College football’s national title game is the culmination of two teams clawing their way to the top with hopes of taking home the NCAA championship. The game will feature the two winners of the National semifinal games and typically kicks off at 7:30 p.m. ET.
While we don’t know which teams will vie for the title yet, betting favorites are already beginning to emerge. See below for more on how to bet the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Ohio.
NCAAF National Championship odds
NCAA Championship odds shift as NCAA games ae played and the best showcase their dominance. The NCAA Football Championship odds feed below contains the latest lines for the next College Football championship:
How futures bets work
Futures bets, as you may know from similar bets on the NFL, or have gathered from the name, are wagers on distant, season-long outcomes. As a bettor, you can take a stab at making crystal-ball-worthy predictions about the outcomes of those future events.
In the case of the College Football National Championship, you can start making those predictions pretty much as soon as the previous champion has claimed the crown. Of course, being able to make an accurate pick a year away from the NCAA title game, before any teams have even had spring ball and well before any bowl game invitations have gone out, is next to impossible. That, however, may not be a deterrent for many sports bettors.
With futures bets, the less information that is available, the higher the potential risks and rewards. Sure, you are almost completely guessing when you make a wager a year out from an event, but the gambling odds may be so tempting that you don’t mind making a small wager.
You don’t have to make a bet right when the lines come out, of course. However, the more information that becomes available, the tighter the oddsmakers’ predictions are going to be, which means the odds will narrow down.
You have to ask yourself how much risk you’re willing to take when it comes to a futures bet. Are you going to put your money down when all of the choices are pretty much long shots, or are you going to wait until more information is available and you’re able to make a more informed decision?
The closer the event gets, the tighter the lines become as games take place, additional news becomes available and the best teams begin to rise to the top. As that happens, your own research is going to make for a safer bet as your information gathering process brings in the data you need to make an informed wager. Of course, the odds won’t be as impressive as they were when the lines first came out — that safety net reduces the potential reward as well as your risk.
NCAAF National Championship betting favorites
No matter how far in advance the lines come out for the national championship game, there are always going to be favorites. Leading the pack are some familiar programs that always seem to reload their rosters and win plenty of games. Here are some of the top betting favorites for the College Football National Championship:
- Georgia Bulldogs: There are a lot of scrappy teams in NCAA football, but a team you can never count out of any game or any potential title is the Georgia Bulldogs. They don’t back down from a challenge, they work to win each individual battle at each position and they not only get solid recruits but also have a knack for developing them.
- Ohio State Buckeyes: Was there ever a doubt? Here in Ohio, one thing is for certain, and that is that the Ohio State Buckeyes are going to be on the title hunt. Even in a rare relative down season, they likely still hold title aspirations, and if they get their foot in the door, there is no telling just how far they are going to go.
- Michigan Wolverines: It just feels wrong to say Michigan when you’re talking about potential runs to the title game and you’re from Ohio. Of course, the Wolverines don’t need our support to be capable of winning any game they are a part of, and their ability and coaching are among the best in the country.
College football sleeper picks
Not every team gets the pleasure of being a favorite when it comes to oddsmakers’ predictions. That, however, doesn’t mean those teams are automatically out of the running. Bettors have made plenty of money on the teams that don’t get mentioned in the who’s who of contenders.
Here are some of our favorite sleeper picks and dark horses to take home the NCAA championship.
- Alabama Crimson Tide: Who knew you’d ever see the Tide listed as a potential sleeper? Well, in the 2022-23 season, they are. Losses have knocked them down in the power rankings and folks are talking pretty seriously about their chances at making a surprise run. Based on what we’ve seen from the Crimson Tide in the past, you can expect there to always be a chance for Alabama until there’s not.
- Oregon Ducks: They just breed competent football over at Oregon. While the Ducks aren’t likely to be anyone’s first guess when it comes to the NCAA title, you can’t deny that they have the ability to win some big football games. Combine that with some quality coaching and you have a pretty dangerous team to contend with. It’s always a tough road to the national championship, but Oregon is a team that would love nothing more than to surprise the pundits.
NCAAF championship game bets
Futures are far from the only bets you can place on the college football title game. In fact, they are just a small part of the wagering fun you can have with college football’s crowning event.
Below we’ve outlined the three most common types of bet associated with betting on college football games.
Moneyline bets
Many newcomers to sports betting likely will first turn to betting moneyline, and there’s a good reason for that: It is among the easiest to get the hang of. That’s because all you have to do is pick which team you think is going to win.
