Deion Sanders, Colorado vs. Nebraska Scheduled for Primetime in Week 2 of CFB Season
Joseph Zucker@@JosephZuckerFeatured Columnist IVMay 13, 2024
Dustin Bradford/Getty Images
Colorado football will be getting primetime treatment for its second game of the 2024 season.
The Buffs announced Monday their Sept. 7 matchup with Nebraska will be broadcast at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
Colorado Buffaloes Football @CUBuffsFootballSeptember 7.
5:30pm MT on NBC.#GoBuffs 🦬 pic.twitter.com/CvByUzS2JC
The schools reignited their old rivalry, which was largely dormant after the Cornhuskers left for the Big Ten in 2011, last season. Colorado came away a 36-14 victor at home in Boulder.
That was the second game of the Coach Prime era and the win helped to send the hype around the program into overdrive. The Buffaloes went from being unranked to sitting 18th in the Associated Press Top 25 poll on the strength of a 2-0 start.
In addition to the results on the field going in the team’s favor, head coach Deion Sanders turned Colorado football into must-watch television.
The air steadily went out of the balloon, however, thanks to eight losses in the final nine games. Not surprisingly, that had an accompanying effect on the viewership for Buffs games.
The Nebraska game figures to be the first real indicator of 2024 for how much that early buzz will be replicated.
Colorado opens with North Dakota State on Aug. 29, which could be a tricky game given the Bison’s consistency at the FCS level. But the Buffs playing an opponent from a lower level on a Thursday night doesn’t project to be a major draw for casual fans.
Even without the surge of interest caused by Sanders’ arrival, Colorado vs. Nebraska is the kind of encounter that will always have some appeal among those who watched the schools regularly cross paths in the Big 12.
Throw in the various storylines — this being Year 2 for Sanders and the Cornhuskers’ Matt Rhule, Buffs quarterback Shedeur Sanders as an outside Heisman contender and prospective first-round pick in 2025, highly touted freshman Dylan Raiola potentially leading the Nebraska offense — and it should attract plenty of viewers.
NBC is clearly banking on just that.
