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David Purdum, ESPN Staff Writer
A new college football season, featuring widespread conference realignment and an expanded playoff, has a familiar look to it at sportsbooks, with perennial powers from the SEC and Big Ten sitting atop the odds to win the national championship.
Georgia and Ohio State have separated themselves from the pack as the consensus national title favorites ahead of the season. The Bulldogs are +300 at ESPN BET, followed closely by the Buckeyes at +325. Oregon (+700) and Texas (+900) are the only other teams with odds shorter than +1000.
Georgia and Ohio State account for nearly 50% of the bets that have been placed on ESPN BET’s title odds and are among eight teams that are odds-on favorites to qualify for this season’s 12-team playoff. Oregon (-350), Texas (-240), Notre Dame (-170), Penn State (-150), Ole Miss (-140) and Alabama (-115) also are odds-on favorites to reach the playoff at ESPN BET.
“All of our most popular teams to make the playoffs are pretty much exclusively in the SEC,” John Murray, executive director of the Westgate SuperBook in Las Vegas, told ESPN.
Ole Miss, Alabama, Tennessee and Texas A&M were among the teams that have attracted the most interest from bettors to make the playoffs, Murray added.
Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel (+600) is the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy. Gabriel moved ahead of Georgia quarterback Carson Beck (+850) and into the role of Heisman favorite in July. In the last 15 years, the preseason Heisman Trophy favorite has won only once (Marcus Mariota in 2014), according to ESPN Stats & Information.
“We definitely don’t want to see Dillon Gabriel win the Heisman Trophy,” Murray said. “That’s a concern.”