College football betting guide: Expert breaks down top Week 8 games, including USC at Notre Dame

Week 8 of the 2025 college football season has some massive games on tap, including an SEC showdown between LSU and Vanderbilt and an old-school rivalry game featuring USC and Notre Dame.

SportsLine college football expert Bruce Marshall, the longtime executive editor of The Gold Sheet, has gathered information on Saturday's top games and shares everything bettors need to know about Week 8 of the college football season. For those who are interested in college football betting, be sure to check out Marshall's plays.

LSU at Vanderbilt

Jumping off the page in this matchup is the fact the Commodores are the betting favorite over the Tigers, which from my unofficial records dating to 1953 hasn't happened in this SEC matchup. That fact alone should indicate how far Vandy has progressed under Clark Lea, as the Commodores are also now spending their fourth consecutive week in the national rankings.

Though LSU enters Music City with the higher ranking, the fact it is a slight underdog isn't really a surprise. That's because Brian Kelly's team, even with its 5-1 record, hasn't been scoring many style points along the way. LSU simply isn't passing the eye test, especially on offense, as it hasn't scored more than 23 points against an FBS foe this season. The high-water mark in three SEC games is 20 points. While the fizzling of Arch Manning's Heisman Trophy campaign at Texas has created more headlines, Garrett Nussmeier's name is no longer being mentioned in Heisman conversations either, getting much of the blame for the sluggish Tigers offense while posting some very ordinary-looking stats through six games, including just nine TD passes and five picks. The ground game isn't offering much of a diversion either, ranking well up the track nationally in rushing stats (112th, at a mere 115 yards per game), highlighted only by some occasional bursts from sophomore Caden Durham. 

It's mostly been up to Blake Baker's defense to keep the Tigers afloat, and the unit is definitely pulling its weight, allowing only 297 yards per game as well as just 11.8 points per game, ranking fifth nationally in the latter. Still, LSU held on for dear life against the best offense it has faced, Lane Kiffin's Ole Miss, which piled up nearly 500 yards in the Rebs' win at Vaught-Hemingway three weeks ago. Tiger partisans will be quick to note the blankets that Baker's platoon threw over a couple of dual-threat QBs, Florida's DJ Lagway (who tossed five picks in the Sept. 13 loss at Baton Rouge) and South Carolina's LaNorris Sellers (not having the season he did a year ago, and held to just 19 rushing yards while under constant pressure last week), though Vandy looks like the most serious challenge for the defense since Ole Miss.

That's mainly because Diego Pavia is still in the saddle at QB and firing away and has had a bye week to pick up the pieces from the Commodores' first loss of the season at Alabama on Oct. 4. Pavia had Vandy in seeming control at Tuscaloosa with a 14-7 lead just before halftime before Ty Simpson led a hurried Crimson Tide march downfield to level the score at intermission. Bama proceed to hem in Pavia in the second half as the Tide began to take control. Still, some SEC observers believe that Lea retreating into a play-it-safe soft zone in Bama's final drive of the first half made it too easy for Simpson to lead that fast drive, and once momentum was lost in hostile Bryant-Denny Stadium, it was hard to recover.

Prior to the Bama game, Vandy was the anti-LSU of offense, scoring at a brisk 49 PPG clip as Pavia (13 TD passes in four games prior to Bama) was posting some of the best numbers of his four-year career as a starter at New Mexico State and with the Dores. His accuracy (71.4%) is at career-best levels, and he has weapons, including a 209 yards per game rushing attack spearheaded by junior Sedrick Alexander (6.4 yards per carry) and Pavia himself, the team leader with 352 rushing yards. The overall upgraded talent on the Vandy roster is impressive.

Pavia is 13-5 ATS since last season, and the Tigers have dropped five of their last six ATS as an SEC visitor. LSU's ongoing offensive struggles might make it difficult for the to exceed the total in the high 40s. 

