Boulder, Colo. ? The coach is in trouble because he doesn’t win enough games. The athletic director is in trouble because his department doesn’t have enough money to fire the coach. The players, meanwhile, are playing for a championship.

It has been a bizarre season at Colorado, and nothing is more bizarre than the fact that the Buffaloes — yes, the scandal-plagued, youth-filled, inconsistent Buffaloes — still have a legitimate chance to make it to the Big 12 title game.

They can thank their rivals in the Big 12 North, which is turning out to be one of the weakest divisions in the history of big-time college football.

None of the teams have better than a 5-4 overall record. Iowa State and Nebraska lead the division with 3-3 marks in conference. Missouri, Kansas State and Colorado are one game behind. All five teams are very much in the running, and at CU, that’s a reason for the coaches and players to smile — or maybe just shrug their shoulders considering everything they’ve been through.

Renewed vigor

“I think we’re beyond clinging, beyond hanging on,” Colorado coach Gary Barnett said Tuesday. “There’s like a renewed vigor, a renewed enthusiasm, a renewed sense of quest.”

It’s funny how quickly things change.

Just last week, Barnett was talking about how the rape and recruiting scandal that mushroomed last offseason had taken a toll on his very young team, which stood at 4-4, 1-4 in the conference after a humbling 31-7 loss to Texas.

Also last week, the Rocky Mountain News reported that athletic director Dick Tharp could be on his way out soon.

Tharp had already seen a good bit of his power stripped in the wake of the scandal. The athletic department isn’t making good money, which some believe leaves the program beholden to Barnett, win or lose. It would cost about $2 million to pay off the remaining two years of his contract.

But since Colorado’s 30-21 win at Kansas on Saturday — a game in which the Buffs overcame an early 14-0 deficit — the talk of hirings and firings has been replaced by thoughts of an improbable championship.

Players are talking about bowl games and the postseason instead of playing out the string.

“Why sit here and be average when we can go to Kansas City?” running back Lawrence Vickers said.