Georgia among title favorites, hardened by last year’s fiery games

The start of Georgia’s football season is closing in, just a little more than two months away (Sept. 5), but the anticipation is building.

Preseason polls are approaching, and DraftKings Sportsbook, cited by ESPN, has already released its national championship odds.

The Bulldogs, who return 68% of their production from a season ago — 63% on offense, 72% on defense — rank among the betting favorites once again per the FanDuel site.

Big Ten traditional powerhouse Ohio State is at the top of the odds, followed closely by Notre Dame, which also returns a great deal of talent and benefits from not playing in a conference.

Texas, boosted by the return of Heisman Trophy favorite Arch Manning, has the best odds among the SEC teams.

• Ohio State (+600)

• Notre Dame (+650)

• Texas (+750)

• Indiana (+800)

• Oregon (+800)

• Georgia (+850)

Former Bulldogs quarterback Jake Fromm said on DawgNation Daily that UGA will benefit from the close games of last season.

“This team won a lot of on-score games last year,” Fromm said. “I think that will be so fruitful for this team this year, having been in the fire all those times.”

The Bulldogs came from behind to win in six of their seven SEC victories last season.

“This team should go into camp, and go into the season, with a ton of confidence,” Fromm said.

The Bulldogs will open the season as heavy home favorites in games against Tennessee State (3 p.m., Sept. 5) and Western Kentucky (12:45 p.m., Sept. 12).

Georgia opens the SEC portion of its schedule with a road game at Arkansas at noon on Sept. 19 before returning home for games with Oklahoma (Sept. 26) and Vanderbilt (Oct. 3) leading into a pivotal road game at Alabama (Oct. 10).

Here’s a look at the national championship odds of all the teams on Georgia’s 2026 schedule, per FanDuel:

Sept. 5 Tennessee State: N/A, FCS