Washington at Michigan

Electric quarterback Demond Williams has become the offensive linchpin for Jedd Fisch's team and enters Saturday's matchup in Ann Arbor ranking third nationally in total offense (335 yards), behind only Taylen Green from Arkansas and Sawyer Robertson from Baylor. There is definitely more dynamism in the current Washington offense, which scored 38 points or more four times and also features slashing RB Jonah Coleman (518 rushing yards), who is his way to a second consecutive 1,000-yard campaign. Meanwhile, a portal-infused defense for first-year DC Ryan Walters is more than holding its own, allowing barely 300 yards and just under 20 points per game.

Mostly, however, what Fisch's team is proving is that it can win away from Husky Stadium, which it couldn't in seven tries last fall. Thus far in 2025, Washington is 2-0 outright on the road, including a confidence-building comeback at Maryland two weeks ago when the Huskies erased a 20-point deficit in the second half by scoring the last 24 points of the game. They now enter the Big House in what looks a midseason elimination game for any playoff hopes (however remote) for each of these sides. 

Meanwhile, with touted true freshman dual-threat QB Bryce Underwood at the controls, there is more upside in the Wolverine attack than there was last year, though Underwood is progressing a bit slowly on the learning curve and wasn't able to shift out of neutral last week at USC in Michigan's rather decisive 31-13 loss to the Trojans. Aside from a 69-yard TD to Andrew Marsh, who took advantage of a blown coverage and missed tackles in the USC secondary, Underwood barely passed for 100 yards last week, and his TD pass tally after six games is a less-than-modest five. The Wolverines thus remain mostly a line-of-scrimmage team. The attack leans heavily upon Alabama transfer RB Justice Haynes, who at 705 rushing yards, is in the midst of a big year. 

Make no mistake, however -- the offense is sputtering, as inconsistencies in the passing game have bogged down the attack which has mostly been hit-and-miss for Sherrone Moore and well-traveled OC Chip Lindsey save for a 63-point explosion vs. a MAC also-ran, Central Michigan. The defense, while representative, has dropped a few notches from the 10th-rated united in the nation that it was a year ago as well. We're not convinced that the Wolverines can eventually pull clear as top-rated Ohio State finally did three weeks ago vs. the Huskies. Remember, Michigan has already twice been held to a mere 13 points in losses to Oklahoma and USC, and while those were on the road, we're still more inclined to trust the eye test here. The more-electric Huskies might not even need any help from the oddsmakers in Ann Arbor, with the Wolverines' choppy offense also likely helping keep the score beneath the low 50s total. 

Ole Miss at Georgia

We'll never know what might have happened last week at Auburn had the referees seen Jackson Arnold's QB sneak from inside the 1-yard-line a bit differently late in the first half at Jordan-Hare Stadium, when the Tigers were about to go up 17-0 on Georgia. What looked like an Arnold TD was instead ruled a fumble, and absent conclusive evidence to overturn a likely faulty call, the Bulldogs caught a definite break. Still, give Kirby Smart's team credit for completely dominating action thereafter, which they'll also need to do for this week's visit from Ole Miss, which, despite Lane Kiffin's warnings, was caught sleepwalking last week vs. 33-point dog Washington State. The Rebs had to eventually come to grips with a spirited upset bid by the Cougars which fell three points short. Kiffin undoubtedly would have preferred some other kind of a wakeup call for his team though consensus around the SEC is that Ole Miss was simply overconfident, if dangerously so, last week.  

There's no worry about that on Saturday, especially as the Bulldogs enter in revenge mode. Georgia hasn't lost often (only six times) since 2021, and never in that span were the Dawgs pushed around quite the way they were last November in Oxford when the Rebs took charge in the second half and pranced to a decisive 28-10 win. Along the way, Pete Golding's defense made the Bulldog offense look feeble, recording five sacks and nine tackles for loss, forcing four fumbles and once picking off a pass from a battered Carson Beck. Meanwhile, Ole Miss gained 397 yards behind QB Jaxson Dart. It would be the biggest margin of defeat for a Smart-coached Georgia since he ran into Joe Burrow and the eventual national champs from LSU in the 2019 SEC title game in Atlanta, when the Tigers rolled by a 37-10 count.  