Each team will have odds on them winning. A negative number indicates that the team is the favorite to win the game, while a positive number indicates the underdog. Here’s what a hypothetical listing may look like at DraftKings Ohio or the FanDuel Sportsbook app:
| Ohio State Buckeyes | -120 |
| Alabama Crimson Tide | +115 |
What you can instantly take from this listing is that Ohio is favored to win, though not by a lot in the eyes of the oddsmakers. The bigger the gap between the two numbers, the more of a mismatch the oddsmakers are expecting.
In this scenario, if you were to bet on the Buckeyes, a wager of $120 would win a profit of $100 if correct. In that case, your payout would be $220 — your original bet plus $100 in profit. For those leaning toward the Tide, a successful $100 bet would bring in $115 in profit.
You don’t have to wager those specific amounts, of course. Any dollar amount you choose to bet would pay out in the same ratio if correct.
Point spreads
Point spread wagers are a way to even the betting field between two teams. Since it’s the national championship game, expectations may have the two teams as fairly equal. That being said, there is always a favorite and an underdog, and the point spread will even out the game no matter how tightly contested we expect it to be.
The spread number indicates how much the favorite must win by (or more) for bets on that team to win. The underdog has the same number, but it must either lose by fewer points or win the game outright.
We’ll stick with the two teams we used in our example above:
| Ohio State Buckeyes | -3.5 (-110) |
| Alabama Crimson Tide | +3.5 (-110) |
In this example, the Buckeyes are favored to win by four points or more. If they aren’t able to do that, then spread bets on them would lose, and Alabama bettors would win.
For example, if Ohio State won the game 21-18, bets on the Buckeyes would actually be losses since they only won by three. The half point is there to ensure there will be winning bets and losing bets. If the spread was just three points, for instance, and that’s exactly what the Buckeyes won by, then neither side wins, and bets would push, with the sportsbook returning all wagers.
Since the spread works to even the playing field, both teams have the same odds. In this case, a bet of $110 on either side would win a profit of $100 if correct, which is standard for spread bets.
Totals
Unlike the previous two bets, the totals wager doesn’t require you to pick which team is going to win the game. In fact, the winning team doesn’t matter at all.
For a bet on the total, also known as an over/under, the sportsbook will set a line for the combined total score of the game. You can then bet whether the actual combined score will be over or under that line.
Here’s an example of how a totals bet may be formatted at Caesars Sportsbook in Ohio:
| Over | 37.5 (-110) |
| Under | 37.5 (-110) |
Again, the half-point exists to ensure there are winners and losers with this wager. Since there can’t be a half-point in a football game, the two teams can’t end exactly on the line.
Let’s say Ohio State wins the game, like in the example above, 21-18. If you add those two numbers together, the total is 39 — just above the line. In that case, those who bet on the over would pocket winnings.
Live betting odds for college football
One of the beautiful things about technology is how it can add new experiences to age-old activities. In the world of sports betting, that has proven true not only with online sportsbook apps, but also with live betting.
Live betting, or in-game betting odds, allows you to wager on the College Football National Championship Game while the action is unfolding on the field. These bets are often prop bets or over/unders, and the odds and available bets will shift to reflect what is happening in the game.
While you’ll have a large variety of betting options when you participate in live betting, here are some examples of the kinds of wagers you might see:
- How will the next touchdown score: pass, run or defense?
- Will there be a fourth-quarter comeback victory?
- Will Player X have over/under 100 yards rushing in the first half?
- Will there be a pick-six in this quarter?
- Will the next punt be blocked?
That is just a very small sample of some of the bets you’ll potentially see at the sportsbook you’ve decided to use for live betting. Depending on which book you’re using, the variety can be quite extensive.
Recent title winners
The current setup for the NCAA championship — known as the College Football Playoff or CFP — has been around since 2014. Before that, there was the BCS championship. Here are the 10 most recent national championship games and the winners of each:
| Year | Champion | Runner Up | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Alabama 52 | Ohio State 24 | CFP |
| 2019 | LSU 42 | Clemson 25 | CFP |
| 2018 | Clemson 44 | Alabama 16 | CFP |
| 2017 | Alabama 26 | Georgia 23 | CFP |
| 2016 | Clemson 35 | Alabama 31 | CFP |
| 2015 | Alabama 45 | Clemson 40 | CFP |
| 2014 | Ohio State 42 | Oregon 20 | CFP |
| 2013 | Florida State 34 | Auburn 31 | BCS |
| 2012 | Alabama 42 | Notre Dame 14 | BCS |
| 2011 | Alabama 21 | LSU 0 | BCS |