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The NFL draft is no longer a cottage industry; it's something that bridges the gap between NFL and college football fans and helps keep the football offseason interesting.
From the Senior Bowl and East-West Shrine Bowl to the NFL Scouting Combine to the actual event itself, the NFL draft is like its own sport. And while the 2025 NFL Draft is about eight months away, NFL front offices are already preparing for it.
But should where prospects sit atop the 2025 NFL Draft odds be taken into consideration when looking at the Heisman Trophy odds? Or should you feel more bullish about the programs they play for when placing a bet on the college football championship odds?
The NFL draft goes hand in hand with college football, and it shouldn't be ignored when placing bets across our best college football betting sites.
How the 2025 NFL Draft can help your college football bets
The best programs in college football get the best recruits in the country and develop them into the best NFL draft prospects. That's not news to anyone; just look at Nick Saban at Alabama. He turned the Crimson Tide into a draft factory with 133 players selected – including 47 in the first round – during his tenure.
You need blue-chip players to win national championships, and often those players are the ones who become first-round picks. That's why Bud Elliott's blue-chip ratio is a helpful tool for finding which teams are actually capable of winning the national championship each year.
Unlike BCR, we only find out how much the NFL values these college stars after the season when the draft takes place in April. But we can still use recent NFL draft history, draftniks' mock drafts, and the NFL draft betting odds to get an idea of which players are among the best in the eyes of the scouts.
Having pro talent should only become more important with the expanded College Football Playoff, too. High-level player and depth are going to be the difference when needing to win three to four do-or-die games.
| Year | National champion | NFL draft picks | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2023-24 | Michigan | 13 | 1st |
| 2022-23 | Georgia | 10 | T-1st |
| 2021-22 | Georgia | 15 | 1st |
| 2020-21 | Alabama | 10 | T-1st |
| 2019-20 | LSU | 14 | 1st |
| 2018-19 | Clemson | 6 | T-7th |
| 2017-18 | Alabama | 12 | 1st |
| 2016-17 | Clemson | 6 | T-8th |
| 2015-16 | Alabama | 7 | T-4th |
| 2014-15 | Ohio State | 5 | T-10th |
Last season, Michigan won the national championship and proceeded to have the most players selected in the 2024 NFL Draft (13). That made the 2024 NFL Draft the fifth straight draft in which the national champion had the most players selected.
During the College Football Playoff era, this has happened six times. The four times it didn't happen are easily explained.
Twice was because Clemson won the title and Dabo Swinney has a strict recruiting process that tends to have the Tigers ranked lower then other powerhouses of the era. He's seeing this process bite him in the backside now with Clemson's recent struggles.
The other two times were when Ohio State and Alabama won it all. While they didn't have the most players selected in the draft directly after their titles, they were both full of pro talent and were among the top programs in the following NFL drafts.
Ohio State led the 2016 NFL Draft with 12 players selected, and Alabama had the second-most in the 2017 NFL Draft with 10.
Regardless, six of the last seven national champs had the most playe rs selected in the NFL draft. So having a strong understanding of which team has the most NFL talent can be a good indicator of who is capable of winning the national title.
Using 2025 NFL mock draft to evaluate CFB, Heisman odds
Being this far out from the draft makes it difficult to project how many players will be selected from the top programs. But Pro Football Network's Ian Cummings, one of the most respected draftniks in the business, recently dropped a seven-round mock draft.
While this isn't a perfect science, it gives us an idea of which of the CFP national title contenders have the most NFL level players on their roster.
| Team | Odds to win CFP (DraftKings) | Players selected in Cummings' mock |
|---|---|---|
| Georgia | +300 | 12 |
| Ohio State | +400 | 11 |
| Oregon | +800 | 9 |
| Texas | +800 | 7 |
| Alabama | +1400 | 9 |
| Ole Miss | +1500 | 6 |
| LSU | +2000 | 6 |
| Penn State | +2200 | 5 |
| Notre Dame | +2500 | 6 |
| Florida State | +2800 | 5 |
The mock draft proves exactly what most people believe: it's Georgia and Ohio State and then a bit of a gap. The Bulldogs and Buckeyes are the best teams in the country heading into the season, and they have the most 2025 NFL Draft talent.
Outside of Georgia and Ohio State, Oregon is the only other team I feel has a true chance of winning it all this season. And it's partly because they have a Heisman candidate at QB, but is Dillon Gabriel really capable of taking home the award?
There was a time when Heisman winners wouldn't even be selected in the first 50 picks of the NFL draft. And then there was a time many of them went on to middling careers before taking jobs in sports media – I'm looking at you, Tim Tebow and Matt Leinart.
Now, this is an award that only really goes to players that end up becoming first-round picks. Most of them have gone on to strong pro car eers, too. Sixteen of the last 17 Heisman winners were selected in the first round – Derrick Henry (45th overall) was the only one who wasn't, and he's turned in a borderline Hall of Fame career.
