College Football Early Odds: Can Surprise Team Crash the CFP Party?

Heisman Winner Caleb Williams Leads List of Top Returning Players

The 2023 college football season is still months away from the beginning. However, thanks to the transfer portal chaos, there is never a slow news cycle in the college football world.

Most of the top transfers have found new schools and the deadline for players with remaining eligibility to enter the NFL Draft has passed. With that in mind, this is the best time to look at the college football early odds.

The list of the top contenders won’t be a surprise to anybody. However, Texas Christian proved last season that is not where you are in January, June or even August that matters.

Familiar Names at the Top

There aren’t too many surprises when looking at the front-runners to win it all during the 2023 season.

Two-time defending champion Georgia Bulldogs leads the way at +325 followed by SEC rival Alabama Crimson Tide (+500), Ohio State Buckeyes (+600) and Clemson Tigers (+850) according to the college football early odds.

Each of those teams will have different starting quarterbacks than they had at the start of the 2022 season with Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Alabama’s Bryce Young and Georgia’s Stetson Bennett headed to the NFL while D.J. Uiagalelei transferred to the Oregon State Beavers after Cade Klubnik became the top QB with the Tigers.

Young (-130) and Stroud (+250) are the top two choices to be the No. 1 overall pick while the best odds at the current time have Bennett not being drafted.

Clemson is the big mover, going from +1200 to +850 in the title odds. If there is a surprise, it could be that Michigan joins USC at +1200. The Michigan Wolverines have lost some players through the transfer portal. Still, with quarterback J.J. McCarthy and running back Blake Corum both returning, the Wolverines have a chance to make it three straight trips to the College Football Playoffs and they will be pretty high when the NCAAF rankings start to come out.

Keep an eye on the college football spreads for some of the intriguing Week 1 games that include LSU Tigers and Florida State Seminoles playing in Orlando, Colorado heading to TCU Horned Frogs, and Ohio State playing at Indiana.

Who’s the Next TCU?

There has been a party crasher in each of the last two seasons. It was Cincinnati Bearcats during the 2021 season and then Texas Christian made it all the way to the national championship game last season following a 5-7 season.

In a world dominated by the transfer portal, a team can make such a jump. That happened a season ago when new USC coach Lincoln Riley put together the top class of incoming transfers and if not for a loss to Utah in the Pac-12 title game, the USC Trojans would have been in the CFP field.

According to the 247sports.com database, the programs bringing in the top collection of transfers are Louisiana State, Florida State Auburn, Colorado and USC and they are showing up among the college football early odds.

USC is referenced above as one of the top contenders. LSU isn’t far behind at +1400 and there are some who consider Florida State, priced at +1800 to win it all, as the NCAAF team capable of dethroning Clemson in the ACC.

Penn State would probably have better odds than +2500 if not for the annual matchups with Ohio State and Michigan. Could this be the year when the Penn State Nittany Lions prove to be on equal footing with the Big Ten’s Super Powers?

Washington’s odds have moved from +4000 to +3300 and the Washington Huskies are certainly a team to keep an eye on.

It is really hard to know what to make of Colorado. The Buffaloes hired Hall of Fame cornerback Deion Sanders away from Jackson State and he has not been shy about using his celebrity status to entice players to come to Boulder. The Buffaloes are currently at +10000 in the championship odds.

What about the TCU Horned Frogs? They come in at +6600 as perhaps they will take a step back. Then again, at this point last year they weren’t viewed as a national title contender.

Handicapping the Heisman Race

With Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams returning to Southern California, he is the favorite to join former Ohio State running back Archie Griffin as the only player to win the Heisman in back-to-back years.

He is joined by a host of quarterbacks at the top of the Heisman Trophy candidate list.

North Carolina Tar Heels Drake Maye is coming off a brilliant redshirt freshman season and he will be slinging it again for the Tar Heels. While Williams is priced at +500 to win the Heisman, Maye is right there at +550.

Florida State QB Jordan Travis went from throwing for 1,539 yards and 15 touchdowns as a sophomore to 3,214 yards and 25 TDs as a junior. He comes in at +800.

Michael Penix and Bo Nix thrived at Washington and with the Oregon Ducks in 2022 after transferring in from Indiana and Auburn – and more is expected from them.

They are two of three players at +1200. The other is former Wake Forest QB Sam Hartman, who is now at Notre Dame.

Ohio State’s Kyle McCord (+2000), Penn State’s Drew Allar (+2200), Georgia’s Brock Vandagriff (+2500) have thrown 58, 60 and 3 career passes at the collegiate level. However, they are considered to be Heisman candidates.

The first non-quarterback on the list is Corum (+3300). He is followed by Penn State running back Nicholas Singleton and the Ohio State duo of running back TreVeyon Henderson and receiver Marvin Harrison. All three of them are priced at +5000.

Want more articles like this? Check these out:

• NCAA Transfer Portal Update: Florida State Seminoles, USC Trojans Cleaning Up
• Odds to Win 2024 NCAA Football Title: Bulldogs Favored to Complete the 3-Peat
• Final NCAAF Championship Odds: Defending Champs Still Double-Digit Favorite
• CFP Final Props Betting Spotlight
• CFP National Championship Odds: Defending Champion Georgia, Double-Digit Favorite