College football season might not begin until mid-August, but the futures market will first move at the end of the spring. By June, college football prep needs to be in top gear.
There is little reason to wait that long. There has not been a head-coaching change in more than a month. Transfers have found their homes. Aside from a few coordinator positions, staff and rosters are what they will be. And no, the spring transfer window rarely features difference-makers.
So, with the intent of grabbing a few college football futures before their odds shorten, let's grab three national championship winners at the best prices available.
3 college football futures to bet now
Penn State (+900 at BetMGM)
The Penn State Nittany Lions are following the template laid out by first Michigan in 2023 and then Ohio State last season. Priority No. 1: Retain top-tier talent, particularly veterans who are considering entering the NFL draft.
When folks criticized the Buckeyes for spending $20 million on their roster last season, a distinction was overlooked. Most of Ohio State’s budget was on its own roster, keeping players like defensive ends Jack Sawyer and J.T. Tuimoloau in Columbus for one more season.
Those veterans led the Buckeyes to the national championship just as much as portal imports like Caleb Downs and Will Howard did.
Penn State has kept its entire backfield in Happy Valley, rather absurd when realizing quarterback Drew Allar would have probably been a mid-round draft pick and both running backs Nicholas Singleton (1,099 rushing yards and 12 rushing touchdowns in 2024) and Kaytron Allen (1,108 rushing yards and eight rushing touchdowns) could have found NFL action in 2025 as well.
That backfield will be even more potent with five starting offensive linemen returning.
But the piece to focus on here is not just the dynamic rushing attack, even if it did lead the way for an offense ranking No. 8 in expected points added per snap and No. 9 in SP+’s offensive considerations. Rather, Allar getting a second season under offensive coordinator Andy Kotelnicki should accelerate his development in a way not usually expected from a senior quarterback.
Kotelnicki created a Heisman contender at Kansas in Jaylon Daniels. Let’s emphasize that: At. Kansas. Then, when Kotelnicki left, Daniels’ development stalled.
There is a very real chance Penn State unlocks a passing game in 2025, as shocking as that sounds for an offense that did not complete a single pass to a receiver in its season-ending Orange Bowl loss.
Combine a full-force offense with a defense returning key pieces in defensive end Dani Dennis-Sutton (two sacks in the Orange Bowl against Notre Dame’s offensive line) and defensive tackle Zane Durant (11 tackles for loss in 2024), and Penn State should be able to navigate a schedule that includes a visit from Oregon and a trip to a probably-only-reloading Ohio State.
Clemson (+2000 at BetMGM)
A common metric to filter national champion hopefuls is the “Blue-Chip Ratio.” The premise is simple. Is at least half the roster filled with four- and five-star recruits? No one has won the national championship in the Playoff Era — four-team or 12-team — without such a roster.
Some might doubt the Clemson Tigers these days, but they are still comfortably above 50% in the Blue-Chip Ratio, and they are led by one of the three active head coaches with a national championship in his career.
Clemson will need to start the season quickly with a Week 1 visit from LSU, but returning four starting offensive linemen as well as two reserves with starting experience should make that an easier prospect, all blocking for senior quarterback Cade Klubnik.
Just because he hasn't matched Deshaun Watson’s or Trevor Lawrence’s college careers, doesn't mean he Klubnik should be dismissed as he often is by fans. Klubnik threw 16 touchdowns on passes traveling 20+ yards in the air last season, a new piece of the Tigers’ offense. Let’s put that into context:
In 2023, Klubnik completed 37.8% of such passes for 458 yards and three touchdowns with three interceptions. Last season, he completed 46.6% for 1,212 yards and 16 touchdowns with still only three interceptions.
To put that another way, Klubnik will be one of the most explosive — and certainly most experienced — quarterbacks in the country in 2025, playing for a title-winning head coach behind an experienced offensive line.
Just like Penn State, then add in an impressive defensive front — four of Clemson’s Top-5 TFL leaders return, led by defensive end T.J. Parker and developing star linebacker Sammy Brown. The Tigers should get past LSU to open the season and then cruise through most of their schedule, no offense to Georgia Tech, SMU, Duke, or Louisville.
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Notre Dame (+2000 at Circa Sports)
It will obviously be a lot to ask the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to reach their second straight national championship game, but they could conceivably pave the same path to Miami that they did to Atlanta in January.
For that matter, Notre Dame will start the 2025 season in Miami, a prime-time game on Labor Day Eve that will catapult one blue blood or the other into immediate Playoff contention.
The Irish never have an easy schedule, and projecting the strength of a schedule months in advance is a fool’s errand, but Notre Dame should be past its two toughest games in 2025 after the first couple, taking an idle week between its trip to Miami and a visit from Texas A&M. And those early challenges should be helped by boasting five returning starting offensive linemen.
Frankly, the Irish offensive line should be the best in the country in 2025. That will help the learning curve of whoever takes over at quarterback, be it steady veteran Steve Angeli, intriguing junior Kenny Minchey, or the most highly-touted recruit of the bunch, sophomore CJ Carr.
The running back trio of Jeremiyah Love, Jadarian Price, and Aneyas Williams will also help that learning curve.
Along with that lofty offensive floor, Notre Dame has far fewer defensive worries than many assume as it loses a pair of dominant defensive tackles, a sixth-year linebacker, and an All-American safety. The Irish will still return multiple starters at every level of the defense.
Notre Dame may float below the national title picture due to its quarterback uncertainty, but any one of the three possibilities could emerge as a worthwhile starter, at least worthwhile enough to win one of those two opening games. Irish head coach Marcus Freeman already knows how to turn a 1-1 start into a national title appearance.