Since 2010, 10 of the 14 winners were select in the top two picks of the draft. Only one winner since 2017 wasn't taken top two, and that's because DeVonta Smith (10th overall) joins Henry as the only non-QB winner of the award since 2010.
So, not only do you need to be a quarterback to win this award, but it would seem you need to be a quarterback worthy of being a franchise passer in the eyes of NFL scouts.
Obviously, that's not always the case ahead of the season with players like Jayden Daniels and Joe Burrow's Heisman campaigns boosting their draft stock to top-two pick status. But it can still help narrow down which quarterbacks to believe in when betting on a Heisman contender.
Using The Athletic's Dane Brugler's summer scouting of this quarterback class, we can at least get an idea of which passers are viewed as potential franc hise-changing players.
| Quarterback | Heisman odds via DraftKings | Brugler's QB ranking |
|---|---|---|
| Dillon Gabriel (Oregon) | +750 | 14th among seniors |
| Carson Beck (Georgia) | +800 | 1st overall |
| Quinn Ewers (Texas) | +1000 | 3rd overall |
| Jaxson Dart (Ole Miss) | +1400 | 4th among seniors |
| Will Howard (Ohio State) | +1500 | 8th among seniors |
| Jalen Milroe (Alabama) | +1500 | 4th among underclassmen |
| Nico Iamaleava (Tennessee) | +1600 | N/A – not eligible |
| Cam Ward (Miami) | +2200 | 5th among seniors |
| Riley Leonard (Notre Dame) | +2200 | 3rd among seniors |
| Garrett Nussmeier (LSU) | +2200 | Unranked |
Again, these rankings are going to change as more tape on these passers becomes available this season. Other quarterbacks are going to emerge and rise up the rankings, too. Not to mention, non-eligible quarterbacks like Nico Iamaleava have won the award before going on to be top picks (Caleb Williams, Bryce Young).
However, this does make a player like Georgia's Carson Beck seems even more tantalizing as a Heisman candidate. He's viewed as the best QB in the country and playing for the national title favorite that's expected to have the most players selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.
On the other hand, a player like Texas' Quinn Ewers – or even Colorado's Shedeur Sanders – can be easily infatuating because of their NFL draft buzz. But are they really good bets?
How can the 2025 NFL Draft hurt your college football bets?
Way-too-early mo ck drafts began hitting the internet pretty much as soon as Mr. Irrelevant was announced during the 2024 NFL Draft. These mocks are helpful for getting an idea of who could be viewed as a high draft pick, but nobody has watched enough tape to actually know at this point.
A lot of these mocks are built off the idea of projecting what a prospect could be, especially with quarterbacks. The combination of a brand name, strong stats, and playing at a known program can lead to quarterbacks getting dubbed first-round prospects when they aren't exactly that.
Some recent way-too-early No. 1 picks in mock drafts were Spencer Rattler, Sam Howell, Malik Willis, Matt Corral, Jacob Eason, and Jake Fromm. It's fair to assume some of these quarterbacks in the 2025 NFL Draft won't live up to the hype and will not hear their names called on April 24.
I'm sure there are at least a handful of folks out there tha t placed Hesiman futures on those quarterbacks because of all that hype. So while we don't know exactly which passers will see their draft stock take a hit, it's important to not overvalue the buzz, especially when looking at the situation each individual passer is in.
Unlike Beck at Georgia, Ewers returns very little of the same playmakers around him. Texas has to replace its five leading pass-catchers from last season's playoff team, including its leading rusher.
So even if you adamantly believe he's a first-round pick at QB – which I don't – it could be hard for him to hit the ground running with so many new faces brought in via the transfer portal. Not to mention the Longhorns are moving to the SEC, and Arch Manning still looms.
Something else you don't want to get too caught up in is backing a quarterback who may be a legit top NFL draft pick but doesn't have the team around him to necessarily win the Heisman. Last year, North Carolina's Drake Maye fell into this category. This year, it's Sanders.
Just because Sanders is the favorite to go No. 1 doesn't mean he's a steal at +3500 to win the Heisman. The Buffaloes went 4-8 last season and are once again dealing with very little returning production and more roster attrition than any other program in the country.
Putting too much value in NFL draft buzz will hurt you when betting on college football, especially if you ignore the situation a prospect is in, like Sanders at Colorado.
This can be an easy trap to fall into on a Saturday in the fall, too. You might throw on a game with the intentions of backing a team simply because you know their quarterback, running back, or wide receiver is viewed as one of the best in the draft, but that doesn't matter if the pieces around them aren't up to snuff.
The NFL draft – and the data that we have from previous drafts – can inform your college football bets, but it shouldn't make or break them. Situation is everything.
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