Colorado vs. No. 17 TCU odds: Bettors loving Deion Sanders’ Buffaloes in every possible way
What if we told you a college football team that was 1-11 last year, hired someone as their head coach who had no experience at the FBS level and had the greatest roster turnover in modern history was taking an incredible amount of optimistic futures action this season? That club would be Colorado and Coach Deion Sanders, and the Buffs are also taking huge action for their debut Saturday at No. 17 TCU.
As 20.5-point underdogs, CU is taking about 60% leans on both the tickets and money and at +800 on the moneyline, the #GoBuffs are getting 80% of the handle. That’s the Coach Prime Effect. No one has any idea what this team will be considering there will be reportedly 86 new players on the roster, most by an FBS team in a season since the transfer portal began in 2018. There are only 10 scholarship players from 2022 still in Boulder.
Despite this, a few major books are hugely exposed on Colorado to win the national championship, the Pac-12 title and over 3.5 wins. At one major book, someone dropped $4,500 on Colorado +10000 to win the Pac-12 ($450,000 payout). Another bettor played $1,000 on the Buffs to win it all at +25000 ($250,000).
Colorado’s two big additions are QB Shedeur Sanders, Deion’s son, and future NFL cornerback Travis Hunter, who also plays wideout. Both of them followed Deion from Jackson State.
The program is a mess right now as the Buffs finished last year on a six-game losing streak by an average of 34.5 points. They allowed 44.5 PPG overall, worst in the FBS, and lost 10 games by at least 20 points, most in the FBS. The team’s 2-10 ATS mark tied for the worst in the FBS.
Without hiring Deion, does Colorado go back to the Big 12 starting in 2024? It has lost 14 straight and 21 of its past 22 road games vs. ranked Big 12 teams.
TCU was unranked entering last season and yet became the first Big 12 school to reach the CFP national title game thanks to a semifinal upset of Michigan. Alas, the Frogs were obliterated 65-7 in the title game by Georgia. Coach Sonny Dykes lost a ton of talent off that team, led by QB Max Duggan, who finished second in the 2022 Heisman Trophy voting behind USC QB Caleb Williams in the closest vote since 2018.
Duggan actually didn’t win the starting job last year – Chandler Morris did and then got injured. Duggan never gave the job back, but it belongs to Morris now. The #GoFrogs were 5-0-1 ATS last season as at least 7-point favorites. That included a Week 1 38-13 win at Colorado, the game in which Morris was hurt, but both teams are vastly different now.
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