Indiana's Preseason Odds to Win College Football National Championship Makes History

Indiana authored one of the most stunning turnarounds in sports history and, in the process, etched its name amongst the biggest longshots to win it all in betting history.

The Hoosiers were +10000 at BetMGM to win the college football national championship in preseason this year and capped off an undefeated season with 27-21 win over Miami in the College Football Playoff finals. Those 100-1 odds makes Indiana the team with the second-longest preseason odds to win a title in sports history.

The team with the longest preseason odds to go on and win the title belong to the 1999 St. Louis Rams. They were 150-1 to win the Super Bowl.

Indiana has a similar story to that Rams team. Like Kurt Warner came from obscurity to win the MVP and lead a long-beleaguered franchise to the Super Bowl in ‘99, Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza went from relative unknown to Heisman winner and national champion for a program that has stunk for almost all of its existence.

Mendoza was a massive +10000 underdog at DraftKings in preseason to win the Heisman. Anyone who backed him was rewarded twice this year!

Let’s take a look at the biggest longshots to cash in each sport.

Longest Odds to Win Title in Every Sport

NFL: Rams +15000 (1999)
CFB: Indiana +10000 (2025)
MLB: Twins +8000 (1991)
CBB: UConn +8000 (2022)
NHL: Hurricanes +6000 (2005)
NBA: Warriors +2800 (2014)

What Indiana did this year was rare. Previously, the team with the longest odds to win the national championship in college football was Auburn in 2010 at +5000. LSU in 2003 and Ohio State in 2014 were +4000 and went on to win it all.

The last five national champions in football had less than +1000 odds and nine of the last 10 fit in that category as well. Ohio State, for instance, was +325 in preseason when it won the title in 2024 and Michigan was +900 in 2023. The only team to win with longer than +1000 odds in the last decade was LSU in 2019 at +3300.

Perhaps NIL will make college football more prone to surprise winners. But if history is any indication, this was a once-in-a-decade thing, not the new norm.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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