Vegas oddmakers slight Arch Manning with way-too-early Heisman Trophy odds

Despite the college football world consistently talking about how overrated Arch Manning was in 2025 and still is, Vegas continues to believe otherwise. The funny thing is, despite having the second-best odds to win the Heisman in 2026, Longhorn Nation still feels like he was snubbed.

C.J. Carr is currently ahead of Manning in the projections, and though Carr looked pretty good for most of the year, he still doesn't deserve to be ahead of Arch right now due to multiple factors.

It's pretty obvious that these predicions are solely based on stats and team record alone, yet Manning was still better than Carr in almost every category. It's always interesting to see oddsmakers come out with these early predictions because it makes you wonder how they came with these conclusions.

Arch Manning and Texas plays in the SEC, one of the toughest conferences in major college football, and Notre Dame is an independent who schedules "cupcake" teams 50% of the time in the regular season. Putting up the type of production that Manning did in 2025 even when the team had a down year is incredibly impressive and should be valued much higher than what Carr did with an elite rushing attack to help him.

It'll be incredibly interesting to see how these odds move over the next couple of months, and if Manning's situation gets legitimately taken into consideration.

Seeing someone like Jeremiah Smith, Julian Sayin, or even Dante Moore ahead of Arch Manning would've been more believable, but C.J. Carr? That's kind of crazy.