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Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza’s year couldn’t have been more perfect.
He led his Hoosiers to an unblemished 16-0 season, captured the national championship in historic fashion and won the 2025 Heisman.
Now that he’s expected to declare for the NFL Draft — where he’s heavily favored to be selected with the No. 1 pick — the path should be clear for a new athlete to leave NYC in December holding the Heisman.
So who will it be?
Here are the way-too-early odds at FanDuel Sportsbook as of Jan. 21
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2026 Heisman Trophy 2inner
CJ Carr (Notre Dame): +800 (bet $10 to win $90 total)
Arch Manning (Texas): +800 (bet $10 to win $90 total)
Josh Hoover (TCU): +1100 (bet $10 to win $110 total)
Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State): +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Julian Sayin (Ohio State): +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Dante Moore (Oregon): +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Gunner Stockton (Georgia): +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
Sam Leavitt (Arizona State): +1300 (bet $10 to win $140 total)
John Mateer (Oklahoma): +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Jayden Maiava (USC): +2000 (bet $10 to win $210 total)
Here’s more on a few of the names on the 2026 Heisman oddsboard:
The Favorites: Carr and Manning are tied at +800 to win the Heisman Trophy at the end of the 2026 regular season. And the latter is no stranger to Heisman talk. He opened as the favorite for the 2025 Heisman at several books and right before the season kicked off, bettors were hammering Manning’s futures. The excitement over Manning was short-lived once his Longhorns went 4-2 to begin the season. If he is at least named a finalist, he would follow in the footsteps of his uncles and his grandfather, as both Peyton and Eli Manning, and their dad Archie, were Heisman finalists during their college careers.
Arch Manning is an early favorite to win the 2026 Heisman Trophy.
Ones to Watch: Ohio State teammates Jeremiah Smith and Julian Sayin are two players to watch for next season’s Heisman — especially because they were both in the conversation to win the award most of 2025. Sayin, in fact, was a Heisman finalist and finished fourth in the race with eight first-place votes. Smith didn’t make the trip to New York but finished sixth in the tally. FOX Sports college football writer RJ Young projects that both Smith and Sayin — as well as Manning — will be in the running in 2026.
Ohio State’s Julian Sayin could make another trip to NYC — but this time as the winner.
Heisman in Troy?: Could Maiava bring the hardware back to SC from NYC? Based on the early odds, he could have at least a slight chance. If the Trojans’ QB wins the most coveted individual award in college football, he’d be the first USC player since Caleb Williams (2022) to do so. Maiava finished the 2025 season with 3,711 passing yards and 24 touchdowns, as his squad ended the year with a 9-4 record.
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