The Big 12 could again be the most wide-open conference in college football.
A year after Arizona State and Iowa State played for the Big 12 title after ending the season in a four-way tie with BYU and Colorado, there are five co-favorites to win the conference and eight teams with odds of +1200 or better at BetMGM to get the Big 12s automatic berth in the College Football Playoff.
Kansas State, Arizona State, Baylor, Texas Tech and Utah are all at +600 to win the Big 12 and four of those teams return their starting quarterbacks from the 2024 season. Avery Johnson is back for K-State, Sam Leavitt returns after a breakout season at Arizona State, Behren Morton is back at Texas Tech and Sawyer Robertson will be the Week 1 starter for Baylor after emerging over the second half of the season.
Utah, meanwhile, just wants stability and competency at the QB spot. And average play could go a long way for the Utes. After Cam Rising missed much of the 2024 season due to injury and medically retired this spring Utah added former New Mexico QB Devon Dampier via the transfer portal.
Dampier was one of the best dual-threat QBs in the country in 2024. He threw for over 2,700 yards while rushing for 1,166 yards and 19 TDs. He averaged 7.5 yards a carry 0.4 more yards per rushing attempt than he did per pass.
After the top five, BYU is at +900. QB Jake Retzlaff is set to return, though a civil lawsuit was filed against him in May over an alleged sexual assault in November of 2023. Retzlaff has not been criminally charged regarding the matter and his attorney has said that Retzlaff is innocent.
Behind BYU, Kansas and TCU are each at +1200 while Iowa State is at +1400 with Colorado at +1800. The Buffaloes enter 2025 with both Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter in the NFL and a new QB in former Liberty quarterback Kaidon Salter.
With the Big 12 looking like it could be the conference with the most parity in 2025, heres a look at the odds for the other conferences ahead of fall camp.
The Green Wave are the favorites despite losing QB Darian Mensah to Duke in the offseason. Navy is the No. 2 favorite at +325 ahead of Memphis at +550 and UTSA at +700. Defending conference champion Army is at +800 after going 8-0 in conference play before losing to Navy to end the season. Remember, the rivalry game between the two service academies does not count towards the regular season standings.
The Tigers are the prohibitive favorites to win their second straight ACC title after stunning SMU a season ago. Clemson was the only three-loss team in last seasons College Football Playoff and lost to Texas in the first round. Miami is the No. 2 favorite at +350, while Louisville is at +700. SMU is +900 to win the league after making the playoff in its first season in the ACC.
The defending national champions enter as favorites as they get Penn State at home and Michigan on the road in 2025. The Nittany Lions are +240 to win the Big Ten with Oregon right behind at +350. The Ducks went undefeated in the regular season in 2024 and beat Penn State in the Big Ten title game. Michigan is +650 to win the Big Ten and theres a huge chasm between those four teams and everyone else. USC is the No. 5 favorite at +1800 and no other team has odds better than +4000.
The Flames are now the perennial favorites to win Conference USA but came up short in a disappointing 2024. Liberty finished fourth in the league behind Jacksonville State, Sam Houston and Western Kentucky. WKU is at +400 to win the league while Jacksonville State is at +800. In between them are FIU and Louisiana Tech at +700. Both the Panthers and Bulldogs lost eight games in 2024.
The Rockets are slight favorites ahead of Buffalo at +300 and defending champion Ohio at +400. The Bobcats beat Miami (Ohio) for the league title in December. The RedHawks are at +900 and just behind Bowling Green at +800.
The Broncos are the biggest conference favorite in college football despite losing Ashton Jeanty and others to the NFL after a playoff appearance in 2024. UNLV lost to Boise State in the MWC title game a year ago and is at +600. Both San Jose State and Fresno State are at +800. Of the four favorites, only San Jose State will continue in the Mountain West past the 2025 season. The other three schools are off to the Pac-12.
The SEC doesnt have the parity at the top of the board that the Big 12 does, but it also has a lot of teams with decent odds to win the conference. Nine teams have odds of +2000 or better to win the SEC as Georgia is the No. 2 favorite behind Texas at +375. Alabama is +500, with LSU at +800 and Ole Miss at +1200. Texas A&Ms odds are +1400 while Tennessee and South Carolina are at +1800 and Florida is at +2000.
The Dukes have made a seamless transition to the top level of college football. In three years in the Sun Belt, JMU has gone 27-9 and was 9-4 a season ago. Louisiana is +500 to win the league with Texas State and Georgia Southern both at +600. Marshall, which beat Louisiana in the conference title game a season ago, has conference title odds of +2500 after the departure of coach Charles Huff to Southern Miss and a host of players left the program after Huff wasnt retained.