Of the big name, Division 1 schools, the usual names are at the top of the list for best odds to win the National Championship for the 2009 season. And for college football betting, it’s much more of a sure thing (if one exists) that you’ll see one of these teams (or two) battling it out in the title game than if it were NCAA basketball. In fact, typically the only drama surrounding these seasons is who will go the longest without losing a game. That said, let’s take a quick look at the usual suspects and see where your gambling money is best played early on.

No surprise, Florida leads the pack with 2/1 odds to repeat as National Champs. As tired as the rest of the country must be getting to see orange and blue, you can bet Gators fans are eating it up (or chomping it up). Will Florida run the table this year? If you look at their schedule, they certainly could. It looks outside of Georgia and maybe Arkansas, both of which are home games anyway. Could that be a concern, though, if other big-timers like Oklahoma or Ohio State also finish with perfect records, or all three teams chalk up one loss? The BCS can be unforgiving even to the generally perceived deserving team. While Florida can’t be concerned with that on the field, you probably should be behind the scenes as a gambler. If anything would hold me up from betting the farm on the Gators just yet, that’d be it.

Speaking of Oklahoma, the Big 12 powerhouse takes the pre-season best odds of its tough conference at 9/2, just a shade over Florida for best in all of college football. If you know the Big 12, you know no team can escape at least 2 or 3 tough games because there are just so much depth in the conference…and that’s not even mentioning the conference title game, which counts against their regular season record like it were any other game. All I have might have to say here is Sam Bradford returning, although it doesn’t hurt that DeMarco Murray is joining him. They do have a lot of lineman to replace, though, and the defense will need to fill some upperclassmen holes, as well. Can the rest of the team grow up to the level of their QB? I’d say it’s a safe bet.

In future articles we’ll look at a few more teams, ones that have a shot at an upset bid even though they might not be on your radar just yet.