Betting Stuff: Best bets for Week 13 of the 2025 college football season
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As always, fade accordingly.
The best price at the time of publication is listed in parentheses, but shop around at any of your preferred sports betting apps.
Last week: 1-2
2025 season: 12-25-1
2024 season: 33-37
Week 13 schedule, odds
SDS is your one-stop shop this season, with live, up-to-date college football odds. You can find point spreads, game totals, and money line odds for every Week 13 game below.
SMU -2.5 vs. Louisville (-122 via FanDuel)
Louisville has lost back-to-back games to drop out of the ACC title race. The offense hasn’t looked right for weeks. Plus, you have to consider who comes to town next week. SMU, meanwhile, has surged to 5 wins in 6 games. They need help, but the Mustangs can force their way back to Charlotte for a second consecutive season if they win out and receive a couple of breaks.
SMU is equipped to keep the tires of the Cardinals’ offense spinning. While the Mustangs give up a ton of chunk gains that lead to red-zone opportunities for the opposition, they don’t usually break after bending. Only Ohio State and Indiana allow a lower touchdown rate on red-zone trips than SMU (36.8%), and those 2 have combined to face fewer red-zone trips (35) than the SMU defense has (38). A third of the red-zone possessions teams have had against SMU end without points. The Mustangs lead the nation in takeaways (26) and passes defended (72). They also rank in the top 25 for tackles for loss (67).
That is a big red flag for Louisville. Quarterback Miller Moss has 7 interceptions on the season — at least 1 in 5 of his last 7 games. He has 16 turnover-worthy plays. And he made some not-so-savory comments about the Louisville locker room after the Cards’ loss to Clemson last week. Look for SMU, off a bye, to push some buttons and further exacerbate the Louisville offensive woes.
Georgia Tech-Pitt total over 61.5 points (-115 via DraftKings)
Situationally, this feels like a good spot for both teams to figure things out on offense. Pitt was a disaster last week against Notre Dame — its first bad showing on the side of the ball since turning to Mason Heintschel at quarterback. Now, the Panthers go against a Tech defense that gave up 48 points to NC State in its first loss of the season and followed that stunner up by allowing 34 points to Boston College. The Yellow Jackets generate stops on less than 60% of the drives they face in part because they are constantly hit with huge gainers. In 10 games, opposing offenses have hit 29 plays of at least 30 yards. Only 4 FBS defenses have allowed more.
Because of the offense, the Yellow Jackets are still very much in the thick of the ACC Championship discussion, though. Tech is 6-1 in league play. Beating Pitt in this spot would send the Yellow Jackets to Charlotte for the title game, thus putting them on the doorstep of the College Football Playoff. Given the state of the ACC and the résumé for Tech, this game matters more than the regular-season finale against Georgia, and I’d look for Tech to leave it all on the field against the Panthers.
Pitt’s defense has given up at least 30 in 5 of the last 8 games. Good teams have given the Panthers fits. This could be a 34-31, last-team-with-the-ball-wins kind of game.
Notre Dame -13.5 second-half spread vs. Syracuse (-120 via DraftKings)
The Fighting Irish need style points to strengthen their CFP case in the eyes of the committee. That means rolling a Syracuse team that has lost 6 straight games. The Orange have one of the poorer defenses in all of college football (6.2 yards per play allowed, 118th nationally), and that has led to their undoing in the second halves of games.
In the 38-10 loss to Miami the last time out, Syracuse gave up 24 points in the second half. During the losing streak, Syracuse has allowed an average of 16.7 second-half points and been outscored in 5 of 6 overall. Part of Notre Dame’s charm is that it chokes the life out of teams. Over their last 8 games, the Irish are plus-119 in the second half, including plus-41 in the fourth quarter. They average close to 20 second-half points, and they’ve only given up 2 fourth-quarter touchdowns.
With 7 losses already on the season, Syracuse is out of the bowl picture. The run defense has been leaky all year. If Notre Dame doesn’t put the game away in the first half, it should sprint away from Syracuse in the second half.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
