BYU Cougars vs Colorado Buffaloes Prediction, Odds and Picks for Tomorrow, 12/28/24

While BYU was a team that was obviously a little worse than its record this season, the Cougars are still one of the better teams that Colorado has faced all year long. Therefore, it’s hard not to lean the way of the underdog Cougars heading into this game, especially given all of the uncertainty surrounding the Buffaloes at the moment. We’re in the era of bowl opt-outs and large swaths of the roster hitting the transfer portal, but Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has indicated that his best players — quarterback Shadeur Sanders and two-way superstar Travis Hunter — will play in this game. While that indicates that the Buffaloes will certainly care about playing at their best on Saturday, but with the NFL Draft looming, it would be hard to expect that Sanders and Hunter will play for the entire game. After all, it’s already a pretty big surprise that both players are suiting up for this contest.

On the other side, while BYU is going to be missing some pieces on the offensive line in this game, I still have a hard time believing that the Cougars won’t be fired up to perform well on a national stage against this Colorado program. Quarterback Jake Retzlaff leads a Cougars offense that is 24th in EPA per play and 3rd nationally in points scored per quality possession, so if BYU gets in the red zone, you can expect the Cougars to cash in with touchdowns. We have seen this Colorado defense struggle on multiple occasions when its had to step up in class this season, and that could be the case against an unfamiliar opponent in this one. The BYU offense has quietly been a very strong unit on the ground all season long, sitting at 29th in rushing success rate and 22nd in EPA per rush per College Football Insiders. That’s exactly where this Colorado defense can be attacked, as we saw against the likes of Nebraska, Kansas State and Kansas at earlier points in the season. The Buffaloes are outside the top 50 in rushing success rate allowed and EPA per rush (College Football Insiders), so there should be avenues for BYU to score in this game. While Colorado has the top end talent that its opponent doesn’t, the gap between the teams is smaller than the spread would indicate on Saturday, so I’ll take the Cougars to keep this close.

BYU vs Colorado prediction: BYU +4.5 available at time of publishing. Playable to 3.5

Bet like a Caesar with this awesome new customer offer from Caesars, where you can get a welcome boost worth up to $1,000 on Caesars. 👥 using the Caesars promo code PICKSWISE1000, where you can bet on our BYU vs Colorado picks.