The weather is finally starting to turn in the north and Midwest after an unseasonably warm September and early October. We should get one last gasp this weekend though, as the weather is looking pretty warm in South Bend and beyond. We are treated to four separate ranked vs. ranked matchups this week, a tough test for the 18S no. 1 team on Friday night, plus plenty of other entertaining action.

2025 Betting Record

Against the Spread: 30-28
Straight Up: 37-21

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Oh baby, the best week of the season so far! An impressive 6-2 against the spread and that includes being cheated out of the Arizona State game where their quarterback didn’t end up playing. Straight up, big time 7-1 overall in week 7. If this winning continues the price of 18S Premium may go down.

Week 8 Games to Watch

All times are Eastern. Rankings are from the AP Poll.

Louisville [+13.5] at #2 Miami
Friday, October 17, 7:00 PM, ESPN2

We’ve had this game circled for a while in regards to Miami dropping a game during the regular season. It’s likely either here, at SMU in a couple weeks, or the regular season finale on the road at Pittsburgh where it could be awfully cold. The Louisville-Miami ACC rivalry has been pretty close in modern times with the Cardinals leading 4-3-0 since 2006. They are usually super high scoring too–last year saw a combined 97 points! I think we’ll see the opposite with Miami hanging on late.

Miami 23
Louisville 16

North Carolina [+10.5] at California
Friday, October 17, 10:30 PM, ESPN

Bill Belichick Firing Watch Party™ for your pleasure. A battle of two of the worst power conference offenses in the nation with a game that will finish early into Saturday morning on the East Coast. Will there be someone in our 18S Discord server alerting of us a firing at 3:12 AM ET?

Is he not coming back from Cali on the team plane?

California 27
North Carolina 23

#10 LSU [+2.5] at #17 Vanderbilt 
Saturday, October 18, 12:00 PM, ABC

I know the answer is probably LSU but which team has more pressure to win this game? If anything big is going to happen in year 17 of Diego Pavia in college it’ll have to happen soon. For how great Clark Lea is doing they did lose 6 games last year and could be 5-4 (Missouri and Texas up next) by Halloween time soon.

Then if you’re Brian Kelly and LSU, losing to Vanderbilt for the first time since 1990 is pretty suboptimal. And yet they are underdogs! You have to be really concerned about how this LSU offense has looked this year and I think the ‘Dores end up pulling this off in the Noon timeslot.

Vanderbilt 24
LSU 21

#12 Georgia Tech [+1.5] at Duke
Saturday, October 18, 12:00 PM, ESPN

One of the best first half openings to a Georgia Tech season in a long time (they haven’t started 6-0 since 1990 when they won a share of the National Championship) and congratulations you are underdogs going into Wallace Wade Stadium’s 35,000 seat madhouse. Duke has been pretty frisky and has a good offense–scoring a combined 128 points in their 3-0 start to the ACC. Let’s go with another home favorite getting it done.

Duke 42
Georgia Tech 35

#5 Ole Miss [+7.5] at #9 Georgia
Saturday, October 18, 3:30 PM, ABC

Tough couple of weeks for Ole Miss coming up with this visit to Georgia followed up by a road trip to Oklahoma next Saturday. Are we sleeping on the Rebels (7th in SP+) or are they due for a loss with 4 out of their last 5 wins by one score apiece? On the other side, Georgia needs this game and can’t afford a second SEC loss this early in the season. They also lost this game last year against Ole Miss and should be looking for revenge.

Georgia 34
Ole Miss 27

UNLV [+10.5] at Boise State
Saturday, October 18, 3:30 PM, FS1

Navy, Memphis, and UNLV are the only undefeated G5 teams in the nation. That’s it, that’s the list. Both UNLV and Boise haven’t lost in league play yet so this could be a big game for the conference crown. Did you know Dan Mullen is coaching UNLV?

Boise State 47
UNLV 38

#7 Texas Tech [-9.5] at Arizona State
Saturday, October 18, 4:00 PM Fox

Texas Tech’s schedule hasn’t been anything to write home about but the Red Raiders are an impressive +212 in point differential this season. That’s tough. Last week’s 17 points for Kansas was the most Tech has allowed in a single game this season, too. Sun Devils quarterback Sam Leavitt missed last week with a foot injury but is practicing this week and is expected to play. The line has been falling towards Arizona State this week, probably based on that news. I still like Texas Tech, though.

Texas Tech 33
Arizona State 21

#11 Tennessee [+7.5] at #6 Alabama
Saturday, October 18, 7:30 PM, ABC

The Third Saturday in October™ is upon us. That huge win for Tennessee in this rivalry back in 2022 doesn’t feel that long ago, and the Vols won last year, too. Do I have the correct perception that this game is traditionally played during the afternoon or is that way off? A night game in Tuscaloosa in this heated rivalry I have to take the Tide.

Bama is 1 of 3 SEC teams without a league loss in 2025.

Alabama 38
Tennessee 35

#23 Utah [-3.5] at #15 BYU
Saturday, October 18, 8:00 PM, Fox

It’s a ranked vs. ranked Holy War. I was doing a bit of research and this rivalry has one of the most insane and long Wikipedia pages out there. It seems clear that Las Vegas doesn’t respect BYU enough even though they are unbeaten and ranked higher in their comfortable home stadium. Is this a game where true freshman quarterback Bear Bachmeier proves too inexperienced?

Utah 28
BYU 23