2025-2026 College Football Betting Online
The 2025-2026 college football betting preseason favorites are the Texas Longhorns and Ohio State Buckeyes. The Buckeyes are the reigning College Football Playoff champions, as they defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, winning 34-23. Ohio State will begin the 2025-2026 college football season as the second choice in the NCAA football betting odds behind the Texas Longhorns. Other top contenders are the Georgia Bulldogs, Oregon Ducks and Penn State Nittany Lions. Other teams to watch include the Alabama Crimson Tide, the College Football Playoff runner-up, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Tennessee Volunteers, LSU Tigers, Mississippi Rebels and Clemson Tigers.
College Football Betting Lines
The Texas Longhorns will feature quarterback Arch Manning who takes over for the departed Quinn Ewers. Manning is one of the top contenders to win the Heisman Trophy in 2025. While the Longhorns are listed as the preseason betting favorite to win the 2025-2026 College Football Playoff, they will have to overcome one negative trend. The preseason betting favorite to win the national title has not won it all since 2017 when Alabama won the national championship.
The College Football Playoff was a rousing success in 2024-2025, as the field expanded to 12 teams for the first time ever. The Ohio State Buckeyes ended up defeating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to win the national title. There could be some tweaks coming to the format next season because the seeding process did not work as intended. Many of the early games were blowouts and even though Notre Dame put up a decent fight against Ohio State, many people will say that the real title game took place in the Cotton Bowl Classic with Ohio State winning over Texas. There were a few good games in the College Football Playoff, including the Orange Bowl where Notre Dame and Penn State combined to score 31 points in the fourth quarter with the Fighting Irish winning on a last second field goal. As already noted, the Cotton Bowl Classic was perhaps the real title game and it was a thriller as Texas had it first and goal on the one-yard line against Ohio State trailing 21-14 with just over two minutes remaining. The Longhorns lost seven yards on a running play on first down and then on fourth down, quarterback Quinn Ewers was sacked and fumbled and Ohio State returned it for a touchdown to win 28-14.
The 2025-2026 college football season will begin on Saturday, August 23, 2025 with Week Zero action.
The National Championship Game will be held on Monday, January 19, 2026.
College Football Playoff National Championship Game Recap
The Buckeyes were the best team in the 2024-2025 College Football Playoff. Ohio State was the favorite to win the title and they delivered, beating Notre Dame by a score of 34-23 in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The Buckeyes became the first two-loss national champion in eighteen years. For the first forty minutes of the national title game, Ohio State was significantly superior against the Fighting Irish; nevertheless, in order to win, they had to withstand a late surge by Notre Dame.
With 12:46 remaining in the third quarter, Ohio State had taken a 31-7 lead before Notre Dame scored 16 points in a row. With 4:15 remaining, Riley Leonard hit Jaden Greathouse for a 30-yard touchdown and a two-point conversion, cutting the Irish's advantage to eight. However, Will Howard hit freshman sensation Jeremiah Smith for a long completion on a third down and Ohio State added a field goal for the final margin of 34-23.
Ohio State took care of business in the first round of the College Football Playoff and routed Tennessee, winning 42-17 and they got revenge over Oregon in the Rose Bowl, winning 41-21. The Buckeyes were able to get past Texas in the Cotton Bowl Classic winning 28-14. That semifinal matchup was much closer than the final score would indicate, as the Buckeyes needed a goal line stop with just over two minutes remaining to beat Texas. The Buckeyes got a long fumble return for a touchdown to make the final margin 14 points.
2024-2025 College Football Schedule
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