Even after falling in the Big Ten championship game, Ohio State was listed as the slight favorite to win the national title after the College Football Playoff field was announced Sunday.
Ohio State (12-1) was installed as the +240 favorite by DraftKings, slightly ahead of second choice Indiana (13-0), which was listed at +250. Indiana beat Ohio State 13-10 on Saturday at Indianapolis to clinch the Big Ten title.
Ohio State last won the Big Ten title in 2020 and was kept out of last year’s conference title game after a late-season loss to rival Michigan. But the Buckeyes showed their resilience by winning four games in the College Football Playoff and earned the national title with a 34-23 victory over Notre Dame.
Georgia (12-1) was listed as the third favorite at +600. Oregon (11-1) was next at +750 despite not being one of the four teams that received a first-round bye.
Fourth-seeded Texas Tech (12-1) was listed fifth at +800, while Texas A&M (11-1) was sixth at +1800. The only three-loss team in the field, Alabama (10-3), was tied for the seventh-best odds along with Ole Miss (11-1) and Miami (10-2) at +2500. Oklahoma (10-2) was 10th at +5500.
The longest shots on the board were the Group of Five teams included in the field — James Madison (12-1) at +50000 and Tulane (11-2) at +60000.
First-round CFP matchups will be played on Dec. 19-20 at the home of the higher seeds:
No. 5 Oregon vs. No. 12 James Madison
No. 6 Ole Miss vs. No. 11 Tulane
No. 7 Texas A&M vs. No. 10 Miami
No. 8 Oklahoma vs No. 9 Alabama
No. 1 Indiana will face the Alabama-Oklahoma winner on New Year’s Day at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. No. 2 Ohio State plays the Miami-Texas A&M winner at the Cotton Bowl on New Year’s Eve in Arlington, Texas.
Also on New Year’s Day, No. 3 Georgia meets the Tulane-Ole Miss winner at the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans and No. 4 Texas Tech faces the James Madison-Oregon winner at the Orange Bowl in Miami Gardens, Fla.
