Colorado was 1-11 last season. Not counting the COVID-shortened 2020 season, the Buffaloes have one winning record since 2005.
and yet, betmgm Will have to root against Colorado to win the national championship this season.
It shouldn't be too much of a sweat for the sportsbook, but it is the latest example of how Pied Deion Sanders has become since becoming Colorado's coach.
Colorado doesn't have the most bets to win the championship, but enough to turn them into BetMGM's biggest liability in the college football championship futures market. All for a team that managed only one win last season.
There are lot of lottery tickets on CU, with odds of 250 to 1 to win the national title. It won't be great for BetMGM if Sanders is a miracle worker in his first season in Boulder.
Colorado is getting a lot of bets
8.1% of all bets on the College Football Playoff winning team are on Colorado. That ranks sixth behind just Michigan, Alabama, Ohio State, Georgia and LSU. All of the first five teams have recently won or come very close to national titles. Colorado has been to just three bowl appearances in the last 15 seasons and won none of them.
Of all the money bet in that championship futures market, 6.6% of it is on Buffalo. It may not sound like much, but it gets BetMGM's attention when all those tickets have odds of 250 to 1.
None of those Colorado tickets are going to cash (feel free to clip and save this and tweet freezing cold if that happens). But it is part of a phenomenon that is unique.
How Colorado went from being irrelevant in its home state without even playing a game is perhaps the greatest story in the entire college football world, thanks to a coach who has never coached above the FCS level, but has been a football coach. and cultural icon.
Deion Sanders brings attention to Colorado
Sanders went to Jackson State and made a big impression. They beat out larger FBS schools for major recruits. He went 27-6 there. He did give some positive attention to HBCUs. Then he breathed life into a Colorado program that needed it.
Colorado's spring game sold out. Attendance for this year's spring game was higher than the previous nine combined when tickets were free, via The Denver Gazette,
Colorado has completely changed its roster, with its transfer portal busier than anything you'll see in the nfl. Colorado found some much-needed talent, including quarterback Shedure Sanders, his son, and receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter. No.1 Recruitment in his high-school class.
The stakes are less about rosters and more about following Sanders, who prefers to go by “Coach Prime” and has sold plenty of black-and-gold merchandise with that title on it. Sanders has probably embraced the celebrity part of his job more than anyone before him. he is everywhere on social media Due to aggressive branding from his son, Deion Jr. was on ESPN to broadcast it live at Colorado's spring game—again, a 1-11 team last season with hardly any success in the past two decades—and Sanders Kept it in his form with the announcers. The team practiced.
Sanders using the catchphrase “I Ain't Hard 2 Find”. This is accurate.
It's possible that Sanders is the most famous person to coach a college football team that we've seen (not to be confused with those who became famous for coaching college football such as Nick saban or Bear Bryant). The charisma that made him popular as a player has also extended to his coaching career. He is a coach of sorts. It doesn't matter if it works for Colorado or not. Not that the Buffaloes had anything to lose, and they're at least on the map again.
It matters to BetMGM if all those transfers and celebrity coaches in cowboy hats shock the world and win the national title this season. More realistically, those national title bets will end up being the ticket to a very fun ride.