CU football: Here’s the schedule for Deion Sanders’ Buffs in return to Big 12

The CU Buffs will host Baylor in their Big 12 opener on Sept. 21 in their first season back in the conference in 2024.

They open the season at home against longtime FCS powerhouse North Dakota State on Aug. 31.

Home dates are also scheduled with Kansas State, Cincinnati, Utah and Oklahoma State. Colorado hits the road for contests with Nebraska, Colorado State, Central Florida, Arizona, Texas Tech and Kansas.

Four of those teams finished the season in the AP Top 25 in 2023: Arizona (No. 11), Oklahoma State (No. 16), Kansas State (No. 18) and Kansas (No. 23).

The Rocky Mountain Showdown with CSU on Sept. 14 will be the last matchup between the two rivals for four years, as part of an unconventional six-game agreementmade in 2021.

Colorado will look to build on a 4-8 campaign in Deion Sanders’s first season as the Buffs’ head coach, and they’ll do it with the No. 22 overall recruiting class – anchored by the No. 5 transfer class that includes seven 4-star recruits – according to 247Sports as Coach Prime’s recruiting blitz continues in Boulder.

The schedule dropped Tuesday morning, as the Big 12 unveiled its first 16-team conference slate. The new-look conference includes four transplants from the disintegrated Pac-12 Conference, including Colorado. Utah, Arizona and Arizona State also bolted for the Big 12.