College Football National Championship 2024-2025: Trends, Odds, and Early Favorites

It was a season of considerable ups and downs and many unexpected turns. Certainly, Jim Harbaugh did a fantastic job of steering the Michigan Wolverines to finishing the 2023-24 national championship season victorious. However, within minutes of the prizes being awarded, the sportsbooks are wasting no time lining up their picks for next season.

These futures are completely fluid, and the favorites to win next season can change with news of transfers, coaches, injuries, etc. The LeafletCasino experts, who research the market of top online casinos and sports betting sites in Canada, have analyzed CFP national championship trends, odds, and favorites. Though the off-season futures market is pretty static, as the season begins, many changes will immediately affect online sports betting odds.

College Football National Championship 2024-2025: Trends, Odds, and Early Favorites

College Football Trends

It’s worth noting the upcoming season introduces a pretty serious formatting revision, including a bigger 12-team CFP post-season format. Essentially, the six leading conference champions will be granted automatic entry, with the top four getting first-round byes in the quarter-finals. Finally, the remaining six highest-ranking teams complete the numbers.

Without a doubt, one of the biggest factors that takes place during the offseason is the transfer portal. On the one hand, pessimists will wail at the prospect of star players jumping ship to greener pastures in the NFL. But it’s important to remember the portal has traffic going in both directions. Meaning some teams may be able to rebuild themselves as stronger, leaner, and more hungry with the addition of new talent.

Now we can see several lineups are beginning to bear the brunt of portal migration:

• Notre Dame – 13 players
• Georgia – 14 players
• Ohio State – 15 players
• Texas A&M – 19 players
• Florida State – 15 players
• Oklahoma – 13 players
• USC – 11 players

These movements make speculating on winners an impossible task. After all, without knowing team makeup, notably how changing quarterbacks will affect the overall gameplay, it makes more sense to wait until the CFP next season begins in September before splashing placing wagers.

For those Canadians impatient at waiting another eight months to begin online sports betting, it might be a good idea to look back at some historical data in order to try to identify useful football betting trends:

• Since 2014, the champion team has had odds of +700 or shorter seven times.
• The National Championship has been won eight times by teams with odds of +1,000 or longer.
• Longshot winners are rare, though they have happened:
  • 2002: Ohio State +1900
  • 2003: LSU +4000
  • 2010: Auburn +5000
  • 2014: Ohio State +4000
  • 2019: LSU +2500

• The National Championship was rarely won by early favorites. In fact, only Alabama and USC have managed this since 2001.
• A first-year coach has successfully led their team to the National Championships three times (1948, 1989, and 2001).

College Football National Championship Betting Odds

In spite of the 34-13 win against Washington, along with an unbeaten record this season, neither the Wolverine’s name nor that of their opponents, the Huskies, appears in the top three favorites according to the latest sportsbook’s projections. The best odds are for the Georgia Bulldogs (+350), the winners of the 2022 and 2023 national titles. Next up is the Alabama Crimson Tide (+550), with the Ohio State Buckeyes (+500) in third place. The Wolverines (+1000) are in fifth place behind Texas (+850).

Being so early in the offseason, every futures bet is positive, as there’s little room for nuance. Whether wagering on US or Canadian betting sites, many sportsbooks are offering college football national championship odds for the 2024-25 season. Let’s check them below.

College Football Favorites for CFP Championship 2025

Though we’ve just entered the offseason, sportsbooks instantly began offering odds for the upcoming 2024-25 season. Let’s examine the principal individual teams in greater detail to try and gain some insights into next season’s possible winner.

• Georgia Bulldogs – Being passed over by the College Football Playoff committee was a hard pill to swallow, especially for a squad that lost but a single game last year. But one of their elite quarterbacks, Carson Beck, is returning to the fold. Along with incoming transfer Trevor Etienne at running back, this should find them heading toward the apex of the college football mountain.
• Alabama Crimson Tide – It’s been a long wait from when the Crimson Tide were the kings of the world of college football. Thanks to amazing coaching from Nick Saban, bearing the start of the season’s single loss to the Texas Longhorns, they went on to a winning streak of 11 games in a row. With Jalem Monroe, an elite offensive player in the SEC, under the sure-footed guidance of Saban, expect Alabama to shine.
• Ohio State Buckeyes – Unfortunately, a tight defense isn’t going to help bring any trophies home if the offense is lacking. With three straight losses to Michigan, it’s fair to say starting quarterback Kyle McCord can’t catch every ball thrown his way. With McCord off to the Syracuse Orange, there’s the question of the performance of his replacement, Kansas State Wildcats Will Howard.
• Michigan Wolverines – Once the dust has settled after their CFP National Championship win, all eyes will be on whether coach Jim Harbaugh will stay put or go to the NFL. Keep in mind Harbaugh has close professional ties with the Las Vegas Raiders, Los Angeles Charges, and the Chicago Bears. If he were to jump ship from Ann Arbor, he’d leave some large shoes to fill. There’s a possibility the assistant coaches would follow him. Adding to the unknown, it appears quarterback J.J. McCarthy will be declaring for the 2024 NFL Draft.
• Texas Longhorns – Last season was the first time Texas has appeared in the CFP since 2009 after winning the Big 12 for the first time. Still, even though they were eventually stopped in the Sugar Bowl by Washington’s strong offense, it proved a step in the right direction for head coach Steve Sarkisian. Quarterback Quinn Ewers, with a 22-to-6 TD-to-INT ratio in 2023, will continue to play. Hopefully, the taste of success is going to energize the Longhorns to improve their game after a decade of mediocrity.

Final Whistle

In truth, it’s far too early to be thinking about the results of the 2024 college football season. Let alone the 2025 season. Yet, when September rolls around, everything could have changed. After all, there’s the busy transfer portal to contend with. Though this represents a great opportunity for players to try other teams, it also means it’s almost impossible for bettors from Canada to second-guess any eventual squad’s lineup. To that end, it might be a better idea to wait until September before making any online sports betting picks.

Main Image: Kimberly P. Mitchell / USA TODAY NETWORK