College football odds, picks, top predictions for Week 1, 2025: Proven computer backs Alabama in best bets

SportsLine's advanced computer model has revealed its 2025 Week 1 college football picks

By Ross Kelly

Aug 25, 2025 at 12:43 pm ET • 4 min read

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The 2025 college football season has arrived, and after the appetizer of Week 0, fans will be treated to the main course with the Week 1 college football schedule. Games run from Thursday through Monday, highlighted by three ranked matchups involving top-10 teams with Texas vs. Ohio State (-2.5), LSU vs. Clemson (-4) and Notre Dame vs. Miami (+2.5). Those who love slim college football spreads will gravitate towards those contests, while the latest Week 1 college football odds have others with much larger lines.

The No. 2 Penn State Nittany Lions are 44.5-point favorites over Nevada, while the fifth-ranked Georgia Bulldogs are favored by 39.5 points over Marshall. Making CFB predictions for season openers are always a bit difficult as there's no in-season data to go by, so which teams should you lean towards with Week 1 college football picks? Before locking in any college football picks for Week 1 of the 2025 season, be sure to see the latest college football predictions from SportsLine's proven model.

The model simulates every FBS game 10,000 times. Since its inception, it has generated a betting profit of well over $2,000 for $100 players on its top-rated college spread football picks, and was a profitable 27-16 combined on money-line and over/under college football picks in 2024. Anybody following its college football betting picks at sportsbooks and on betting sites could have seen strong returns.

Now, it has turned its attention to the latest college football odds and Week 1 college football betting lines on the spread, money line, and over/under. Head here to see every pick, and new users can also target the DraftKings promo code, which offers new users $200 in bonus bets instantly plus over $300 off NFL Sunday Ticket:

Top college football predictions for Week 1

One of the college football picks the model is high on during Week 1: No. 8 Alabama (-13.5) cruises to a blowout win over Florida State at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The Tide are riding a 23-game win streak in season openers which is the second-longest active streak in the country. They are also an astounding 63-1 in regular season non-conference games since 2008, with Kalen DeBoer winning by an average of 48 points in his three such contests in his first year at Bama. As for the Seminoles, they are coming off a 2-10 record that was their worst in 50 years.

FSU simply struggled to move the ball in 2024, ranking third-worst in all of FBS in total offense and fourth-worst in scoring offense. That's a bad omen in facing a Bama team which had a top-10 scoring defense in the country last year. Florida State covered in just three games all of last season, and it is 1-6 against the spread over its last seven versus top-10 ranked SEC schools. The model projects Alabama to win by over two touchdowns and cover nearly 60% of the time. See which other picks the model likes here.

Another prediction: UCLA (+6.5) stays within the spread at home versus Utah at 11 p.m. ET on Saturday. These former Pac-12 rivals last met in the Rose Bowl Stadium in 2022 in which the Bruins protected home turf with a 10-point win. UCLA had a strong finish last season, going 4-2 down the stretch and then landed arguably the biggest of quarterback transfers in former Tennessee star Nico Iamaleava. Just as the Bruins finished 2024 on a high note, so did Iamaleava with the Vols as he had 13 total touchdowns versus just one interception over his last six games of 2024.

Meanwhile, Utah is coming off its first losing season (5-7) since 2013 and is breaking in a quarterback, Devon Dampier, who had as many interceptions (12) as touchdown passes a year ago. The New Mexico transfer is 0-2 in his career versus Power 4 programs, with two interceptions thrown in each game. UCLA covers well over 60% of the time, per the model, with the Under (50.5) hitting in 80% of simulations. See the rest of the model's picks here.

How to make college football picks for Week 1

The model has also made the call on who wins and covers in every FBS matchup in Week 1, and it's calling for an upset in one of the week's biggest games. You can only get every pick for every game at SportsLine.

So what college football picks can you make with confidence, and which underdog wins outright? Check out the latest college football odds below, then visit SportsLine to see which teams win and cover the spread, all from a proven computer model that has returned well over $2,000 in profit since its inception, and find out.