all spend time after time talking through all these different scenarios.

“Next week, go study who we’re going to play. Look at the past eight games and just see what we could have done better, and see any patterns that we have, switch up everything and just be ready for the next game.”