Colorado is not the unluckiest team in the pandemic season of college football. That would be Houston, who has had seemingly 15 games canceled, or UAB, who hasn't played since Halloween, or any number of other teams that could vie for that unwanted crown.
But, if things play out in just the right (or wrong, depending on your perspective) way, Colorado may be the most screwed team of 2020.
Here's why.
It's entirely possible the Buffaloes could win every game yet not even win their division.
CU is 3-0 heading into the final weekend of the regular season. USC is 4-0. The teams were scheduled to play Nov. 28, but the game was canceled due to COVID-19 issues on USC's side.
That could be fatal because Colorado also had its Nov. 21 game versus Arizona State thanks to a multi-week outbreak in Tempe.
Because of that, should both teams win this weekend, USC would win the division at 5-0 while Colorado would finish second at 4-0 (the Buffs would be 5-0 overall, having played and beaten San Diego State in place of USC).
USC is scheduled to play UCLA this weekend and Colorado is slated to host Utah on Friday night.
There was a push to rearrange the schedule to get USC and Colorado on the same field this weekend, but that will not happen.
So, assuming both teams win, Colorado would miss the Pac-12 Championship due to two outbreaks that happened away from their locker room.
Twisting the knife even further, the North Division champion will have at least one loss on the season. Changing the rule at this stage of the game would require approval of Pac-12 ADs, which is unlikely to happen since USC, UCLA, Washington, Oregon and Stanford all have incentive to keep the rules as they are.
Regardless, it's been an impressive debut by Karl Dorrell and company, a staff who was not hired until February and waited months to get in the same room together. It just might not be as impressive debut as it could have been, due to no fault of their own.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.