Heisman Trophy 2025 – Betting Guide & Candidates

With the 2025 college football season set to get underway in late August, futures odds betting is getting heated. The most prestigious award in college football is the Heisman Trophy and it’s always a fun bet. There’s a good chance that a quarterback wins the award this season with a number of strong candidates on the board. In fact, on the early odds 13 of the top 14 favorites were signal-callers with Texas’ Arch Manning and LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier heading the pack. A QB winning the award isn’t a cinch, though the position has won 18 of the last 23 Heisman Trophies that were awarded. Running backs have won the most awards with 40, though the last to do it was Derrick Henry a decade ago.

2025 Heisman Trophy

Betting futures is a risky endeavor since so much can happen between now and the end of the college football season. First, a player needs to stay healthy to accumulate the stats needed for the award. And second, while the award is based on regular season production, the winner typically plays on a team with national championship aspirations. It’s a good strategy to target players, more specifically skill position players, on teams with a legitimate chance at a title. That wasn’t necessarily the case last year when Travis Hunter won the award. But Hunter wasn’t your typical college football player, either, seeing significant playing time on both sides of the football as a corner and receiver. Many felt runner-up Ashton Jeanty deserved the award after rushing for over 2,000 yards, but he was unable to break the drought for running backs. With all the talented QBs ready to go this season there’s a strong chance one of them breaks through. The position had finished among the top two in votes in 13 of 14 seasons with 12 winners prior to 2025. And in eight of those 12 winning seasons a QB also finished second. So, was last year the beginning of a trend or the once a decade anomaly?

2025/26 Heisman Trophy Betting Odds

Arch Manning +503

Garrett Nussmeier +854

Jeremiah Smith +980

Cade Klubnik +1005

LaNorris Sellers +1407

Julian Sayin +1809

Drew Allar +2010

DJ Lagway +2211

John Mateer +2613

Dante Moore +2814

Carson Beck +2814

Avery Johnson +3015

Ty Simpson +3115

Jackson Arnold +3316

All Others +3500 and higher

2025 Heisman Trophy Contenders

Favorites

QB Arch Manning

Given his pedigree and the fact that the Texas Longhorns are a favorite to win the SEC, Manning is getting plenty of action on the futures board. Arch has big shoes to fill with that last name and there’s no denying he’s a talented player. However, he’s thrown fewer than 100 passes during his collegiate career and has just two career starters entering the 2025 campaign. He had fantastic numbers in those starts throwing for 583 yards and four touchdowns completing more than 68 percent of his throws and the Horns scored 86 points. But those were against ULM and Mississippi State.

QB Garrett Nussmeier

Nussmeier has a strong lineage as well as the son of Doug, who won the FCS equivalent of the Heisman Trophy, the Walter Payton Award, in 1993. Nussmeier backed up 2023 Heisman winner Jayden Daniels at LSU and took over last season leading the SEC in pass attempts and pass completions. He threw for 4,052 yards and 29 TDs completing 64.2 percent of his passes. The Tigers bolstered their supporting cast by adding several transfer receivers to team up with last season’s top target, Aaron Anderson.

WR Jeremiah Smith

The only non-quarterback among the top 14 favorites on the odds board is Ohio State receiver Jeremiah Smith. As a true freshman last year Smith was a key player in the Buckeyes road to the national championship. He led the Big Ten with 1,315 receiving yards and 15 TDs on 76 receptions averaging more than 17 yards a catch. In the title game win over Notre Dame, Smith amassed 88 yards and a TD on five catches becoming a known commodity in the process. Smith has a new QB this year and he will also draw plenty of attention that could impact his numbers.

Longshots

QB Drew Allar

There is something to be said about experience with Allar entering his third year as Penn State’s starter. He will be the focal point of the offense as a true dual threat and will garner some recognition. Should PSU knock off their nemesis Ohio State when the teams meet in November Allar should get serious consideration. In 2024 Allar led the Big Ten with 24 TD passes and he tossed 23 last year with 3,327 yards. He also rushed for 302 yards and six scores.

QB Dylan Raiola

The highly touted freshman delivered, sort of, in his first year. Raiola led Nebraska to its first winning season in eight years, though it could have been much better. The Huskers started 5-1 then limped to the finish line with one win in their last six games. There was a lot of pressure on the kid to deliver and he had a nice season completing 67.1 percent of his passes for 2,819 yards and 13 TDs. He did toss 11 picks and was sacked a lot causing the offense to sputter. An upgraded roster and a year of experience will help.

2025 Heisman Trophy Prime Free Picks

If things go right there are some longshots that are worth looking at. LaNorris Sellers led South Carolina to nine wins and the Gamecocks lost heartbreakers to Bama and LSU by a total of five points. But if things go according to plan Manning is the pick.