The Heisman Trophy is awarded to the most outstanding player in college football each year. Before the start of each season, oddsmakers set the odds for those players who are most likely to win the award. Recently, being listed as the favorite in the preseason has been all but a guarantee not to win the Heisman (see our table at the bottom of the page for past results).
As of now the top three contenders are all QBs: Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa, and [now] Oklahoma’s Jalen Hurts. Lawrence had a spectacular performance in the championship game and opened as the favorite, but Tagovailoa is now listed as the most likely to win. That said, it is worth nothing that the favorites very rarely end up winning the award. Almost everyone on the list is a QB with just three running backs and two wide receivers having odds posted right now.
Running backs and wide receivers have all but disappeared from the Heisman conversation, and I think you’d be hard-pressed to find a casual college football fan that could name the best running back or wide receiver in the country. In any case, the table below shows the odds on the remaining contenders for this year’s best player in college football from BetOnline.
The Change column shows any movement in the odds since our last update. The last column, titled “Hesiman” represents the implied odds each player has to win the award at the given market odds.
| Player | Class | Pos | School | Odds | Change | Heisman |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tua Tagovailoa | JR | QB | Alabama | +250 | +250 | 18.86% |
| Trevor Lawrence | SO | QB | Clemson | +350 | None | 14.67% |
| Jalen Hurts | SR | QB | Oklahoma | +650 | None | 8.80% |
| Adrian Martinez | SO | QB | Nebraska | +1200 | None | 5.08% |
| D’Andre Swift | JR | RB | Georgia | +1200 | None | 5.08% |
| Jake Fromm | JR | QB | Georgia | +1200 | None | 5.08% |
| Jonathan Taylor | JR | RB | Wisconsin | +1200 | None | 5.08% |
| Justin Fields | SO | QB | Ohio State | +1200 | None | 5.08% |
| Travis Etienne | JR | RB | Clemson | +1200 | None | 5.08% |
| Justin Herbert | SR | QB | Oregon | +1600 | None | 3.88% |
| Sam Ehlinger | JR | QB | Texas | +1600 | None | 3.88% |
| Ian Book | SR | QB | Notre Dame | +2000 | -400 | 3.14% |
| Austin Kendall | JR | QB | Oklahoma | +2500 | None | 2.54% |
| Jerry Jeudy | JR | WR | Alabama | +2500 | None | 2.54% |
| JT Daniels | SO | QB | USC | +2500 | None | 2.54% |
| Kelly Bryant | SR | QB | Clemson | +2500 | None | 2.54% |
| Shea Patterson | SR | QB | Michigan | +2800 | None | 2.28% |
| K.J. Costello | SR | QB | Stanford | +3300 | None | 1.94% |
| Rondale Moore | SO | WR | Purdue | +3300 | None | 1.94% |