The Notre Dame revenge tour is upon us.
After getting snubbed by the selection committee in 2025, Marcus Freeman’s Fighting Irish are on a mission to make everybody pay for their transgressions this season. Freeman turned down NFL interest to complete this task, and the betting market is buying into the hype.
Only Ohio State (+600) has shorter odds to win the national championship than Notre Dame (+650) at bet365 Sportsbook, and no team comes close to the Fighting Irish’s -700 odds to make the College Football Playoff. Indiana has the second-best odds at -340.
There is some important context. As an independent, Notre Dame’s path to the playoff is much softer compared to the other juggernauts. According to ESPN’s FPI model, the Irish have the 56th-toughest schedule in the country.
To put that into perspective, Ohio State ranks eighth in SOS, Texas is third, Georgia is 20th, Oregon is 26th, and Indiana is 33rd. Those are the only other teams under 10/1 to win the national championship.
Notre Dame’s toughest opponents will be BYU, Miami, and SMU, but they get the latter two at home, and they can afford to lose one of those games as long as they take care of business against the cannon fodder on their itinerary. That seems pretty likely, as Bill Connelly’s SP+ rankings project the Irish as three-score favorites in 10 of their 12 contests.
Notre Dame is just +160 at bet365 to run the table in the regular season.
Notre Dame 2026 odds
| Market | Odds |
|---|---|
| Over/Under | 11.5 wins (+160/-210) |
| To make the CFB Playoff (Yes/No) | -700/+450 |
| To win National Championship | +650 |
While you can poke holes in the schedule, it’s hard to find too many flaws in Freeman’s roster.
Not only does Notre Dame have the shortest odds to make the playoff and the highest win total at bet365 Sportsbook, but quarterback CJ Carr is one of the favorites to win the Heisman Trophy and has a case to be tagged as the best signal-caller in the country as a sophomore.
Carr won’t have Jeremiyah Love in the backfield riding shotgun, but he’ll have more than enough talent around him and experience in front of him to get through the first few games of the schedule without much fuss.
By the time things get tougher, the transfers and blue-chip recruits should be all caught up and this should be an elite offense once the regular season clears and the postseason begins.
The defense is just as likely to be a beast, as Freeman brought in havoc-wreakers Bryce Young and Keon Keeley from Alabama to give this unit a bit more snarl up front to complement the elite secondary.
And while there could be some minor growing pains with new faces, they’ll be able to work out the kinks against the likes of Wisconsin, Rice, Michigan State, and Purdue in the first month of the campaign.
Betting on the NFL?
Don’t be shocked if Notre Dame is holding the majority of its opponents to single digits through the first couple of months of the season.
No matter what angle you’re coming from, Notre Dame passes the sniff test. They’ve got a tremendous coach, a Heisman-hopeful quarterback, a terrific defense, and an easy schedule. Oh yeah, they’ve got a massive chip on their shoulder, too.
Notre Dame may not be the most talented team in the country top to bottom, but they’re not that far behind, plus the Irish have just about everything else going for them as we head into a new season.
The Fighting Irish should be the clear favorites to win the national championship.
The Play: Notre Dame to win the national championship (+650, bet365)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
