Notre Dame, Ohio State top CFP odds ahead of Texas
Notre Dame enters the season with a level of respect that it hasn't had in 20 years. The Fighting Irish are co-favorites with Ohio State to win the national championship.
Notre Dame and Ohio State are 6-1 to win the College Football Playoff, followed closely by Texas at 13-2, according to DraftKings odds as of Thursday morning. It's the first time the Fighting Irish have had odds shorter than 10-1 entering a season since 2006, when they kicked off as the national title favorite. For the Buckeyes, it's the second straight season they have started as the title favorites at sportsbooks.
Oregon (15-2), Georgia (17-2), defending champion Indiana (9-1) and Miami (10-1) round out the top tier of contenders.
Oddsmakers say those seven teams are relatively close in their power ratings. Chase Michaelson, college football oddsmaker for Circa Sports, told ESPN that the top three teams -- Ohio State, Notre Dame and Texas -- are within a field goal of each other in his power ratings.
"It's pretty jumbled up at the top, which is why you don't have a team that's a [prohibitive favorite]," Michaelson said.
Only one preseason betting favorite has gone on to win the national championship in the College Football Playoff era (2017 Alabama), and at 6-1, Notre Dame and Ohio State have the longest odds of a preseason favorite in 20 years, matching the Crimson Tide in 2016, according to ESPN Research.
Much of the hype around Notre Dame's chances is related to its schedule. The Fighting Irish's win total is 11.5, the highest in the nation, and they are a massive -800 favorite to make the 12-team playoff. They are expected to be a big favorite in all but one game: Nov. 7 against Miami in South Bend.
"The only two teams that we lose a lot to are Notre Dame and Miami," Michaelson said of Circa's national championship futures market.
LSU (17-1) is the only other team with title odds shorter than 20-1, but the Tigers aren't attracting a ton of interest from bettors.
"I honestly expected more bets around LSU this year, given the popularity and media blitz the team has had the past nine months or so," Seamus Magee, BetMGM trading manager, told ESPN. "I'm wondering if the offseason they've had has ended up rubbing some the wrong way."
In the power conferences, DK Sports has Georgia as the favorite to win the SEC, Miami in the ACC, Ohio State in the Big Ten and Texas Tech in the Big 12.
Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr and Texas quarterback Arch Manning are the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy. Entering the week, Carr and Manning had attracted exactly the same number of bets to win the Heisman at BetMGM sportsbooks.br/]
