College Football National Championship Odds: Ohio State Favored to Repeat In 2025

Ohio State ran the table in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff and won its first national championship in a decade. 

By now, that’s old news. With spring practices and offseason workout regimens now in focus, and early roster research already underway after early transfer portal announcements, bettors are starting to stake their first positions in the college football futures market.

Every year, BetMGM’s college football national championship odds market is posted just seconds following the conclusion of the previous season’s championship game. That year-round access makes it one of the most popular features at the online sportsbook.

Here, I provide a running analysis of the evolving market. That includes information on ticket splits, overpriced favorites, valuable underdogs down the table, and more.

Odds to Win College Football National Championship

College Football National Championship Prediction

Based on the current futures market, the Ohio State Buckeyes and Texas Longhorns each have an implied 16.7% chance to win the college football national championship.

College Football Futures: Reading the Early Market for the 2025-26 Championship

It’s still very early in this college football futures cycle, so the market structure is mostly a reflection of the status quo at the end of the 2024-25 season. 

Ohio State is the champion and opened as next year’s favorite, with plenty of respect also built into the prices for Texas, Georgia, Oregon, Penn State, and Notre Dame – all playoff teams that advanced at least as far as the second round.

Beyond those top teams, we see a class of powerful brands in the sport – Alabama, Clemson, Michigan, LSU, Texas A&M. 

This is a pretty typical arrangement for an early NCAA futures market, where prices have yet to be shaped by game outcomes or even offseason research. I’m always a proponent of establishing early positions, but right now, it’s hard to forecast much of anything. 

That said, there are some early observations we can make. For one thing, repeat champions may become more unlikely in the chaotic era of NIL, transfer portals, and 12-team playoff brackets. 

For another, Ohio State will lose a truckload of major contributors from its stacked roster, including quarterback Will Howard, running back TreVeyon Henderson, wide receiver Emeka Egbuka, its entire starting defensive line, and probably a dozen other impact players at every level of the team. Playcaller Chip Kelly has left Columbus to return to the NFL.

Buying Ohio State football odds at the top of the market and under these conditions? Not advisable.

In the place of Ohio State, I’m interested in what Notre Dame can do at +1400 since it has retained offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock. I also think Oregon is well-positioned to seize control of the Big Ten if Ohio State takes a step back.

Here’s one last note to think about: Last year, there was a huge surge of money into the market that drove Ohio State all the way to cofavorite status with Georgia. Even in the early offseason, it became clear that Ohio State would field one of the deepest, most talented rosters in all of college football, and sharp handicappers successfully played the potential upside of that talent accumulation. 

Futures bettors this year should look for similar smoke signals – either a roster that emerges as an elite unit with championship upside or a money-fueled landrush that drives major movement in the futures market. 

NCAA Football Championship Odds: Remaining Teams

College Football National Championship History (CFP Era)