Travis Hunter, Shedeur Sanders will play in Colorado’s bowl game as projected first-round NFL Draft picks

Colorado stars Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter will play in the Buffaloes’ postseason bowl game despite declaring for the NFL Draft, coach Deion Sanders said Tuesday. The decisions eschews a trend of highly ranked players opting out to prepare for the draft. 

The Buffaloes clinched their first trip to the postseason since 2020 but face a steep climb to reach the Big 12 Championship Game as they enter Week 14 tied with three other teams at 6-2 in Big 12 play. There are still more than 250 scenarios on the table that leave up to nine teams with the potential of reaching the title game. Sanders, however, assured reporters that Colorado’s matchup against Oklahoma State on Black Friday will not be the final time they don Buffs uniforms. 

“It’s not the last time you’re going to see them in a Buffs uniform,” Sanders told reporters. “These two and all the rest of the seniors have done a wonderful job of getting us to where we are, instilling so much expectation in our fanbase and expectation in ourselves, so we’re going to fight and try to end this thing on the right note, and we’re going to go to a bowl game and end this thing on the right note.” 

Hunter is ranked as the No. 1 player in the CBS Sports Prospect Rankings as an athlete, while Shedeur Sanders ranks as No. 9 and the No. 2 quarterback. CBS Sports NFL Draft analyst Chris Trapasso projects Hunter as the No. 1 pick to the Jaguars and Sanders as the No. 5 pick to the Raiders in his 2025 NFL Mock Draft. 

Colorado has undergone one of the biggest transformations in the sport over the past two years, growing from one win to an 8-3 record going into the final week of the season. The Buffaloes reached eight wins for only the second time since 2004 under Sanders and will play in their first bowl game since 2020. 

CBS Sports Bowl Expert Jerry Palm projects Colorado to play conference rival BYU in the Alamo Bowl. In a unique twist, former Pac-12 schools like Colorado will use contracted Pac-12 bowl slots for the next two years until the contracts run out. That opens the door for an intra-conference postseason matchup. Colorado and BYU have not played since 1988 but could meet in the Big 12 Championship Game depending on tiebreakers after Week 14.