There was certainly a scenario Saturday night where Colorado would’ve needed to navigate the final 20 minutes of its upset loss to Kansas without star quarterback Shedeur Sanders.

Sanders, the son of Buffaloes coach Deion Sanders and a projected top pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, shoved referee Kevin Mar after taking a sack on third down with Colorado trailing by nine in the third quarter, and he was “lucky” that didn’t result in an ejection, Fox rules analyst Mike Pereira said on the broadcast.

“There’s no question that he does,” Pereira said when asked about Sanders shoving Mar. “Look, I get why he’s upset because people are almost climbing over him after he was down, but, you know, the officials can use their hands all they want to try to keep order. But you cannot come back as a player and push an official. 

“In the chaos, the officials don’t see it, but he’s lucky that he wasn’t ejected from the game.”

After the sack, Sanders approached Mar from behind — who was surrounded by a cluster of players — and shoved the longtime official with his right arm.

By that point, three other referees had moved closer to the scuffle and attempted to separate the players and Sanders while protecting Mar.

Sanders, who finished 23 of 29 for 266 yards and three touchdowns during No. 16 Colorado’s 37-21 loss, wasn’t penalized on the play, but his frustrations had started to boil over.

The game featured plenty of physical hits, with Colorado’s College Football Playoff hopes at stake and Kansas attempting to claw its way toward becoming bowl eligible.

At one point in the first half, defensive end Dean Miller lowered his head and flung himself toward Sanders’ knees while he attempted a pass.

“I mean, I just don’t know how that’s legal overall,” Sanders told reporters after the game when asked about Miller’s hit. “I ain’t understand that, but, you know, it is what it is. There was a couple plays like that.”

The Buffaloes trailed 17-0 at one point but managed to trim its deficit to two points early in the third quarter, when Travis Hunter — also projected as a top pick in the upcoming NFL draft — and Sanders connected on a touchdown pass.

But Devin Neal accounted for the final two touchdowns, providing the Jayhawks with some cushion and ensuring Colorado was on its way to ending the night in a four-way tie atop the Big 12 standings.

Deion said after the game that Colorado had become “intoxicated with the success.”

“We started smelling ourselves a little bit,” Deion said, according to ESPN. “… We got intoxicated with the multitude of articles and the assumption that we’re this and the assumption that we’re that. And we did not play CU football. Therefore, we got our butts kicked. It is what it is.”

Associated Press

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — Mikey Keene threw two touchdown passes, Bryson Donelson had a career-high 150 yards rushing and a TD on 13 carries Saturday night and Fresno State beat Colorado State 28-22.

Colorado State (7-4, 5-1 Mountain West) fell into a tie for second with No. 24 UNLV in the conference standings behind No. 12 Boise State — which will host the Mountain West championship game on Dec. 6.

Donelson, a freshman, went into the game with 199 yards rushing this season, including his previous season high of 58 yards in the season opener. Keene was 20-of-28 passing for 181 yards with no interceptions. Mac Dalena finished with seven receptions for 75 yards and a touchdown for Fresno State (6-5, 4-3 Mountain West Conference).

Justin Marshall capped a 12-play, 77-yard opening drive that took nearly 6 1/2 minutes off the clock with a 10-yard TD for the Rams and finished with 94 yards rushing.

Donelson ran for a 21 yards and Keene hit Raylen Sharpe for a 38-yard gain to set up a 16-yard TD run by Donelson to make it 7-7. Joshua Wood followed with a 4-yard scoring run before Dalena caught a 28-yard touchdown pass with 3:18 left in the second quarter and Keene hit Jalen Moss for a 15-yard TD less than 3 minutes later that gave the Bulldogs a 28-7 lead at halftime.

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi ran for a 9-yard TD late in the third quarter, threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Jamari Person and then hit Vince Brown II for the 2-point conversion to trim Colorado State’s deficit to 28-22 with 17 seconds left.

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We could be headed for a four-way tie atop the Big 12 entering the final week of the regular season.

No. 16 Colorado lost 37-21 at Kansas on Saturday while No. 14 BYU lost 28-23 at No. 21 Arizona State in an absolutely chaotic finish.

The Buffaloes’ defense was gashed by Kansas RB Devin Neal. The senior who grew up not far from the University of Kansas campus had 287 total yards and four touchdowns as Colorado’s defense gave up big play after big play.

BYU scored 20 points in the second half but its comeback attempt was foiled with 1:04 to go when Jake Retzlaff’s overthrown pass was intercepted by Javan Robinson. The defensive back returned the ball 64 yards before he was tackled inside the BYU 10-yard line to seal the game. Or so we thought.

Instead of trying to score the TD and get a two-score lead, Arizona State inexplicably tried to run the clock out. Sam Leavitt’s pass to try to end the game landed in the stands with one second to go. That gave BYU a Hail Mary attempt from its own 44 yard-line because Leavitt ran backward on second down to burn time.

The final play was delayed over 10 minutes because of a replay review and because the field needed to be cleared of the students who rushed it thinking the game was over.

And BYU almost pulled off the miracle win once the field was clear. Chase Roberts caught Retzlaff’s pass, but he was tackled short of the end zone.

Colorado and BYU entered Week 13 tied atop the Big 12 at 6-1 in the conference while Arizona State and Iowa State were at 5-2. If the Cyclones win against Utah on Saturday night, all four teams will be tied at 6-2.

Kansas makes history

The Jayhawks improved to 5-6 overall (3-5 Big 12) with the win and set an FBS first. Thanks to wins over Iowa State and BYU over the previous two weeks, Kansas is the first school to ever beat three consecutive ranked teams while having a losing record.

Neal had 37 carries for 207 yards as Kansas rushed the ball 57 times for 331 yards. Colorado can be vulnerable to opponents’ run games and the Buffs can’t run the ball themselves. Colorado rushed 13 times for 42 yards.

Kansas’ run game allowed it to control the ball against the Buffaloes. Kansas had the ball for over 40 minutes as Colorado ran just 42 plays to Kansas’ 58.

Travis Hunter didn’t do anything to ruin his great chances at the Heisman in the loss. Hunter had eight catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns while also playing on defense.

Who has the advantage to make the Big 12 title game?

Arizona State has the best chance of anyone to make the Big 12 title game. The Sun Devils are in with a win over Arizona in Week 14.

Colorado, meanwhile, needs help if there’s a four-way tie at 7-2 and Iowa State beats both Utah and Kansas State in its final two games.

If all four teams end up tied atop the conference, the first tiebreaker would be against their common opponents of UCF, Kansas, Kansas State and Utah. Colorado is cooked in that tiebreaker with losses to the Jayhawks and Wildcats. ASU is 4-0 against those teams and Iowa State and BYU would be 3-1.

After that tiebreaker, it would progress to the winning percentage of conference opponents. In that tiebreaker, Iowa State currently has the edge.