Author
Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Year Two of the Deion Sanders era in Boulder kicks off a few months from now, but it’s never too early to start looking at what awaits the Colorado Buffaloes in their first year back in their old digs. That’s because CU is returning to the conference they called home from 1948 until 2010, as the Buffs and three of their now-former Pac-12 rivals (Arizona, ASU and Utah) join the expanded Big 12.
Now, the Deion Sanders Show returns to Folsom Field in late August with an eye towards getting CU back to respectability after falling face-first into a 4-8 finish in 2023.
That finish on Colorado betting apps featured the dizzying highs of starting the year with three straight wins over TCU, Nebraska and CSU, before being fed into the meat-grinder by Oregon and USC to open Pac-12 play. Things didn’t get much rosier from there for the Buffs, with their lone conference win coming over an equally hapless ASU Sun Devils team, who CU beat 27-24 on Oct. 7, before capping off the year with a six-game slide against far superior competition.
Now, Sanders and his staff are back on the Front Range with an eye towards getting CU back to a bowl game in a 12-game season for the first time since the 2016 Alamo Bowl, starting with the team’s opener against North Dakota State in Boulder on Aug. 29.
All year long, BetColorado.com, which is your trust source for Colorado sportsbooks, will update our hypothetical odds board on where we see Sanders and CU going this bowl season, with the early tea leaves showing El Paso and Shreveport as top destinations for the Buffs in 2024.
Bowl | Location | Conference Opponent | Odds | Percentage Chance |
Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl | El Paso, TX | vs. ACC | +1000 | 9.1% |
Radiance Technologies Independence Bowl | Shreveport, LA | vs. Army | +1500 | 6.3% |
Las Vegas Bowl | Las Vegas, NV | vs. SEC | +2000 | 4.8% |
AutoZone Liberty Bowl | Memphis, TN | vs. SEC | +2000 | 4.8% |
Guaranteed Rate Bowl | Phoenix, AZ | vs. Big Ten | +2500 | 3.8% |
The Field / No Bowl |
|
| -250 | 71.4% |
The last two bowl games that CU reached (in 2016 and the COVID-shortened 2020 season) were the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, though the Buffs’ last bowl game prior to that was the 2007 Independence Bowl in Shreveport.
This year, we see the Louisiana bowl game among CU’s best bowl game destinations, odds-wise, with the Independence Bowl ranking second overall at +1500, behind El Paso’s Tony The Tiger Sun Bowl, which comes in at +1000 to open the year.
Other longshot candidates to land Coach Prime and the Buffs’ are the Las Vegas Bowl and the AutoZone Liberty Bowl in Memphis, which are listed at +2000 apiece, while Phoenix’s Guaranteed Rate Bowl comes in at +2500 and the field (or no bowl at all) are listed at -250.
Also of interest: Shedeur Sanders Heisman Odds.
Year | Bowl | Result |
2023 | No Bowl Game |
|
2022 | No Bowl Game |
|
2021 | No Bowl Game |
|
2020 | Alamo Bowl | Loss, 55-23 vs. Texas |
2019 | No Bowl Game |
|
Bowl games have been few and far between for the once-mighty Buffaloes of late, with CU’s last postseason game being the 2020 Alamo Bowl, which they lost to Texas, 55-23. Prior to that, Colorado’s last bowl game was the 2016 Alamo Bowl, which they lost to Oklahoma State, 38-8, capping off a 10-4 campaign by leaving a bad taste in everyone’s mouth that eventually led to head coach Mike MacIntyre’s dismissal.
A trip down memory lane is required to locate CU’s last victory in a bowl game, as CU hasn’t won one since the 2004 Houston Bowl. That year, head coach Gary Barnett led the Buffs to a 33-28 win over UTEP in the postseason game.
This fall, Coach Prime and the Buffs’ will look to snap that 20-year bowl game win drought, beginning with CU’s home opener against North Dakota State in Boulder on Aug. 29.
Check out the best Colorado sportsbook promos as well before the season kicks off.
For the upcoming 2024-25 college football season, Colorado is currently projected to not play in the bowl game with the odds at -250 (71.4% chance).
Since it is the summer, Colorado is not currently playing in a bowl game because the season has not started yet. Their most recent bowl game was in the 2020 Alamo Bowl loss against Texas.
Author
Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
Cited by leading media organizations, such as: