Why the Colorado Buffaloes are a huge liability to sportsbooks

The hype is certainly real for Deion Sanders as he embarks on his first season as head coach at Colorado but a national title feels about as far as the distance between Boulder and Jackson, Ms., where he previously coached. Colorado was 1-11 last season and has had one winning season since 2006.

ESPN's Kyle Bonagura said people should "pump the brakes and watch an actual game" before coronating the Buffaloes.

Last week, The Athletic issued a report noting plenty of trepidation from those within the college football ranks in regard to the Buffaloes' major roster overhaul this offseason. In the article, an ACC recruiting director said, "It's a tremendous risk to replace all of those guys."

To be fair, it's debatable as to how big of a risk it is for a terrible football team to jettison players that contributed to the team's malaise. The risk, then, isn't tied to the players Sanders brought in as much as it is a risk for the coach himself.

After all, if Colorado were to crash and burn this season, it would be with a roster Sanders created. But with a five-year, $29.5 million contract, it's not like 2023 is a make-or-break season for the former Jackson State head coach. He has time to get things right and a track record of success that suggests he will. Eventually.

BetMGM will likely be fine as well. For Colorado to qualify for the CFP, it would probably need to win the Pac-12, which means having a better season than Oregon, UCLA, USC and Utah. Good luck with that. 

And even then, that might not be enough. With Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Michigan and Ohio State (to name a few) still existing, if BetMGM reported Colorado had received 0.1 percent of the title bets, that would still be too high.

The sportsbooks will get richer off of the Sanders' hype while Colorado's new head coach will do pretty well for himself as well. The only losers in this equation are those gullible enough to think that this rebuild will happen overnight.