Bookies tab favorite for Rocky Mountain Showdown, but line is moving

The Rocky Mountain Showdown was one of the most-viewed football games of the 2023 season, with ESPN’s College GameDay in town to showcase the strongest from Colorado’s two largest universities.

A year later the rivalry returns and this time heads to Fort Collins for the first time in nearly 30 years. The tickets for the contest at Canvas Stadium are tough to get and the crowd should be pretty divided with both Buffs fans making the short drive and Rams looking to defend home turf. Both teams are 1-1, featuring a win against a lower-tier school and a blowout loss to a power school. In some ways, maybe these schools are in very similar places and that was reflected in last year’s game which took two overtimes to decide at 43-35.

Still, it’s the visiting Buffaloes who are favorited by seven-and-a-half points by nearly every sportsbook. That line has come down from an opening of nine points by some oddsmakers, which shows how the public expects this year’s game to be tight once again. The over-under on the game is set at around 59 points.

The game last year drew 9.3 million viewers, the 12th-most watched game in college football last fall and the ninth-most watched game in the history of Buffaloes football.

Many of the main characters are back for a second go around too.

Things got heated between Deion Sanders and Jay Norvell a year ago, leading to pregame words and a scrap between the two teams. Much of the on-field pregame scrap centered around Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter, who are both still the stars for the Buffaloes. Hunter, playing better than ever now, was lost for multiple games due to a dirty hit in last year’s RMS by Henry Blackburn. The two players mended fences but will square off against one another again. Likewise for CSU, their QB and best WR are back this fall with Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi and Tory Horton starring however the pass-catcher is battling an injury heading into the game.