2024 College Football Week 1 action report: 'Colorado is the most-bet team to cover'

The long national nightmare is over. Football — the college kind — has arrived.

The schedule makers provided a few bang-up matchups in the college football Week 1 odds market. But like last season, Coach Deion Sanders is all the early rage, as his Colorado Buffaloes host perennial FCS championship contender North Dakota State.

"I’m not surprised at all. The Colorado action has been pretty consistent. It’s not as much as last year, but the Buffaloes haven’t really lost their juice," Caesars Sports head of football trading Joey Feazel said.

Oddsmakers and sharp bettors serve up their insights on several notable Week 1 games, as we make our maiden voyage into 2024 college football betting nuggets.

Ahead of the Curve

Multiple bookmakers in Las Vegas and across the country have noted they’ve got liability to Colorado for Thursday night’s game in Boulder. 

At the moment, Caesars Sports isn’t in that position — but it will be by 8 p.m. ET Thursday.

"We’ve been staying ahead of Colorado, because we think highly of Colorado," Feazel said Wednesday evening.

Caesars opened this matchup way back on April 22 at Colorado -9.5, but saw that number fall back to -7.5 in early May. By Aug. 3, it was up to -9, and the Buffs stretched as high as -10.5 briefly on Wednesday. 

Colorado is now -9.5.

"It seems the sharps are telling us 10 is too much. But that could change," Feazel said. "Right now we actually need Colorado by 11 or more, but it’s a very small decision. I expect we’ll need North Dakota State by kickoff.

"The public will come in on game day for Colorado."

At BetMGM, plenty of point-spread action has already arrived on the Buffs, according to data analyst John Ewing.

"Colorado is the most bet team to cover in Week 1 at BetMGM,"