The Ohio State football program has clear goals each season: Win the Big Ten, beat That Team Up North, make the College Football Playoff and compete for the national championship.
That’s all. Simple, right?
Even in Columbus, college football is never that straightforward. But with a newly expanded CFP for the 2024 season and a Big Ten membership that has also grown in the offseason, it’s worth wondering for Ohio sports betting just how good the Buckeyes can be this year. OSU has an over/under win total of 10.5 at FanDuel (for regular-season games only), which made us wonder about recent trends for teams with such lofty expectations.
Season Performance Of 10.5 Win Total Teams
Situation | Number of Teams | Percentage |
Under 10.5 Wins | 0 of 8 | 0.0% |
Over 10.5 Wins | 8 of 8 | 100.0% |
College Football Playoff Appearance | 5 of 8 | 62.5% |
College Football Playoff Championship | 3 of 8 | 37.5% |
We researched the past three years to find win totals (or over/under betting on the number of victories for any given college football program) with FanDuel Ohio Sportsbook. Ohio State is at 10.5 wins for the 2024 season. We checked with SportsReference.com to find all teams with a 10.5-win total line in the past seasons and how they performed.
None of them disappointed their backers, at least not on the win total wagers. All eight teams that had totals set at 10.5 regular-season wins since 2021 went over.
That list includes the Buckeyes for each of the past two seasons. The other six teams who cashed over tickets were Georgia in 2021 and ’22, Alabama in 2022 and ’23, Michigan in 2023 and Clemson in 2022. This is certainly a notable trend at Ohio sportsbook apps.
2024 Ohio State Buckeyes Schedule
This year, the CFP field will jump from four teams to 12. Last year that would have helped OSU. Rather than a loss at Michigan derailing their season, the Buckeyes (11-1 after that defeat) would have just fallen down a few seeding lines in a 12-team playoff. Debate all you want about whether expansion is good, but there is no doubt that top-level programs like OSU will be expected to benefit from a larger Playoff field. For instance, Caesars Ohio Sportsbook gives the Buckeyes -600 odds of making this year’s CFP.
Coach Ryan Day’s team certainly appears to have a cakewalk outside of the conference. The Buckeyes play Akron, Western Michigan and Marshall, all at home, before their first Big Ten test. OSU’s first road game is the Big Ten, Sept. 28 at Michigan State. Ohio Stadium then hosts Iowa before OSU faces a long road trip to conference rival Oregon.
Wait, conference rival Oregon? Yes. Remember, the historically Midwestern-based league added four former Pac-12 teams this year: The Ducks are new arrivals in the Big Ten along with Washington, UCLA and USC.
Oregon is one of five teams in the nation with a 10.5 over/under win line, along with Ohio State, Georgia, Notre Dame and Texas.
But most Buckeyes fans will read the 2024 football schedule the way they do every year: From the bottom up. As is, when is the Ohio State vs. Michigan game? This year, it’s Nov. 30 in Columbus, and OSU seeks to snap a three-game losing streak against its biggest rival. Michigan, the defending national champion, is one of 13 teams with an over/under of 9.5 this season.
FanDuel gives the best price among the biggest operators for OSU to win the national championship at +450 odds as of May 16. DraftKings lists the Buckeyes at +425, BetMGM has them at +375 and Caesars gives OSU +350 odds to win it all in 2024.
This is another example of why we recommend that bettors, if they can afford it, should have multiple sportsbook accounts. Shopping for the best lines is a smart way to wager. And check out the best Ohio sportsbook promos at BetOhio.com when you sign up.
USA Today Network photo by Doral Chenoweth/The Columbus Dispatch
