According to bookmakers, interest in betting on Deion Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes was exceptionally high early last season, and it appears that is happening again now.

College football kicks into high gear this week with a series of openers between perennial powerhouses like Georgia-Clemson, Notre Dame-Texas A&M and LSU-USC. But to start the week, the game that drew the most betting interest on DraftKings was North Dakota State-Colorado.

The Buffaloes, entering their second season under Sanders, are once again heavy odds-on players, listed at 200-1 to win the national championship at ESPN BET, but they remain popular with the betting public. BetMGM reported that it would lose more money going into the season on Colorado winning the national championship than any other team except Ohio State. A $10,000 bet on the Buffaloes, listed at 25-1, to win the Big 12 in their first year in the conference is one of the notable early moves on Colorado at BetMGM.

Still, bookmakers say early betting on the Buffaloes this season, while elevated, isn’t at the same level as last season. Steve Mikkelson, who has been in the bookmaking business since 1987, said he’s never seen the betting public fall so deeply in love with a college football prospect as it did with the Buffaloes early last season.

“It honestly shocked me,” Mikkelson told ESPN.

The frenzy lasted the first four weeks of last season, producing NFL-sized bets and golden opportunities for professional gamblers. Colorado opened with a surprise 21-point underdog upset of TCU in a game that resulted in one of the biggest losses of the season for sports betting.

“Every week they were our biggest liability,” said Cameron Drucker, senior trader for BetMGM. “It’s the first time in a long time that there’s been such an open bet on one team, every week.”

Colorado followed that up with a win over Nebraska in a game that generated more money from bettors than many NFL Week 1 games, a rarity according to bookmakers.

“We weren’t that nervous, but once they beat Nebraska, we were like, ‘Wait a minute, wait a minute,’” said Mikkelson, who manages odds for BetMonarch, a Colorado-based bookmaker.

The Buffaloes’ run would come to an abrupt halt two weeks later. After a dramatic overtime win against Colorado State, the Buffaloes fell to No. 10 Oregon, 3-0, with overwhelming support from the betting public. So much money was being placed on Colorado to beat the Ducks as 21-point underdogs that some bookmakers began offering discounts to bettors who wanted to back the Ducks.

Oregon won 42-6.

The Buffaloes have a more experienced roster this season, highlighted by quarterback Shedeur Sanders and two-way star Travis Hunter. Sanders and Hunter, at 30-1 and 50-1 respectively, are among the players most heavily bet on to win the Heisman Trophy at some bookmakers.

“It’s hard to say if they’ll be as big as last year, but it seems like (Colorado) is one of our biggest burdens so far,” Tucker said.

Colorado holds a 9.5-point lead over North Dakota State in the season opener on Thursday (8 p.m., ESPN).