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Week Zero Review

The first week of 2025 college football action gave us some rather sloppy play in Dublin, plus a smattering of close P4/G5 games without too many major surprises. Kansas St will surely hope that the post-Ireland loss hangover curse was unique to Florida St and doesn’t derail their season as well. After a nice warm up, there’s a full slate of games this week, including three Top 10 vs Top 10 matchups. A playoff semifinal rematch and two pairs of playoff hopefuls headline this week’s slate, and while the losers of each aren’t out by any means, margins of error become painfully slim after just 1 week. We’ve got a full weekend slate before the NFL starts back up, so enjoy this long weekend with 5 straight days of college football!

Top 25 Matchups

Rankings are from AP Poll

Thursday 8/28:

• #25 Boise State @ South Florida, 5:30PM, ESPN

Friday 8/29:

• Western Illinois @ #12 Illinois, 7:30PM, Peacock

Saturday 8/30:

12:00-3:00PM

• #1 Texas @ #3 Ohio State, FOX
• Syracuse @ #24 Tennessee, ABC
• Old Dominion @ #20 Indiana, FS1

3:30PM-6:30PM

• Nevada @ #2 Penn State, CBS/Paramount+
• Marshall @ #5 Georgia, ESPN
• #8 Alabama @ Florida State, ABC
• South Dakota @ #22 Iowa State, FOX
• Montana State @ #7 Oregon, BTN
• Illinois State @ #18 Oklahoma, ESPN+

7:00-10:00PM

• Long Island @ #15 Florida, ESPN+
• North Dakota, #17 Kansas St, ESPN+
• UTSA @ #19 Texas A&M, ESPN
• #9 LSU @ #4 Clemson, ABC
• New Mexico @ #14 Michigan, NBC
• Arkansas Pine-Bluff @ #23 Texas Tech, ESPN+
• Georgia State @ #21 Ole Miss, SECN
• East Texas A&M @ #16 SMU, ACCN
• Northern Arizona @ #11 Arizona, ESPN+

Sunday August 31:

• Virginia Tech vs #13 South Carolina (Atlanta, GA), 3 PM, ESPN
• # 6 Notre Dame @ #10 Miami, 7:30 PM, ABC

Most Interesting Matchups

Texas @ Ohio State: The Buckeyes start their title defense with a national semifinals rematch against the Longhorns. The winner of this game will almost certainly hold the No. 1 spot in the rankings for the next few weeks (pending something truly chaotic), while the loser will hopefully know if they’re ready to perform against elite competition come playoff time. Welcome to the big show, Arch Manning. The Horseshoe is hard to play at in the best conditions – this is far from ideal for a new starter.

LSU @ Clemson: Cade Klubnik and Grant Nussmeier are early Heisman favorites, and both will get a chance to back those expectations up in Death Valley (South Carolina, not Louisiana) this Saturday.

Notre Dame @ Miami: Last year’s runner-up against the perpetually underachieving Hurricanes. This one isn’t quite as hyped up as “Catholics vs Convicts,” but both teams desperately need a win for an early leg up in the playoff race.

Auburn @ Baylor: Hugh Freeze’s seat is getting awfully warm (gee, who could have seen that coming?) and Baylor is a dark horse championship contender in the Big 12. Don’t ask me why, but I feel like these two teams together is a recipe for chaos, or extremely dumb early-season football. Either way it should be fun.

TCU @ North Carolina: Bill Belichick starts his widely anticipated tenure as head coach of the Tar Heels in primetime on Labor Day. Does his style work at the collegiate level? Does TCU still have bad luck in Week 1 games against big-name head coaches? We’ll know the answer to at least one of those questions this Monday.

FCS Game of the Week

Sacramento State @ South Dakota State , 8/30, 7PM, ESPN+

A top 15 matchup greets us in the FCS ranks this week, as the Hornets take a trip to Brookings and take on the Jackrabbits, who are hungry to reign supreme over the Dakotas, the Rocky Mountains, and the entire FCS division.

Selected Pick ATS

Last Week: 1-2 Season: 1-2 (Off to a flying start!)

• Auburn @ Baylor (+2.5)
• Texas @ Ohio State (-2.5)
• LSU @ Clemson (-3.5)
• Notre Dame (-2.5) @ Miami
• TCU @ North Carolina (+3.5)