The Ohio State Buckeyes odds to win the 2008 BCS Championship have been set at +2000 or a $100 bet pays $2000 (see betting odds here).  Oddsmakers believe the Buckeyes will win 9 games this season and have set even odds on this number (you can bet on over and under regular season win totals here)  There is a slight lean towards favoring the over at some bookmakers (i.e. Online Sportsbetting at Bookmaker.com).

From Athlon:

Heisman winner Troy Smith has moved on and so have his favorite weapons — one of college football’s biggest game-breakers, his sticky-fingered receiving counterpart and a big-game performer who was threatening to join the Ohio State pantheon of tailbacks.

So what are the Buckeyes to do in 2007 without the likes of Smith, Ted Ginn Jr., Anthony Gonzalez and Antonio Pittman? Go back to the basics on offense and start smacking people on defense, of course.

With only a handful of returning starters on each side of the ball and without some of the most electrifying skill position players in program history, Ohio State has its work cut out for it if it is to return to the top of the Big Ten and the BCS bowl equation. Still, the Buckeyes should be able to negotiate a relatively soft schedule if Boeckman emerges and the secondary holds up.

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Dan Shapiro, Sports911.com

Originally published August 6, 2007 3:13 pm ET