Knowing which teams rank among the top contenders for the 2025 college football championship odds is crucial. The season is officially underway after the handful of games played this past weekend, while the majority of teams will kick off on Labor Day weekend. Last season was filled with drama, so if this year is anywhere close, it should prove quite entertaining. But which teams are best poised to make a run at the championship? We’ll identify those, as well as a few dark-horse teams that could surprise.
Texas Longhorns (+550)
Texas enters the season as the No. 1 team in the country according to the AP Poll and the 2025 college football championship odds board. While they saw 12 players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft, their recruiting efforts, combined with their depth, put them in the top spot.
That’s before you mention Arch Manning, who steps into the full-time starting quarterback role. Manning showed flashes in the games he started for an injured Quinn Ewers. Now, we’ll get to see if that was a flash in the pan or if there’s even more to come. With Manning’s upside and athleticism, he could be in contention for both the Heisman Trophy and the favorite to be selected first overall in next year’s draft. FanDuel offers one of the better prices on the Longhorns at +550.
Penn State (+700)
While the defending champion Ohio State Buckeyes are ahead of Penn State on the odds board, they have lost significant talent and experienced turnover on their coaching staff. One of the most important moves was hiring Jim Knowles as defensive coordinator, who helped the Buckeyes achieve the best defense in the FBS last season.
Penn State returns both 1,000-yard running backs in Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen, and made considerable moves to address their weakness at wide receiver. They also return Drew Allar, who could be in Heisman consideration. College Football writer Phill Steele has the Nittany Lions ranked as the No. 1 offensive line unit, the No. 3 defensive line unit, and the No. 4 defensive backs unit. This year could be when everything lines up for Penn State. Currently, DraftKings posts one of the better value lines for the Nittany Lions at +700.
Clemson (+1200)
The Clemson Tigers will likely have a less forgiving road than the first two teams. The SEC and Big Ten have proven to be gauntlets week in and week out, while the ACC is quite top-heavy. They won’t be able to ease into things, as they host the LSU Tigers in their first meeting since LSU defeated Clemson in the 2020 National Championship game.
Like Penn State, Clemson returns a veteran quarterback in Cade Klubnik. While he didn’t quite live up to the billing early on in his hyped career, he showed what many had expected from him, throwing for 36 touchdowns and just six interceptions and 3,639 yards. He added 463 yards and seven touchdowns on the ground.
They have plenty of talent on the defensive side of the ball, including defensive tackle Peter Woods and edge rusher T.J. Parker, whom Field Yates recently put in the top ten of a 2026 NFL Mock Draft. Among the 2025 College Football Championship odds, Clemson packs plenty of value, the best of which seems to reside at FanDuel, who offer +1200 on the Tigers.
Texas A&M (+5000)
File Texas A&M in the “Worth Consideration” folder as Mike Elko enters his second year with the Aggies after leading them to an 8-5 record. They notched some impressive wins against Florida, Arkansas, and LSU. If they had defeated Texas in the final week, they would’ve played for the conference championship. While they fell, the Aggies kept things close at 17-7.
However, a significant part of the reason for this wager is that the Aggies have the most substantial odds discrepancy. They can be found as low as +2400 to win it all on Bally Bet, but as high as +5000 at ESPN Bet. Most of the other shops are between +3000 and +4000, so there’s plenty of meat on the bone at +5000.