{"id":158309,"date":"2025-08-19T11:52:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:52:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/158309\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T11:52:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T11:52:13","slug":"my-first-bets-early-picks-for-week-0-in-college-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/158309\/","title":{"rendered":"My first bets: Early picks for Week 0 in college football"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"authors\">\n<li class=\"mugshot-shown\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/maldonado_pam.png&#038;h=80&#038;w=80&#038;scale=crop.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"40\" height=\"40\"\/>\n<p>Pamela MaldonadoAug 19, 2025, 07:13 AM ET<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"icon-font-after icon-close-solid-after\" href=\"#\">Close<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>Pamela Maldonado is a sports betting analyst for ESPN.<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>College football is back!<\/p>\n<p>After seven long months, the wait is finally over, and the 2025 season officially kicks off this weekend. Now, Week 0 isn&#8217;t the buffet of matchups that we&#8217;ll get in Week 1. Let&#8217;s be real, it&#8217;s more of a sampler plate, just a handful of games to hold us over.<\/p>\n<p>For most bettors, this is a pass-and-wait situation until the board opens up next week. But if you&#8217;re itching to get in early, there are a couple of angles worth a look. Here are two spots on the Week 0 slate that stand out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Iowa State vs. Kansas State <\/strong><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/espnbet.app.link\/integrations?market_selection_id%5B0%5D=bb1e0936-3e84-4fd2-941b-a79715c04de8&amp;odds_numerator%5B0%5D=21&amp;odds_denominator%5B0%5D=11&amp;%24canonical_url=%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Forganization%2Funited-states%2Fcompetition%2Fncaaf&amp;campaign=betting-integrations&amp;clr=espnbettingintegration&amp;%243p=a_espn&amp;customer_campaign=article&amp;%7Echannel=espn-content&amp;tags=Iowa+State+Cyclones&amp;tags=Kansas+State+Wildcats\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">OVER 49.5 <\/a><strong> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.espncdn.com\/i\/espnicons\/SVG\/external.svg?w=10&amp;h=10\" width=\"10\"\/><\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Farmageddon&#8221; kicks off in Dublin, Ireland, and the mismatched dynamics jump off the page. Kansas State ranked second nationally in yards per rush attempt last season, and it wasn&#8217;t just volume, it was explosiveness. <a data-player-guid=\"735239e6-fb20-33c8-aa87-1800680515fa\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/4918414\/dylan-edwards\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Dylan Edwards<\/a> averaged 7.38 yards per carry, third best in the Big 12, while <a data-player-guid=\"bb9ae1fe-a30a-3b48-8fd6-126adad27251\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/4870857\/avery-johnson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Avery Johnson<\/a> added another wrinkle, finishing 17th in the conference in rushing yards per game &#8230; as a quarterback. That&#8217;s a problem for an Iowa State defense that ranked 84th in rushing success rate and is still breaking in a new-look defensive line.<\/p>\n<p>College Pick &#8216;Em<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasy.espn.com\/games\/college-football-pickem-2025\/make-picks?addata=collegepickem2025_ncaaf_web_inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" class=\"imageLoaded\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/56f4cced-578a-49b2-8bd2-91e397d4eb13.jpeg\" width=\"100%\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Pick college football winners every week; compete for $100K in prizes. FREE to play! <b><a href=\"https:\/\/fantasy.espn.com\/games\/college-football-pickem-2025\/make-picks?addata=collegepickem2025_ncaaf_web_inline\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Make Your Picks<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Cyclones do return 12 starters from an 11-win team, with <a data-player-guid=\"a338ff65-4b87-3a64-9fd7-acab20c8f1b2\" href=\"http:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/4801299\/rocco-becht\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Rocco Becht<\/a> steady at quarterback, but their biggest weakness, stopping the run, plays directly into K-State&#8217;s greatest strength. On the flip side, Iowa State&#8217;s passing attack lines up with the Wildcats&#8217; soft spot, a rebuilt secondary that allowed the sixth-most passing yards in the Big 12 last season, a potential edge for Becht now in his third year as a starter. I see points. In Dublin, &#8220;Farmageddon&#8221; feels less like a rock fight and more like a chance for both sides to harvest chunk plays.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/espnbet.app.link\/integrations?market_selection_id%5B0%5D=3a2eb8d8-dc68-4dfe-9fcc-03f70fd132a7&amp;odds_numerator%5B0%5D=41&amp;odds_denominator%5B0%5D=21&amp;%24canonical_url=%2Fsport%2Ffootball%2Forganization%2Funited-states%2Fcompetition%2Fncaaf&amp;campaign=betting-integrations&amp;clr=espnbettingintegration&amp;%243p=a_espn&amp;customer_campaign=article&amp;%7Echannel=espn-content&amp;tags=Sam+Houston+Bearkats&amp;tags=Western+Kentucky+Hilltoppers\" target=\"_new\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Sam Houston +10 <\/a><strong> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/secure.espncdn.com\/i\/espnicons\/SVG\/external.svg?w=10&amp;h=10\" width=\"10\"\/><\/strong><\/strong><strong> at Western Kentucky <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Sam Houston catching double digits against Western Kentucky feels inflated. This is a reload-versus-rebuild spot. The Bearkats were 15th in total defense last season, ninth against the pass, the exact strength you want against a WKU team that has lived and died through the air. But the Hilltoppers are breaking in a new quarterback without their top three receivers, which accounted for half of last year&#8217;s touchdown production. That&#8217;s a brand-new unit trying to replicate old firepower.<\/p>\n<p>Editor&#8217;s Picks<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a name=\"&amp;lpos=story:editorspicks:inline:1\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/espn\/betting\/story\/_\/id\/45975265\/2025-heisman-trophy-odds-college-football-betting-preview\" class=\"img-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/r1532103_1296x1296_1-1.jpg&#038;w=130&#038;h=130&#038;scale=crop&#038;location=center.jpeg\" width=\"65\" height=\"65\"\/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Defensively, WKU is still a mess: 96th nationally in total defense and 129th against the run last season, which is on brand for an offensive-first type of team. That&#8217;s also a problem against a Sam Houston offense that finished top 35 in rushing, led by QB <a data-player-guid=\"89d47666-30be-30c5-8044-61caec8f597f\" href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/college-football\/player\/_\/id\/5220424\/hunter-watson\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hunter Watson<\/a>, who topped the team in rushing scores. The Bearkats also replace key defensive players, so regression is likely. But when both teams are retooling, a double-digit line is pure overvaluation. Sam Houston still has an identity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pamela MaldonadoAug 19, 2025, 07:13 AM ET Close Pamela Maldonado is a sports betting analyst for ESPN. College&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":158310,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[1318,1317,1315,1316,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-158309","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115055292898209930","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158309","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158309"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158309\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158309"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158309"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158309"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}