NCAA Football Betting In Colorado
You can now legally bet on NCAA football in Colorado, as long as you’re at least 21 years or older and within state lines. Simply place your bet at a licensed Colorado retail or online sportsbook.
The only restrictions when it comes to betting on NCAA college football in CO are prop bets. There is a state ban on all college-level proposition bets. Other than that, Colorado sportsbooks will allow all kinds of NCAA football betting in the off-season, regular season, and the College Football Playoff National Championship.
Check our page below for how to bet on NCAA football online in Colorado including live odds on this week’s top college football games, the top Colorado sports betting apps and the best NCAA football bets available.
Current Colorado college football betting lines
See below for a selection of current NCAA football lines and futures as posted at Colorado online sportsbooks. Click on any odds below to go right to the sportsbook, claim the listed bonus and begin setting up your betting account.
See the full live odds board here.
How to bet on NCAA football games
There are several ways you can bet on NCAA football games at Colorado retail sportsbooks and online and mobile betting sites and apps. These include:
- Moneyline: The moneyline is the easiest way to bet on NCAA football. Just pick the winner and book the bet at the current odds. The favorites have a negative number. It indicates how much you’ll need to bet to win $100 plus your bet back. Underdogs have a positive number. It shows how much you’ll earn for every $100 you bet. For example, if the Colorado Buffaloes moneyline is at -120, you’ll need to bet $120 to win $100 plus your $120 bet back. However, if the Colorado Buffaloes moneyline is at +200, you’ll stand to win $200 for every $100 you bet plus your total bet back.
- Point spread: Point spread bets ask you to pick the winner of an NCAA football game with the spread set by oddsmakers factored into the final score. Point spread bets are booked at moneyline odds. For example, if the Colorado Buffaloes point spread is at -7, they’ll need to win by at least 8 points for the bet to pay. If the Colorado Buffaloes point spread is at +7, they’ll need to win outright or lose by 6 points or fewer for a payout. In both cases, a seven-point difference would be a “push,” and all wagers are returned.
- Over/under: Choose whether the total points scored in an NCAA football game will be over or under a total-score line that is set by oddsmakers. Over/under bets are also booked at moneyline odds.
- Parlays: Parlays are high-risk, high-reward bets asking you to combine two or more NCAA football bets into a single wager. Each “leg” must be correct for the parlay to pay. Parlays have become one of the most popular ways to bet on NCAA football because of the potential for a big payday and the number of games on the schedule each week.
- Futures: NCAA football futures allow you to bet on a particular team to win the College Football Playoff National Championship. NCAA football futures markets open before the season starts and the odds on each team adjust as the season and playoffs continue. The price for true national championship contenders is often better the earlier you book the bet.
- Live betting: Live betting, also known as in-play betting, is ultimately the process of betting on NCAA football games after they’ve already started. For the most part, the bets are the same ones you see before kickoff, but the odds quickly adjust based on what’s happening in the game. Live betting is best via online and mobile sports betting apps.
The NCAA Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I FBS is the top level of US college football. It consists of 130 schools in 10 conferences competing for the College Football Playoff National Championship and invites to major college bowl games across the country.
The NCAA Football National Champion was traditionally decided by the writers of the AP and AFCA polls, which tasked sports writers and coaches with ranking teams and choosing a champion.
Since 2014, the College Football Playoff system has replaced the traditional rankings. The College Football Playoff invites the top four NCAA committee-ranked teams in the country at the end of the regular season to play in two premier bowl games. The winners advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship game, where the national championship is now decided on the field instead.
The NCAA Division 1 regular season begins in late August and ends mid-December. The College Football Playoff semifinal and Championship games are a part of a yearly rotation of six different bowl games. The semifinal winners advance to the College Football Playoff National Championship game.
Plus, there are at least three dozen additional non-college football playoff bowl games through late December and early January.
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How to watch NCAA football in Colorado
NCAA football airs all over the TV dial and the internet, with games on most networks, cable sports stations, and the online arms of these operations.
Most FBS conferences have a deal with TV and cable broadcasters to air games.
Here in Colorado, the Air Force Falcons and Colorado State Rams play in the Mountain West Conference. Mountain West has a deal with the Stadium TV broadcast network and AT&T SportsNet for cable and online.
The Colorado Buffaloes play in the Pac-12 Conference (but will join the Big 12 in 2024). The Pac-12 has a deal with ABC and Fox Sports 1 and Fox College Sports for cable and online.
Colorado NCAA football teams
Colorado Buffaloes
The Colorado Buffs play in the Pac-12 Conference (at least for one more year). The team has played at Folsom Field at the Unversity of Colorado, Boulder, since 1924.
The team’s last bowl game was a 55-23 drubbing at the hands of Texas in the 2020 Alamo Bowl. Colorado looks to change that this year, though, with the addition of head coach Deion Sanders and several high-impact freshmen and transfer student-athletes.
