Ohio State has dropped from being the favorite to win the CFP title to the second-favorite behind Notre Dame. The Buckeyes were originally tied with the Irish as co-favorites, but they are now +700 on FanDuel, slightly behind Notre Dame's +650 odds and tied with Indiana and Texas. Those four teams are ahead of Oregon (+950), Georgia (+1100) and Miami (+1300)
I can't say for sure that this slight adjustment in odds coincides with the decision to hire Arthur Smith as offensive coordinator, but the timing is interesting. Smith was hired to the position last week, replacing Brian Hartline, who left Columbus to take the head coaching job at South Florida in early December.
Notre Dame is the lone favorite for the 2026-27 season National Championship on FanDuel.
— J5 Sports (@J5_Sports1) January 30, 2026
To put this in perspective, FanDuel had Notre Dame at +900 to win the natty when we were considered playoff locks before the playoff committee robbery.
After four years, Marcus Freeman has… pic.twitter.com/dlnLWxTjzz
Buckeyes CFP odds dip slightly after schedule release
More than the Smith hiring, the small drop in Ohio State's odds to win a national championship next season is probably based around the Big Ten schedule release and a much more difficult slate of games than what the Buckeyes experienced last year.
The Big Ten released the full schedule for conference teams Monday night and the Buckeyes will travel to Texas for a non-conference game to complete their scheduled home-and-home series, plus conference games against USC, Oregon, Indiana, Iowa and Michigan.
FanDuel has already released early odds for the Texas game and the Buckeyes are 2.5-point underdogs, so that too could play into this adjustment. At the end of the day, preseason odds are about as meaningful as preseason top-25 polls, preseason All-Americans and any other preseason list you can think of. None of it matters until the whistle is blown.
So don't let a small odds adjustment ruin your day. Ohio State is still going to be one of the best teams in the country next season and Jeremiah Smith will likely be a Heisman contender throughout. Everything else is just good for some fun discussion and speculation because we have a long way to go before we reach September 5.