they were in a better position and didn't feel like they needed to prioritize a game and took the week off. So they took the team that was ready to go SDSU. Not nearly the same magnitude but similar to BYU/TCU Big 12 situation where they went with the team that was ready to go.

Below is a list of reasons I was told SDSU got the game.
1. CU was already in California so they could just drive to San Diego. My favorite one except the game is in Boulder
2. SDSU already had travel plans to play CSU so they just kept the plans. Problem is it was their Fresno game that was cancelled
3. The CSU/AFA game was cancelled so SDSU had already looked booked travel to pay AFA and just switched the game. They may have looked at travel but certainly not booked anything.
4. CU is scared to play BYU. They were set to go on the road and play USC but playing a ranked team at home in what probably would have been national TV was too scary and they chose SDSU on the pac 12 network
5. CU hates BYU and won't schedule them. Forget the fact that BYU just did a home and home in Basketball with CU. CU is one of very few P5 teams that agreed to play at the Marriott Center recently so apparently that hate is only in football. The real reason is CU has a regional rival in CSU they schedule often.
6. This CU game was negotiated on Monday and BYU knew they were out so took the week off. SDSU came out in the papers on Tuesday and said they wanted to schedule Washington. The CU game was not announced until Thursday. It does sound like BYUs hesitation on Monday played a role so maybe they knew they were out of any Pac 12 games at that point.
7. BYU was too tired to play this week. They just had a bye and then played one of the worst teams in the nation. Now they need another bye?

Holmoe has done a great job getting a schedule. It has been a hard year. But BYU often thinks their position is not worth risking and later find out their position is not as great as they thought it was. I think BYU will be more open to scheduling in the future. Also if it wasn't Thanksgiving it would have been a lot easier to be more open this week. But BYU has basically had 2 of that last 3 weeks off and should have been ready to go this week.