In 1999, Barnett left Northwestern after eight seasons to become the 22nd head coach of Colorado. His career at Colorado was generally successful; however, he was disgraced and his reputation tarnished by a recruiting scandal, insensitive off-field remarks and failure to maintain the on-field success of his predecessors. Colorado was alleged to have enticed recruits to come to Colorado with sex and alcohol during recruiting visits causing the school to self-impose harsher recruiting rules than any other Division I-A school. That scandal, coupled with Barnett's dismissive comments about former
placekicker Katie Hnida, who alleged that she had been raped by a teammate, led to Barnett's temporary suspension in 2004 during the off-season. Barnett was reinstated before the start of the 2004 season, and went on to coach the team to an 8-5 record, earning
Big 12 Coach of the Year honors along the way.</p>
Barnett continued as coach in 2005, leading the Buffaloes to a 7-2 start. However, on
December 9,
2005, following consecutive losses to
Iowa State and
Nebraska in the Buffaloes' last two regular-season games, and a 70-3 blowout by the
eventual national champion Texas Longhorns in the Big 12 championship game, Barnett's contract was bought out in a $3 million settlement. Colorado then went on to play in the
Champs Sports Bowl losing to
Clemson. The loss is officially credited to Barnett, even though he was no longer with Colorado.</p>
Colorado was the Big 12 North Champion 4 of the 7 years under Barnett, and Big 12 Champion one of those years (2001). Colorado was also ranked #2 in the nation and part of a controversy with the
BCS Poll in the 2001 season when the
Nebraska Cornhuskers were selected ahead of Colorado for the National Championship game, even though Colorado had just beat Nebraska 62-36.</p>
In June 2007, the Buffaloes were placed under probation for two years and fined
$100,000 for undercharging 133 student-athletes for meals over a six year span (2000-01 to 2005-06 encompassing Barnett's tenure at Colorado) resulting in the major infraction.<sup id="cite_ref-June2007infraction_1-0" class="reference">
<span>[</span>2<span>]</span> The football program, with 86 of the 133 student-athletes involved, also lost one scholarship for the next three seasons.<sup id="cite_ref-June2007infraction_1-1" class="reference">
<span>[</span>2<span>]</span>It is highly unlikely the head football coach knew of, authorized or condoned any of the undercharges.</p>