The payback angle might be worth considering on Saturday, especially as Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss, who burst upon the scene from nowhere and suddenly finds himself on a short list of Heisman favorites, will be making his first road start for Ole Miss. Chambliss has done little wrong since taking over under center. He led a near 500-yard attack in the win over LSU, the best defense Ole Miss has faced, but the Rebs have been involved in several scraps already since the opening blowout over Georgia State, with four of five games decided by one score, including a harrowing escape vs. what has turned out to be a flawed Arkansas. Georgia, already severely battle-tested, can likely pressure Chambliss and will have taken note of how Wazzu was able to keep the Ole Miss QB relatively boxed in the pocket last week. 

Meanwhile, though Dawgs QB Gunner Stockton isn't in the mold of past NFL-style QBs in Athens, he does seem to have some Stetson Bennett in him, having willed Georgia to wins over Texas (off the bench in the SEC title game last December), Tennessee and Auburn, with the lone blemish a bitter 3-point loss to Bama in which Georgia had its chances to win in the second half. Though a bit rough-hewn, Stockton does have a 300-yard passing game to his credit in the most hostile of environments (an OT win over the Vols at Knoxville), and we need to see Chambliss do it on the road before feeling confident that the Rebs can pull off a second straight upset vs. Smart. 

Our main reservation about the Bulldogs concerns troubles since last season vs. the number, including losses in seven of their last nine vs. the spread in Athens, but back-to-back wins and covers vs. Kentucky and last week vs. Auburn suggest a potential change in Georgia fortunes vs. the line. As last year's meeting (featuring one NFL QB and a likely first-round pick QB next April) could only reach 38 points, clearing this mid 50s total might be a chore, too. 

USC at Notre Dame

It's been a while since the Trojans have won a game at South Bend, and last week's win over Michigan has USC back in the national rankings (No. 20 this week) and gives it a chance to get heavily involved in the playoff discussion if it can end the long drought. Lincoln Riley has a few new concerns, however, especially at the RB spot, where breakout star Waymond Jordan is now sidelined for at least a month with an ankle problem, and New Mexico transfer Eli Sanders is now down for the season. Freshman King Miller stepped in admirably (149 rushing yards) vs. the Wolverines, but the offensive burden now falls a bit more heavily upon QB Jayden Maiava (1,852 passing yards, with 13 TD passes and only two picks), who has mostly been up to the task, and still has Makai Lemon (six TDs already) as a dangerous downfield threat.

The Trojan defense, however, looked vulnerable in recent outings vs. Michigan State and Illinois, and hasn't been making the big plays off turnovers as it did in the first three weeks of the season. Keep in mind, too, that USC has allowed 48 and 49 points, respectively, vs. the Fighting Irish in the past two seasons.

Perhaps even more than a year ago, when an early loss to Northern Illinois put the Irish in must-win mode the rest of the season to remain in the playoff mix, the Irish really dug themselves a hole at the outset in this term by dropping their first two out of the chute. Those losses to Miami and Texas A&M, however, came down to the final moments, and a look at the current rankings has both still unbeaten and in the top five. So as long as Notre Dame keeps winning, it stands a chance of being in the good graces of the playoff committee come December. 

Concerns early were on the defensive side, where departed coordinator Al Golden seemed to be missed, but since Marcus Freeman has become more involved with the details on that side of the ball along with DC Chris Ash, those leaks seem to have been plugged. Meanwhile, QB CJ Carr has matured in a hurry and is even getting some peripheral mention in recent Heisman conversations. He's looked almost flawless the past month, with 10 TD passes and just one pick over the past four games, which includes a 354-yard showcase at Arkansas and another 352 last week vs. NC State. With RBs Jeremiyah Love (530 rushing yards) and Jadarian Price (422 rushing yards) providing a big-play infantry diversion, the offense is humming, and Carr's progress suggests USC can't just load the box to stop the runners, or risk getting torched through the air. This looks like a very potent brew being mixed once again by Freeman, whose team hasn't won by fewer than 21 points (mostly vs. capable opposition) in the four-game win-and-cover streak. Most of all, Freeman continues to be the primo point spread coach in the nation, with a 26-9 ATS mark dating back to late in the 2022 campaign. 

As was the case the past two years, USC probably doesn't have enough defense to keep pace, and after each of the last three meetings reached at least 65 points, another high-scoring Irish win looks in the offing.