What Are the Odds of a Pac-12 Team Winning 2021 National Title?

Now that Alabama has claimed another national championship to officially end the weird 2020 college football season it's time to look ahead to the 2021 season.

No Pac-12 team finished among the top 15 in the final College Football Playoff rankings, but maybe next season will be different if the conference returns to a normal, 12-game regular-season schedule.

BetOnlin.ag has provided early odds for each team's chances of winning the national championship. Not surprisingly Alabama is the favorite to capture the national title, but the Tide is only a slight favorite over Clemson and Georgia, both of whom will have quarterbacks from California running the show -- USC transfer JT Daniels at Georgia and DJ Uiagalelei at Clemson, assuming Trevor Lawrence turns pro.

A lot of Pac-12 teams have their starting quarterback returning in 2021, and Cal is one of those teams, with Chase Garbers back next fall. Cal also has received encouraging news regarding the return of senior starters Elijah Hicks, Kuony Deng, Josh Drayden, Michael Saffell and Cameron Goode, but BetOnlin,ag puts Cal at the long opening odds of 250-to-1 to win a national title. So a $10 bet on the Bears would earn $2,500 if Cal goes all the way.

That places Cal in a tie for seventh among Pac-12 teams, behind USC, Oregon, Washington, Arizona State, Utah and UCLA.

The Pac-12 team with the shortest odds is USC at 33-to-1, which puts the Trojans as the ninth-highest favorite. At least one team from each of the other Power Five conferences is ahead of USC.

Oregon is next among Pac-12 teams at 40-to-1, followed by Washington at 50-to-1, Arizona State and UCLA at 100-to-1, Utah at 150-to-1, followed by Cal, Stanford, Colorado and Washington State all at 250-to-1.

Oregon State has the longest odds among Pac-12 schools at 500-to-1, but even that is ahead of the one team with the longest odds in the country -- Kansas at 1,000-to-1. Les Miles' challenge is just a bit different from what he faced at LSU, where he won a national title.

Odds to Win 2022 NCAAF Championship

Alabama 7/2

Clemson 4/1

Georgia 4/1

Ohio State 13/2

Oklahoma 15/2

Iowa State 25/1

Florida 28/1

Notre Dame 28/1

USC 33/1

LSU 40/1

North Carolina 40/1

Oregon 40/1

Texas 40/1

Texas A&M 40/1

Wisconsin 40/1

Miami (FL) 50/1

Michigan 50/1

Penn State 50/1

Washington 50/1

Cincinnati 66/1

Oklahoma State 66/1

Auburn 80/1

Arizona State 100/1

Indiana 100/1

Iowa 100/1

Kentucky 100/1

Ole Miss 100/1

Pittsburgh 100/1

Tennessee 100/1

UCLA 100/1

West Virginia 100/1

Utah 150/1

Arkansas 200/1

Florida State 200/1

Kansas State 200/1

Northwestern 200/1

TCU 200/1

Boston College 250/1

California 250/1

Colorado 250/1

Georgia Tech 250/1

Louisville 250/1

Michigan State 250/1

Minnesota 250/1

Mississippi State 250/1

Missouri 250/1

Nebraska 250/1

Purdue 250/1

South Carolina 250/1

Stanford Cardinal 250/1

Texas Tech 250/1

Virginia Tech 250/1

Washington State 250/1

Arizona 300/1

Coastal Carolina 300/1

NC State 300/1

Virginia 300/1

Appalachian State 500/1

Army 500/1

Baylor 500/1

Boise State 500/1

BYU 500/1

Duke 500/1

Houston 500/1

Illinois 500/1

Maryland 500/1

Memphis 500/1

Navy 500/1

Oregon State 500/1

Rutgers 500/1

SMU 500/1

Syracuse 500/1

Tulsa 500/1

UCF 500/1

Vanderbilt 500/1

Wake Forest 500/1

Kansas 1000/1

Cover photo of Chase Garbers by Kelley L Cox, USA TODAY Sports

Follow Jake Curtis of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jakecurtis53

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