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Week 9 of the 2025 college football season has some massive games on tap, including a showdown between Missouri and Vanderbilt that may just place the winner in the College Football Playoff, as well as a surging UCLA team visiting Indiana. 

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 9 of the college football season. For those who are interested in college football betting, be sure to check out Marshall's plays.

UCLA at Indiana

It was this meeting last year in early September at Pasadena that served as a warning shot from the Hoosiers to rest of the college football world to look out. That now looks like it was just the appetizer for what's going on this fall at Indiana, now all the way up to No. 2 in the polls and with a Heisman Trophy frontrunner, Cal transfer QB Fernando Mendoza, as the headliner. Moreover, head coach Curt Cignetti just got a re-worked contract upping his salary to roughly $11 mill per year on an 8-year, $93 million deal.

At this point, we tend to think that everything Cignetti says is gospel, so note he warned the local media this week that UCLA was much improved and capable of giving his team a fight. There is indeed something going on in Westwood under the refreshing leadership of interim Tim Skipper, who has reeled off three wins in a row after a narrow loss vs. a better-than-advertised Northwestern in his first game after succeeding the overmatched DeShaun Foster. As several at the sportsbooks were able to get the Bruins -3 last week vs. Maryland (and thus a spread push in the 20-17 UCLA win), Skipper can also be said to be unbeaten against the spread at 3-0-1 with at least a portion of the betting marketplace. The transformation has been eye-catching, with Skipper able to unlock the offense with help of new OC and play-caller Jerry Neuheisel, who has shown much panache by getting QB Nico Iamaleava to work in space and take advantage of his mobility. 

It's not just Iamaleava, however. The ground game has also come to life in the three-game win streak, as the Bruins have piled up 233 yards per game on the ground in the last three. The defense has also been flying, and the momentum is such that even three giveaways last week vs. the Terrapins didn't knock the Bruins off course.  Moreover, UCLA is acting like it expects to win; Westwood sources say the Bruins, though perhaps misguided, actually expect to shock the world this week. Even if they don't, sentiment is building in L.A. that Skipper needs to be considered by AD Martin Jarmond for the full-time position, especially if he can get the Bruins bowl-eligible, which would constitute quite a feat.

As nearly four-TD favorites, and despite Cignetti's cautions, the Hoosiers shouldn't be particularly bothered by the Bruins but the hefty spread is worth examining. Laying big points is often tricky business, and a couple of last-minute scores (a meaningless field goal by Michigan State last week, and IU going backwards and taking a safety on the final play of the game) have cost the Hoosiers a couple of covers. Laying 20 or more points, IU is just 3-3 vs. FBS-level opposition since last season, a reminder to proceed carefully at these levels. The march of Mendoza to the Heisman ceremony should continue as he adds to his stat-line that includes 21 TD passes and 1,755 passing yards just past the halfway point, while the Kaelon Black and Roman Hemby-led ground game, registering 226 yards per game (good for 13th nationally), figures to help extend this margin. 

Keeping the difference above 25 points, however, might be a different story, and as good as Indiana has become, it's still new for this program to be expected to smash every foe each week. It's not always that easy. It's also worth noting that Bruins are on a 13-6 Under run since last season.

Alabama at South Carolina

There are a collection of offensive coordinators and playcallers in the SEC who are not living up to expectations and feeling some heat from boosters and the media. We're not sure any have failed to meet expectations to a larger degree than Mike Shula at South Carolina, an offseason move that head coach Shane Beamer might now be regretting for his Gamecocks.

Shula, of course, shares a family name with his Hall of Famer father Don and has been recognizable face on sidelines of college and pro football for the past four decades. For a few years (2003-06), Shula was the head coach at Alabama before Nick Saban's arrival. Last year, he was on the Gamecock staff as a senior offensive analyst, though the coordinator job and play-calling belonged to Dowell Loggains, who forged a great rapport with QB LaNorris Sellers. When Loggains took the top job at Appalachian State in the offseason, Beamer was quick to promote Shula to fill the void, but to say it has gone smoothly would be far off the mark. 

In ten different offensive categories, South Carolina ranks in the triple digits nationally. A year after emerging as a breakout star in the SEC and mentioned on a short list of Heisman favorites into this season, Sellers looks lost with a mere five TD passes after midseason and just one rushing score. A year ago, Sellers accounted for 25 TDs (18 passing, seven rushing) in the Loggains scheme while accumulating more than 3,200 yards of total offense. This season, Sellers has barely accounted for 1,200 yards more than halfway through the campaign. The Gamecocks, now 3-4, risk missing a bowl berth. Replacing most of a defensive front that sent several players to the NFL last season has also proven a chore.

By comparison, things are going swimmingly in Tuscaloosa for Kalen DeBoer. All of the vitriol from last season and the opening loss at Florida State back on Aug. 30 has dissipated with six straight wins (5-0-1 ATS). Bama continues to pick up momentum and has apparently overcome the road bugaboo that proved such a banana peel last fall when the Crismon Tide lost away from Bryant-Denny Stadium at Vanderbilt, Oklahoma, and at the Reliaquest Bowl in Tampa vs. Michigan. Road wins since in brave fashion at highly-ranked Georgia and Missouri suggests the Tide are well beyond any of the yips that might have previously hampered them.

Quarterback Ty Simpson has entered the Heisman race as a serious contender after a stretch of high-quality efforts since the FSU loss, which was just his second college start. For the season, Simpson is now on 18 TD passes against just one pick, completing 70% of his throws along the way. Further, the wins at Athens and Columbia suggest the Tide can fare just fine against the Gamecocks. There's also one other factor to begin considering against Carolina, as the rumor mill is really beginning to whirr in Blacksburg about Beamer returning to his alma mater and taking over the Virginia Tech job his dad once held for 29 years. Will it lift the Gamecocks, or detract from them? The latter would be no surprise. 

