Perhaps no other college football team enters the 2023 season with more intrigue than the Colorado Buffaloes.
After bottoming out at 1-11 a year ago, Colorado made a huge coaching splash in luring Deion Sanders to Boulder. With a revamped roster and the top transfer portal class in the country, all eyes will be on the Buffaloes to see just how much and how quickly a turnaround is possible.
More headlines are coming with the announcement that Colorado will be leaving the Pac-12 to head back to the Big 12.
Coach Prime has a lot of believers in the betting market as well.
Let’s look at BetMGM Sportsbook’s insights into the Pac-12 Conference futures market to see how much love they’ve received.
SportsGrid will preview college football conference winners, national championships, and season-win total futures throughout the offseason. See more Buy or Sells articles below.
Conference Winners: ACC-Clemson | Big Ten-Michigan | National Championship: Alabama | Georgia | LSU | Michigan | Ohio State | Season-Win Totals: Colorado O3.5 | K-State O6.5 |
BetMGM College Football Betting Insights: Pac-12 Conference Odds
Favorites: USC +200
Highest Ticket%: Colorado 61.1%
Highest Handle%: Washington 42.7%
Biggest Liability: Colorado
Colorado has received much love in the futures market, taking up a whopping 61.1% of the ticket handle to win the Pac-12. This makes them BetMGM’s largest liability in the conference.
While the Buffaloes may be a flashy team this season and understandably have built a lot of positive momentum, this is an enormous rebuild, and a championship likely isn’t in the cards. Bettors are chasing the +10000 longshot, but there’s a reason their odds are so wide. Only the Stanford Cardinal (+25000) has longer odds, while the Arizona State Sun Devils are tied with the Buffaloes at +10000.
It isn’t reasonable to expect a team with a 3.5 regular season win total juiced to the Over at +120 to overperform that much.
Both sides of the ball will be improved, but many questions remain. How will Shedeur Sanders fare in his transition to FBS football? Will the offensive line hold up? Do the skill positions have appropriate depth? Will the young talent be enough to offset the lack of experience? Will Coach Prime be available for Week 1 after undergoing two off-season procedures in the span of four weeks?
Even while they won’t be nearly as bad as last year, there are reasons to expect the team to struggle.
Most importantly, the schedule is brutal. Non-conference games against TCU and Nebraska start the year, and even Colorado State figures to be one of the most improved teams in the country in Year Two under Jay Norvell.
They face three of the Pac-12’s top teams, skipping only Washington while playing at Oregon and Utah. There isn’t a bankable home win other than perhaps Stanford.
2023 Pac-12 Winner VerdictSell Colorado (+10000) to Win the Pac-12
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