USC National Championship Odds After Heisman Candidate Caleb Williams Transfers From Oklahoma to Join Lincoln Riley

Heisman Trophy candidate Caleb Williams announced Tuesday he's leaving Oklahoma to rejoin head coach Lincoln Riley at USC, and National Championship odds moved as a result.

Willams, the true freshman who replaced 2021 preseason Heisman favorite Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma, will likely start over current Trojans on the depth chart Miller Moss and Mo Hasan. USC's quarterback room was depleted with the transfers of Kedon Slovis to Pitt and Jaxson Dart to Ole Miss.

Willams is the 13th transfer to join USC since Riley was hired. And while USC was often considered the most likely landing spot, not all betting markets factored that into the market as heavily.

Prior to the news, PointsBet had USC at +5000 to win it all before cutting it down to +3000. DraftKings was higher on USC than the rest of the market but still shortened the Trojans from +3000 to +2500.

FanDuel remained at +4000 for USC to win the title. However, FanDuel did shorten Williams' Heisman odds from +1500 to +1200. He trails only Alabama's Bryce Young, who won the award in 2021, and Ohio State's CJ Stroud.

PointsBet was even more aggressive in the Heisman market, shortening his odds from +1200 to +800.

Williams will be a true sophomore in 2022 after starting the final seven games for the Sooners. He threw for 1,912 yards, ran for 442 yards and totaled 27 touchdowns with four interceptions. Oklahoma finished the year 11-2.

Meanwhile, USC was just 4-8 and fired head coach Clay Helton in September. Helton was then hired as the head coach at Georgia Southern.

USC begins the 2022 season on Sept. 3 against Rice before traveling to Stanford on Sept. 10.