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It would be hard to find a four-win team that finished last in their conference to get as much attention as the 2023 Colorado Buffaloes football team. There will be more attention paid to the Buffaloes when it comes to the 2024 Colorado football predictions.
Colorado is one of the 12 teams from the Pac-12 conference to seek out greener pastures as the Buffaloes landed in the Big 12.
This will be the second season that Hall of Fame defensive back Deion Sanders will be the head coach for the Buffaloes.
When looking at the college football lines and futures odds, Colorado comes in at +20000 in the odds of winning the national championship. Colorado headed into the 2023 season priced at +15000 in the national title odds.
The Buffaloes have +120 odds to go over six wins in 2024 with a Moneyline of -165 to finish under six wins.
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With the Pac-12 imploding, Colorado landed in the Big 12. It is worth asking the question of whether Colorado would have landed that invitation if not for the buzz created by the hiring of Sanders.
The Big 12 lost reigning champion Texas as well as Oklahoma as both of those teams headed to the SEC. It makes for a rather weak conference. That could factor into the 2024 Colorado football predictions.
Colorado could face some easier conference games after struggling in Pac-12 play.
It starts with matchups against fellow former Pac-12 teams Arizona and Utah before meeting Baylor, Oklahoma State, Kansas State, Cincinnati, Kansas, and Texas Tech before the regular season ends with a trip to UCF.
Colorado’s non-conference schedule features matchups with Football Championship Subdivision powerhouse North Dakota State followed by road games against Nebraska and Colorado State.
No team added more players through the transfer portal heading into the 2023 season than Colorado. Many of those 50 transfers played key roles. Leading the list was quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of the head coach.
Sanders could have come out for the 2024 NFL Draft and likely would have been one of the first quarterbacks chosen.
Instead, he decided to return to Colorado for another season.
Sanders completed 69% of his passes for a school-record 3230 yards to go with 27 touchdown passes and only three interceptions in 11 games. He spent multiple weeks listed by the Las Vegas odds as a Heisman Trophy candidate and figures to be pretty high up in the Heisman Trophy odds heading into the 2024 college football season.
Cornerback-receiver Travis Hunter, who followed Sanders from Jackson State to Colorado, was the top-ranked transfer in the nation in 2023.
Colorado is still rather active when it comes to securing transfers. However, there aren’t quite as many high-profile transfers as there was a season ago.
Eleven of the 20 known incoming transfers play either on the offensive line or defensive line as the Buffaloes look to improve at the line of scrimmage. That is something to consider when looking at the 2024 Colorado football predictions.
Colorado made quite the splash with a win over 2022 national runner-up Texas Christian in Sanders’ first game as the head coach at Colorado.
That was followed by wins over Nebraska and Colorado State as Colorado made a move up the NCAA football rankings. The Buffaloes moved up four spots to No. 18 in the Associated Press poll and went from 25th to 21st in the American Football Coaches Association poll after getting off to a 3-0 start.
The Buffaloes fell out of the top 25 in both polls two weeks later.
Colorado looked overwhelmed in a 42-6 loss at Oregon before throwing a scare into a USC team led by Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams.
After ending Arizona State for its lone Pac-12 win, Colorado ended the regular season with six straight losses. Four of those games were decided by seven points or less.
However, Colorado still finished at the bottom of the Pac-12 standings.
Colorado was 3-1 when listed as the favorite and 1-7 as the underdog. The Buffaloes were third in the Pac-12 with a 7-4-1 record against the college football spread. Colorado covered in six of the eight games as an underdog.
Colorado was last in the Pac-12 in scoring offense in 2022 and moved up to eighth in 2023. The Buffaloes made slight strides on defense, allowing 50 fewer yards per game than in 2022. However, that only put Colorado ahead of Stanford in the Pac-12 total defense numbers.
Colorado allowed more than 40 points five times last season and if the Buffaloes are to take the next step as a program, an improved defense will be a key to any progress made by Colorado as the Buffaloes look to make it to the bowl game in a full (non-COVID season) since the 2016 season.
For NCAAF betting news, NCAAF odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.
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