2023 College Football National Championship Odds and Picks

The Power Five has morphed into the Big Two over the span of the College Football Playoff era. At the start of the decade, teams from four conferences (sorry PAC 12) were consistently competitive and seen as national championship contenders. However, Oklahoma’s inability to play defense and Texas’ penchant for continually coming up short has left the Big 12 without a national champion winner for the last 17 years. Additionally, both of those schools are set to move to the SEC at the end of this season, making the best conference in college football even better.

As for the ACC, the CFP era started off promising for the conference as Florida State won the last national championship under the old format. Unfortunately, the Seminoles completely fell apart after Jimbo Fisher left for Texas A&M. Clemson stepped up and outperformed FSU with the Tigers going toe-to-toe with Alabama for half a decade thanks to two generational quarterbacks in Deshaun Watson and Trevor Lawrence. This program has taken a big step backwards over the last two seasons though with three losses in each season even though the ACC does not have a lot of strong teams.

All this to say that this year’s national champion is very likely to come from either the SEC or the Big Ten. The top six teams in terms of the college football betting odds are current or soon-to-be members of one of those two conferences, so that’s something to keep in mind when betting on college football futures.

College Football National Championship Odds at BetRivers

Georgia +220
Alabama +550
Ohio State +700
Michigan +900
LSU +1200
USC +1200
Clemson +1700
Florida State +1800
Penn State +2000
Texas +2500
Tennessee +3500
Notre Dame +3500
Oregon +4000

All Other Teams are +5000 or More

Let’s start off by doing everyone a favor and crossing a popular mid-tier longshot off the list. Tennessee will not be winning the national championship, and the Volunteers are very unlikely to win 10 games this season. The Vols are coming off their best season in over two decades under second-year head coach Josh Heupel, but they had the perfect quarterback to run his system in Hendon Hooker. Some media members are trying to hype up Joe Milton, yet while he looks great at times, he is wildly inconsistent. That’s why Milton was originally a starter at both Michigan and Tennessee before conceding the starting role.

We know that Georgia will be a contender all season, but the odds on Georgia to win the national championship aren’t good enough to warrant a futures bet. The Bulldogs have won the last two national championships, and they did it with a walk-on quarterback in Stetson Bennett, as Kirby Smart has turned Athens into East Tuscaloosa with his ability to reload with elite talent. The last team to win three national championships in a row was Minnesota back in the 1930s though, so history is very much against Georgia.

Alabama is a tempting bet at this price considering the talent at the quarterback position and in the secondary. Jalen Milroe flashed at times for the Crimson Tide as a freshman, and they also brought in Tyler Buchner from Notre Dame. Kool-Aid McKinstry and Malachi Moore are both elite defensive backs too, so teams will have a hard time throwing on this secondary.

If Ohio State can get decent quarterback play, the Buckeyes are going to be a real title contender too. Marvin Harrison Jr., Emeka Egbuka, and Carnell Tate are the best trio of receivers in the country, and the Buckeyes boast two future NFL running backs to round out the skill positions. The offensive line and defensive line are both question marks, but this is a decent price considering how consistently elite Ohio State has been over the last decade.

When it comes to the bet with the most value on the board, I’m going to zag and partially ignore my advice from up top. I absolutely LOVE Clemson to win the national championship at 17-1. The program had gotten stale as Dabo Swinney was reticent to push players out of the door or bring in new coaches, but that changed this offseason. Garrett Riley is seen as one of the sharpest offensive minds in the sport, and he should revitalize an office that had been languishing. He will have the benefit of continuity too as Clemson is the one program that seemingly operates outside the modern transfer portal era, and that has the potential to make a humongous impact.