Colorado’s first and only national championship in 1990 was split with Georgia Tech, who won the UPI coaches poll. Colorado won the AP and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) polls. Colorado had a loss and a tie that season. Georgia Tech went unbeaten with just one tie and no losses on its record.
Air Force Falcons
The Air Force Falcons play in the Mountain West Conference and have since the conference was founded in 1999. The Falcons play home games at Falcon Stadium in Colorado Springs.
Every year, the team also competes with the army and navy for the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy.
It is awarded to the armed forces academy who defeats the others in football that year. The previous winner retains it in the event of a tie.
The Falcons have played in 27 bowl games and claim a 13-13-1 record in these games. The team’s highest finish in the polls was fifth in the UPI coaches poll in 1985.
Air Force played in the 2019 Cheez-It Bowl beating Washington State 31–21.
Colorado State Rams
The Colorado State Rams play in the Mountain West Conference. After 49 seasons at Sonny Lubick Field at Hughes Stadium at Colorado State and moved to the new Canvas Stadium on-campus in Fort Collins in 2017.
Colorado State has played in 17 bowl games and has a record of 6-11 in these games.
The last bowl game the Rams played was a 31-28 loss to Marshall in the 2017 New Mexico Bowl.
NCAA football betting tips
Betting on NCAA football is a lot more fun when you are winning. These three tips could help you accomplish this feat:
- Fade the public: “Fading the public” means taking advantage of the movement in a line when the public is betting heavily on one side. Oddsmakers’ assessments of the teams or the game probably haven’t changed, the lines are simply moving to offer the side the public isn’t betting some value. It’s an effort by sportsbooks to reduce their exposure. You can take advantage of this by betting the lines will stay right around what oddsmakers originally predicted.
- Don’t trust the home-field advantage: Oddsmakers seem to give most teams 3 points on the spread just because they are at home. But the truth is not every home team is worth those 3 points. Take advantage of this mistake by sportsbooks by taking those extra 3 points as a road underdog, or giving up 3 fewer points as a road favorite.
- Don’t wait for bowl season: There’s value to be found all over the NCAA football regular-season schedule, but it’s a lot tougher to find once the postseason comes around. Fewer teams to focus on means oddsmakers don’t make as many mistakes. With dozens of games every week, the NCAA football regular season offers the opportunity to take advantage of all kinds of mistakes sportsbooks might make. In other words, if you’re going to bet on NCAA football at all, don’t wait until bowl season or the College Football Playoff National Championship to do it.
Is it legal to bet on NCAA football in CO?
It is absolutely, 100% legal to bet on NCAA football at licensed Colorado sportsbooks.
The US Supreme Court made it OK for individual states to legalize sports betting in May 2018. In November 2019, Colorado voters passed a ballot measure making CO the 19th state to legalize sports betting. Sports betting officially launched in the sate in May 2020.
The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission and the Colorado Division of Gaming regulate the sports betting market in the state.
Casino operators in the towns of Black Hawk, Central City and Cripple Creek partnered with popular online sportsbooks to offer regulated online and retail sports betting.
Like most other states with legal sports betting, most forms of single-game wagering on NCAA football games are legal and available in Colorado. That means you are able to bet the moneyline, point spreads, and over/unders on every single NCAA football game.
Plus, you can legally bet on multi-game NCAA football parlays and combine with other sports for multi-sport parlays.
Unfortunately, you can’t bet on a specific player and game props, because all college sports prop betting has been banned in Colorado.
However, you will be able to bet NCAA football futures, allowing you to make wagers on your favorite team to win the College Football Playoff National Championship next season.
Best NCAAF betting sites in Colorado
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NCAA Football Betting FAQ
You can feel free to bet on local NCAA football teams and games in Colorado as long as you’re not affiliated with the school or the NCAA in any way.
The only restrictions regarding NCAA College Football betting in CO are on props. Colorado lawmakers have instituted a ban on all college sports props.
Princeton has 29 national titles, and Yale has 28. No school has more national titles than either of these two. However, Yale and Princeton don’t compete at the FBS level anymore and neither has won a national title since 1950.
Of the schools that currently compete at the FBS level, Alabama has the most national championships. The Crimson Tide has 23 national titles, the last one coming in 2020. Notre Dame is second with 22. There’s a tie for third between Ohio State and Oklahoma with 17 wins each.
The top-tiered NCAA Division 1 FBS has 130 schools playing in 10 conferences.
The NCAA Division 1 FBS football season is scheduled to feature more than 40 different college football bowl games. This includes the College Football Playoff semifinals and the national championship game.
If an NCAA football game is tied at the end of 60 minutes, it goes to overtime. A coin toss decides first possession and each team gets at least one offensive possession starting at their own 25-yard line.
The object is to score and prevent your opponent from doing the same. If the teams remain tied, they each get another offensive possession. Once they reach a fifth overtime period, teams run alternating 2-point conversions instead of starting at the 25-yard line.
NCAA football games are 60 minutes, featuring two 30-minute halves and four 15-minute quarters. Most games are played over the span of three-and-a-half hours in real-time.