College Football Futures: Best Early Bets for 2022-23 National Champion
On January 10, 2022, the Georgia Bulldogs became National Champions. After knocking off Alabama in the CFP Championship, Georgia put together one of the best defensive seasons in recent memory, holding teams to 4.06 yards per play while allowing just 253.1 yards per game.
As we move focus onto next season, it’s going to be extremely hard to evaluate teams this early prior to next season. With the transfer portal going off and thousands of prospects yet to have a home, we’ll just go off what we know right now.
This year’s offseason already included many coaching changes includes head coaches like Lincoln Riley at USC and Brian Kelly at LSU. Florida added Billy Napier and Oklahoma added Brent Venables. And let’s not forget the Miami found a way to bring in Mario Cristobal.
So there’s a lot of moving pieces but we’ll try our best to find the best value on teams for this upcoming season.
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Early College Football 2022-23 National Champion Odds
Where's The Value?
Ohio State
I think it was pretty clear this year that Ohio State's offense could've dominated any opponent, even if it was Georgia this year. Next year, Ohio State won't have Garrett Wilson or Chris Olave, but C.J. Stroud will be back under center with Tre Henderson at running back and Jaxon Smith-Njigba at wide receiver. The offense also saw Marvin Harrison Jr. explode towards the end of the season.
So basically, the offense will have so much star power and while the defense hasn't been electric in the last couple of seasons, the offense will do more than enough to win games next season. Ohio State will be back in the mix and with a +800 tag, there's value.
South Carolina
Yes, I'm becoming a believer in South Carolina football. Shane Beamer has done an excellent job at turning this program over and just won a bowl game over North Carolina with a bunch of players out on the defensive end. Now he's bringing in Spencer Rattler and Christian Beal-Smith to run the offense.
South Carolina's dangerous. They always recruit solid defenses and great corners. But now this team should have an offense that could put up points. At +15000, taking a flier on South Carolina is worth it.
Teams You Should Stay Away From
Alabama, Georgia
Why take Georgia or Alabama at +200? In the final game of the season, Alabama was a +130 underdog just to win the National Championship game. There's no value at +200 with any team. Clearly, Georgia and Alabama will be heavy favorites to get back to the big game, and it's deserving. But there's no way I'd bet those two teams at just +200 right now.
Texas A&M
The Texas A&M Aggies are always exciting to start the season. But even after Jimbo Fisher knocked off Alabama, the Aggies ended up losing four games and came nowhere close to a championship. Every year, it's next year for Jimbo. Now with Max Johnson at quarterback for the Aggies, it's going to be difficult to win a whole lot of games.
Johnson showed plenty of signs of potential with LSU but always made decisions a split too late. He's still in the SEC and defenses are still going to give him trouble. Stay away from Texas A&M.
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Jason Radowitz is a featured writer at BettingPros. For more from Jason, check out his archive and follow him @Jason_Radowitz.