The NCAA football season, which begins on Aug. 24, is a highly anticipated event for sports bettors.
Here's a look at the betting favorites and the best teams ranked by a new college football video game.
What Happened: The 2024-2025 NCAA Football season will be the first to see an expanded 12-team playoff field, which adds to the opportunities for teams and for bettors. ESPN, a unit of The Walt Disney Company DIS, will cover the playoff games.
Here are the current betting odds from DraftKings Inc DKNG to win the 2024-2025 NCAA Football Championship.
- Georgia: +320
- Ohio State: +400
- Texas: +750
- Oregon: +850
- Alabama: +1,400
- Ole Miss: +1,500
- LSU: +1,600
- Florida State: +2,200
- Penn States: +2,200
- Notre Dame: +2,500
- Michigan: +2,500
Georgia was a popular betting pick to win a third-straight championship last year. The team was left out of the then four-team playoff after losing to Alabama in the SEC Championship game.
Michigan won last year's National Championship, but saw the exit of several players for the 2024 NFL Draft and its head coach Jim Harbaugh also move on to the NFL via the Los Angeles Chargers head coaching position.
Interestingly enough, Alabama has its worst preseason championship betting odds since 2008, which comes after making last year's playoffs.
As reported by Fox Sports, the +1,400 figure is the lowest for Alabama to start a season in years. The low odds come after long time head coach Nick Saban retired at the end of last season.
Saban led Alabama for 17 seasons and went 206-29 over his time leading the team, a 87% winning percentage. Saban won six National Championships with Alabama.
Alabama turns to former Washington coach Kalen DeBoer who turned around the Huskies from a 4-8 record in 2021 to 11-2 and 14-1 records in 2022 and 2023 respectively. Washington lost to Michigan in the national championship game for the 2023-2024 season.
Video Game Predictions: For the first time since 2013, video game fans and college football fans had a new NCAA Football game to play on Monday. "EA Sports College Football 25" was released on Monday by Electronic Arts Inc EA and saw server overload due to strong demand.
As gamers look to pick their favorite team or local team to play games or season modes, they can also consider playing with one of the best ranked teams in the game. Here are the top-ranked teams in this year's NCAA Football game.
- Georgia: 95
- Ohio State: 93
- Oregon: 93
- Alabama: 92
- Texas: 92
- Clemson: 90
- Notre Dame: 90
- LSU: 90
- Penn State: 88
- Utah: 88
- Michigan: 88
- Florida State: 88
- Miami: 88
- Texas A&M: 88
- Ole Miss: 88
Of the top-ranked teams, Georgia, Ohio State, Oregon, Alabama, Texas and Clemson also rank in the top 10 for both offense and defense in the game.
This could suggest that those teams have a good chance of winning this year's NCAA Football Championship.
Georgia ranks first for offense and second for defense. Ohio State has the best defense ranking in the game and ranks fifth for their offense. Alabama ranks ahead of Texas in the game. It has the second-best offense score and third-best defense score.
One of the teams that stands out is Clemson, who ranks sixth overall and also ranks fifth for defense (90) and 10th for defense (87). Clemson currently has odds of +4,000 to win the NCAA Championship and odds of +190 to make the playoffs after a 9-4 record last season. The vide game suggests their team could be better than their betting odds.
Utah ranks high in the video game with an 88 score and also ranks 10th best for defense (88). Betting odds for Utah are +6,000 to win a National Championship and +220 to make the playoffs.
Colorado, a popular bet last season, saw increased betting activity thanks to head coach Deion Sanders and national media attention. The new game ranks the team with an 87. It has the eighth-best offense score at 89.
Dual-threat Travis Hunter leads the team with a 95 score. Shedeur Sanders ties for the best quarterback ranking at 93.
The game suggests that Colorado's team could improve on their 4-8 record from last season and be one of the best teams in the league. The betting odds are +25,000 for Colorado to win the championship and +1,400 to make the playoffs.
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