Kansas State at Kansas

How long has it been since Kansas has beaten Kansas State in football? Well, George W. Bush was still in the White House the last time it happened (2008), and the Jayhawks were coached by Mark Mangino. They're now on their sixth coach in Lawrence (Lance Leipold) since the days of Mangino, but none have been able to beat the Wildcats since the Big Man did so 17 years ago. 

Series history, apparently, means little in forming the spread but even absent of that we're a bit surprised that KU has been made a slight favorite for Saturday's Sunflower State renewal. Though likely bound for a bowl after missing the postseason a year ago, KU still might qualify as a mild disappointment this season. Defense, a concern entering the campaign, hasn't upgraded even with an influx of portal adds. In fact, it's slightly regressed, now ranking a mediocre 98th nationally after finishing at No. 92 a year ago. KU has allowed 37 or more points in each of its three losses to date, and the points per game have skewed downward only because of facing some new or overmatched offenses earlier in the season. That's undermined sixth-year QB Jalon Daniels, posting the best numbers of his career, including a 70% completion rate, 18 TD passes, and just two picks. 

Earlier defeats against Mizzou and Cincinnati, fell into the same pattern of the defense unable to hold leads -- it surrendered 600 yards per game in the losses. Two weeks ago, it was the defense that betrayed Leipold in the Texas Tech loss, as a close 21-17 score at halftime ballooned to 42-17 by the end of the night in Lubbock. Try as Daniels might on offense, it's hard to win when your defense is allowing almost 570 yards per game.

Record-wise, K-State (3-4 SU) is worse off than KU, but we suggest the current trajectories differ. After an awkward early schedule that took the Wildcats to Dublin and jammed in four games by the time the calendar hit Sept. 12, K-State could have been excused for packing in the rest of a season that began with plenty of promise but quickly devolved into a 1-3 break from the gate. A subsequent bye week, however, came at the right time, with Klieman and OC Matt Wells trying to reboot an offense that had lost its identity in the first four games.  

Specifically, QB Avery Johnson seemed to be spending too much time in the pocket, but his game has always been built on mobility. Since the bye, Johnson has been running more, and making plays on the move as he did last season, while keeping his passes in the mid-20s range in the wins over UCF and TCU. It's this revived version of K-State that makes us think this long series win streak isn't ready to end on Saturday in Lawrence. As all of KU's losses have exceeded the mid-50s total for this weekend, we'd suggest looking Over as well.

Missouri at Vanderbilt

We're now long beyond the point where Vanderbilt's success can be considered a fluke. This surge seems legit, and we might indeed by living in a world where the Commodores are a playoff team. Think of it!

On the surface, some of Clark Lea's moves before last season seem to be the keys to the Vandy success story. Luring QB Diego Pavia from New Mexico State was the catalyst. Close behind was bringing Pavia's head coach from Las Cruces, the respected Jerry Kill, on board as a special assistant, as well as Kill's OC with the Aggies, Tim Beck, and a favorite target of Pavia's, TE Eli Stowers. Others from NMSU also transferred in, but it's the overall portal work that has been the unsung star of this Vandy football renaissance. To that end, thank another of Lea's moves, this a couple of years earlier, to enlist Barton Simmons (formerly at 24/7 Sports) in a newly-created GM role for the football program. Many SEC insiders believe Simmons has been the key to the whole operation.

The revival is no fluke, as Pavia keeps reminding us each week with his ability to extend plays and keep drives alive, confounding enemy defenses as he continues to make play after play in the clutch. Pavia has also reportedly taken about 40 fewer direct hits than he had at this same stage a year ago, when he started to fade just a bit into November. There's been no sign of any drop-off yet; ask last week's foe LSU, as Pavia controlled the tempo of the game and allowed the Commodores to keep possession for 36:31, keying the 31-24 win over the Tigers.

It's another ranked Tigers team this week as Mizzou hits Nashville with just one loss and a No. 15 ranking. Moreover, Eli Drinkwitz has not lost to the Commodores since taking over in 2020. After winning 11 and 10 games, respectively, the past two seasons, and beating a pair of Big Ten teams in bowls (including Ohio State, in the Cotton two years ago, and Iowa in the Music City last December), Drinkwitz has long since established the Tigers as a force to be reckoned with in the SEC. There might be a couple of concerns for Mizzou this weekend, however.  

First, QB Beau Pribula continues to occasionally look careless with picks in five straight games, and two each the past two weeks vs. Bama and Auburn. Second, the rumor mill is starting to whirr in the SEC, and the one that keeps recycling posits Drinkwitz as a potential candidate for the opening at Florida. That Gators rumor had been floating even before Billy Napier was officially ousted, but the noise isn't going to die down until Florida actually makes a hire. Sometimes these rumors become real distractions and while we haven't seen any hint of that yet with the Tigers, things can change quickly in the SEC. 

More important this week for Mizzou might be Pribula avoiding the mistakes from recent weeks, and ULM transfer RB Ahmad Hardy (ranks third nationally at 840 rushing yards) getting going a bit better than he did the last two games, when he was held under 60 yards both times. We're not sure either of those break the Tigers' way, and as we've done for much of this season, we'll continue to ride on the Vandy bandwagon. Mizzou's three straight Unders also make us think this one might not clear the posted 51.5 on the totals side, but that doesn't sway us from our Dores preference.