I have connections to CU. Its not direct . Here is what I was told. I post because the grief that TH is getting is unreasonable imho.

CU is in position of their best year in a long time with a new coach. The vibe in Boulder is that CU may just finally have turned the corner with the new hire and that they want to keep the vibe going. they actually think that they can win the PAC12 or at worse make the conference championship game.

Not sure how that works with the no USC game but that's the prevailing thought(this is my thoughts not what was given to me)

Choice was between a pretty easy win against SDSU or a most likely loss to BYU that jeopardizes the above mentioned vibe. they took the path that 99% of schools would take.