With the college football regular season now officially in books and bowl season just around the corner, we take a brief pause to hand out the sport’s most prestigious awards prior to the postseason. The Heisman Trophy race saw a number of players come and go atop the leaderboard, but the field of finalists is set in stone at last ahead of Saturday’s award ceremony.
Who’s in the running to bring home college football’s most coveted hardware, and where do the odds stand on DraftKings Sportsbook for the finalists?
2025 Heisman Trophy finalists, odds
After a grueling regular season and exciting conference championship slate this past weekend, the four finalists who will travel to the Heisman Trophy ceremony are locked in. Among the players in the running are Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza, Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin, Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, and Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia.
There’s a compelling case for each player, which we’ll look at below.
Fernando Mendoza
To the surprise of nobody, Mendoza enters the week as the strongest favorite by far to win the 2025 Heisman Trophy at -1000 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook. While the massive gap between he and the rest of the field feels a bit wider than the public expectation, the quarterback is more than deserving of his status ahead of his peers. He led the Hoosiers to their first outright Big Ten title since 1945 with an unbeaten 13-0 season capped off by a standout victory over Ohio State. Indiana earned the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff and looks like a legitimate contender for a National Championship with Mendoza under center. He completed 71.5% of his pass attempts for 2,980 yards and an FBS-best 33 touchdowns to just six interceptions, also leading the nation in air yards per attempt with the third-best passer efficiency rating. He also pitched in an additional 240 yards and six touchdowns via the ground, adding a little bit of extra juice to his individual numbers. There’s always talk of “Heisman moments” as well, which Mendoza created in his last outing — the crowning play of his campaign came late in the Big Ten Championship when he uncorked a deep ball in the final minutes to bury the dagger in the Buckeyes, all but securing the title.
Diego Pavia
While Mendoza is a heavy favorite, the other finalists also put together strong cases of their own. Pavia, Vanderbilt’s star signal-caller, boasts the second-best odds to win the Heisman on DraftKings Sportsbook at +600. A Vandy product in the running for the prestigious trophy would feel sacrilegious in most seasons, but things are different in Nashville, Tennessee these days. The Commodores went 10-2 this season and finished the campaign at No. 14 in the AP Poll with a three-game winning streak, including a standout upset over in-state rival Tennessee in the final game — allowing Pavia to have his own Heisman moment celebrating a touchdown by striking the iconic pose at Neyland Stadium. He paced the SEC with a 71.2% completion rate, 27 touchdowns and 171.5 passer efficiency rating, and his 3,192 yards fell 15th among all FBS quarterbacks. His dual-threat ability truly stood out as a weapon for Vanderbilt though, tacking on 826 yards and nine scores with his legs. After helping revitalize what used to be a joke of a program, there’s an argument for Pavia to bring home the Heisman.
Jeremiyah Love
The only non-quarterback on this list, halfback Jeremiyah Love served as the heart and soul of the Notre Dame offense all season long. A near-lock to go in the first round of the upcoming NFL Draft despite the devaluation of his position at the professional level, the standout runner accumulated 1,372 rushing yards and a staggering 18 touchdowns on the ground this season, good for fourth and third-best among all FBS players. He did so efficiently as well, averaging a very impressive 6.9 YPC on 199 carries. Love displayed soft hands in the receiving game with 27 receptions for 280 receiving yards and three more scores, bringing his grant total to 1,652 scrimmage yards and 21 total touchdowns. It’s a very strong resume for the halfback, but the one area lacking is arguably team success. It’s a strange statement to make considering the Fighting Irish went 10-2 overall and rattled off all 10 wins in consecutive fashion, but after being left out of the College Football playoff — after which the program declined a bowl game berth — could voters who waited until the final days before the ballot deadline have been influenced by the drama of recent days? It’s uncertain, but Love has a compelling argument as a playmaker and is a fun long-shot bet at +15000 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook.
Julian Sayin
Finally, Ohio State signal-caller Julian Sayin rounds out the group of four finalists. While the odds are very long at +70000, Sayin put forth a quality campaign but ultimately fell flat in the Big Ten title game after a 12-1 season for the Buckeyes. Sayin’s stats are undeniable as his 78.4% completion rate and 182.1 passer efficiency rating paced the nation along with 3,329 yards and 31 touchdowns, the 11th and second-best marks in college football. However, he offered virtually nothing via the ground game unlike the other two quarterbacks in the final field. While there’s a contingent who believe penalizing players/teams for performance in conference championship games that not everyone competes in is a bit unfair for conversations like these, Sayin didn’t do enough for Ohio State to win a conference title (even against a very strong Indiana defense) and was clearly outplayed by his counterpart. This won’t be the year he wins the Heisman, but next season could be a special one for the young gunslinger.
Odds insights
Surprisingly, all of these candidates entered the preseason outside the top-five favorites to win the award on DraftKings Sportsbook. Sayin saw the highest ranking of the bunch on the leaderboard at +2000 prior to the beginning of the 2025 campaign, which tied him for sixth among available options at the time. Love saw the next-highest ranking tied for the 12th-best odds at +4000, while Mendoza was immediately behind him at +5000. Pavia wasn’t even in the conversation himself, which isn’t too shocking given the program he plays for.
One final note — the three preseason favorites were all practically eliminated from the running by midseason as the hype for Arch Manning, Garrett Nussmeier and Cade Klubnik fizzled out amidst poor campaigns from all three big-name quarterbacks. Drew Allar and DJ Lagway were also ranked higher than any of the finalists during the preseason, which feels like a bit of a ridiculous notion knowing what we do now after the full season’s sample.
