College Football Playoff picture after Week 9: Is Deion Sanders' Colorado a serious Big 12 championship contender?

Colorado secured a crucial Week 9 win on Saturday when they hosted Cincinnati at Folsom Field. The Buffaloes defeated the Bearcats 34-23 to seal their sixth win of the season, securing a bowl qualification for the first time under Deion Sanders.

The team currently boasts a 6-2 record overall and 4-1 in conference play, holding the fourth position in the Big 12 standings.

This has seen Colorado enter the College Football Playoff conversation. The playoffs will be expanding to 12 teams this season, giving participation to more teams.

Here's a look at the Buffaloes’ chances.

Colorado’s College Football Playoff chances

There's still a lot of work to do for Deion Sanders and his Colorado team to reach the College Football Playoff this season. However, their performance so far shows they can get it done.

The best shot for the Buffaloes to reach the playoffs is by winning the Big 12 Championship. This will offer an automatic qualification to the team and will probably hand them a bye in the first round of the new format of the postseason tournament.

Sitting behind BYU, Iowa State and Kansas State in the Big 12 log, reaching the conference championship game looks a little difficult at the moment. However, there's a chance of a drop at the top of the table if the Buffaloes win out the rest of their regular season schedule.

With two losses so far and a strength of schedule that isn't over the top, Colorado getting to the playoffs as one of the at-large teams might be a little difficult. Deion Sanders gave his views on the Buffaloes’ playoff chances in his postgame press conference on Saturday.

"Well, we ain't thinking about the playoffs right now,” Sanders said when asked about Colorado's playoff chances. “We go one game at a time. We don't even want to be ranked.”

“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 are good, we are cool. We are straight. All right, so don't feel pressure to rank us. We’re good, I promise you everybody, we are straight. So we're not thinking about that.”

Reaching a bowl marks a bold step for the Buffaloes. However, reaching the College Football Playoff will be massive. The team is scheduled to play Texas Tech, Utah, Kansas and Oklahoma State before the rest of the regular season.