College football fans won’t have to wait long to watch a game that figures to have significant conference title implications. The first game of the 2025 season between Kansas State and Iowa State on Aug. 23 in Dublin, Ireland, features two teams that are major players in the Big 12 title race.
From that opening kickoff between the Wildcats and Cyclones to the final snap on conference championship Saturday, there will be a mad scramble to lift the championship trophies. In the Big Ten, defending national champion Ohio State (+195 at DraftKings) is the favorite to win the conference title. Texas (+300 at FanDuel), which lost to the Buckeyes in last season’s CFP semifinal, has the shortest odds in the SEC. In the ACC, Clemson (+160 at Caesars) is favored to win its second straight conference title and third in four years. Meanwhile the sportsbooks disagree on the team to beat in the Big 12. DraftKings has Kansas State (+550), FanDuel says Arizona State (+600), Caesars has Texas Tech (+475), and BetMGM lists both Kansas State and Arizona State (+550).
But with many months until conference championship Saturday, none of those prices gives bettors incentive to tie up their money for that much time. However there are Power Four teams in the conference championship futures market that do offer value. Namely, Lions and Tigers and Bears.
ACC
Georgia Tech (+1400, FanDuel)
Clemson is clearly the team to beat in the ACC this season, but the +160 price is unattractive on the Tigers, especially considering you’ll have to tie up your money for several months even if you cash the bet.
There’s much more value on the longshot Yellow Jackets, who are a program on the rise. Coach Brent Key has remade this roster since being elevated to the top job after the 2022 season. The team has gone 7-6 in each of the last two seasons, but last year the Yellow Jackets knocked off two top-10 teams (No. 10 Florida State and No. 4 Miami) and pushed eventual SEC champion and No. 7 Georgia to eight overtimes before falling 44-42.
This season, gutty dual-threat quarterback Haynes King is back with his no-holds-barred style of play, and the defense has experience at linebacker and in the secondary. The big questions will be how the team will fill holes in the offensive line and make up for the loss of top receiver Eric Singleton Jr. to the transfer portal.
Even though Georgia Tech hasn’t won an ACC championship since 2009, this year’s schedule is favorable. After hosting Clemson in Week 3, the Yellow Jackets could play eight straight games against unranked teams. They don’t have SMU (11-3 last season), Miami (10-3) or Louisville (9-4) on the schedule.
Big Ten
Penn State (+270, DraftKings)
Betting short prices in futures wagers is typically the wrong approach, but this season the Big Ten shapes up to be a Big Three: Ohio State, Penn State and Oregon. (Sorry, Michigan.) As of this writing, DraftKings is offering the same price on the Nittany Lions and Ducks, so Penn State is the pick.
Much already has been written on the virtues of Drew Allar and the Nittany Lions as a national championship contender. But in the Big Ten specifically, Penn State could not have drawn up a more favorable schedule. The Nittany Lions are idle the week before hosting Oregon in State College on Sept. 27 and are idle again the week before going to Ohio State on Nov. 1. Penn State also avoids the Wolverines.
The Nittany Lions will need to maneuver possible trap games at UCLA (the week after hosting Oregon) and at Iowa, among others, but they will be formidable favorites in those games.
Big 12
Baylor (+800, BetMGM and DraftKings)
Arizona State won the conference last season at enormous +10000 odds, and the Big 12 remains arguably the most wide-open conference among the Power Four this year. As a result, the preseason favorites (Kansas State, Arizona State, Texas Tech and BYU) don’t provide the value of a team like Baylor.
The Bears ended last season on a roll, winning their last six regular season games before a loss to LSU in the Texas Bowl, and many of the key pieces from that team are back. Quarterback Sawyer Robertson returns after passing for 3,071 yards and racking up 32 total touchdowns last season while directing the Big 12’s No. 2 scoring offense (34.4 points per game). Over Baylor’s last seven games, the Bears ranked third in the country in points per game (39.9). They also bring back No. 1 receiver Josh Cameron, No. 1 running back Bryson Washington and four of five starting offensive linemen.
The defense must continue to improve. Baylor gave up “just” 386.2 yards per game last season after allowing 421.3 in 2023. But head coach Dave Aranda built his reputation as a defensive wizard and will be calling plays for the second straight season.
Most importantly, no Big 12 team has arguably a better conference schedule than the Bears. Their toughest Big 12 games, on paper, are all at home: Arizona State (Sept. 20), Kansas State (Oct. 4) and Utah (Nov. 5). Baylor’s toughest conference road game figures to be at TCU (Oct. 18). The Bears do not face BYU, Texas Tech or Iowa State.
SEC
LSU (+1000, BetMGM and DraftKings)
Texas and Georgia are clear class of the SEC, and their schedules are set up for a title game rematch in Atlanta in December. But the prices on those teams to win the conference don’t provide any value, and, if you like either the Longhorns or Bulldogs, you may even be able to get better odds during the season after a loss.
So the correct futures play in the SEC is to look elsewhere, and the right team is LSU, though South Carolina at +2500 also is intriguing. Quarterback Garrett Nussmeier (4,052 passing yards, 29 passing touchdowns last season) leads an offense that will feature score-from-anywhere playmakers and won’t need GPS directions to find the endzone. The defense must take another step forward but has the pieces to do so.
If the defense can improve, the Tigers’ SEC schedule is manageable. They do not play either Texas or Georgia. They get Florida, South Carolina and Texas A&M all in Death Valley. Their toughest conference road games come at Ole Miss (Sept. 27), at Alabama (Nov. 8) and at Oklahoma (Nov. 29), but all three of those teams are breaking in new quarterbacks this season.
One conference loss almost certainly should get LSU into the SEC title game, and two losses may just be enough. Georgia reached last year’s title game with two conference losses.
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