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Indiana apparently did more than win a national championship last season. The Hoosiers also convinced college football bettors that throwing money at a 750-to-1 long shot (and other dark horses) is now a perfectly reasonable preseason activity.
Indiana was available at 100-to-1 to win the national championship before its undefeated title run, one of the biggest futures upsets in modern college football history. Now DraftKings is seeing notable action on Oklahoma State at 400-to-1, Kentucky at 450-to-1 and UCLA at an absolutely deranged 750-to-1, with bettors openly hunting for the next version of the Hoosiers.
Indiana Broke Everyone’s Understanding Of A Long Shot
Before last season, 100-to-1 in college football basically meant, “Thank you for your donation to the sportsbook.” Then Indiana went 16-0.
The Hoosiers entered 2025 with 22 teams carrying shorter championship odds at BetMGM and attracted just 0.8% of the national-title bets and 0.5% of the money. Yahoo Sports noted that their 100-to-1 price made them the longest-shot national champion in its odds database, which dates back to 2001.
Turns out the ticket everybody would normally laugh at was the correct one. The result appears to have broken gamblers’ brains just in time for 2026.
DraftKings sportsbook director Johnny Avello told the Associated Press that a “good amount of money” has landed on Oklahoma State, Kentucky, and UCLA because bettors hope one can become the next Indiana (the Bruins at 750-to-1 is particularly incredible).
NIL And The Portal Made Insane Bets Feel Slightly Less Insane
There is at least some logic behind the newfound optimism.
The transfer portal and NIL have made it possible for programs to transform rosters much faster than they could a decade ago. Indiana itself was the ultimate advertisement, building a championship-caliber roster in two years under Curt Cignetti rather than slowly stacking top-five recruiting classes for half a decade.
Sportsbooks are adjusting to that reality too.
Seven teams enter this season at roughly 11-to-1 or shorter depending on the book, and oddsmakers say roster movement has made the offseason significantly harder to price. A quarterback transfer, unexpected eligibility ruling or expensive portal addition can change a team’s outlook almost immediately.
That does not mean Oklahoma State, Kentucky, or UCLA is about to win the national championship.
Avello made essentially that point himself. Surviving a 12-team playoff still requires enough talent to beat multiple elite teams in succession, and Indiana’s miracle worked because the Hoosiers turned out to be considerably better than almost everyone realized.
But that is the problem Indiana created.
Before last season, a 750-to-1 national-title bet looked ridiculous.
Now some bettor can simply point toward Bloomington and say, “Yeah, but what if?”
One 100-to-1 championship was apparently all it took to turn the college football futures board into a scratch-off aisle.