It’s time for Week 8 of the 2025 college football season.
This piece will seek to identify 5 underdogs who will beat the number this weekend. Earlier this week, I wrote about 5 money line underdogs who look like good bets on Saturday.
Week 8 predictions
Here are 5 picks against the spread for this weekend:
Louisville +13.5 over Miami
This is a bet against Miami’s attention span. In the Mario Cristobal era, the Hurricanes have been favored at home against an ACC opponent 8 times. They’re 2-5-1 against the spread and have lost 3 of those games outright. Miami was favored by 10+ points in all but one of those games, so it’s not as if the Canes have just struggled as short favorites in this spot. Miami just consistently underestimates ACC foes, particularly at home. It helps that Louisville is really good. Its lone loss this season came in overtime to Virginia in a game where it held the Cavaliers to just 3.8 yards per play. I think Jeff Brohm will have his team ready to go make this a 4-quarter game.
Pick: Louisville +13.5 (-105 on BetMGM)
SMU +5.5 over Clemson
SMU is clearly not the team it was a year ago, but Clemson has under-performed against virtually every FBS team it has faced this season except for North Carolina and Boston College, who are 2 of the worst power-conference teams in the country this season. I’m not buying Clemson’s resurgence just because it disposed of a couple of dysfunctional ACC teams in back-to-back weeks. This is a revenge spot for SMU after last year’s ACC Championship Game and the Mustangs have been playing well lately.
The elephant in the room with this game is Cade Klubnik’s status. This line shifted from SMU +9.5 to SMU +5.5 on Thursday afternoon once news broke that Klubnik may not play due to injury. I loved the Mustangs at +9.5 and I think that’s still the right side even after the line movement (assuming Klubnik does in-fact miss this game). I don’t have a ton of confidence in Christopher Vizzina and I still like SMU for all the reasons mentioned previously.
Pick: SMU +5.5 (-112 on DraftKings)
UNLV +12.5 over Boise State
UNLV enters this week’s game against Boise State with an undefeated record. The Rebels have been one of the best offensive teams in the country this season, led by quarterback Anthony Colandrea. Boise’s defense is solid, but the Broncos got ripped to shreds by opposing quarterbacks from South Florida, Air Force and Notre Dame. Nothing to be ashamed of there — those are 3 really good offenses. But UNLV is in that group, so I think this is too many points for Boise to cover.
Pick: UNLV +12.5 (-112 on DraftKings)
Auburn +2 over Missouri
Look, I would love to just fade Auburn from now until the end of the Hugh Freeze era after what the Tigers put on display in the second half last week against Georgia. Putting up 1.7 yards per play in a half against a team you had dead-to-rights is almost unforgivable. But Mizzou hasn’t played a road game this season — yes, really, it’s Week 8 and Missouri hasn’t left its home stadium yet — and we’re talking about an Auburn team that has lost to Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Georgia by a combined 23 points. Auburn also clearly has a great defense and there are some pretty big lingering questions about Mizzou’s downfield passing game. I’ll hold my nose and take the points.
Pick: Auburn +2 (-110 on Fanatics)
Stanford +18 over Florida State
Here’s an incredible stat that someone on Twitter shared earlier this week — Mike Norvell turned 44 years old last Saturday and hasn’t won an ACC game since he was 42. An overtime loss to Virginia and a close defeat to Miami were something you could justify. A home loss to Pitt with a true freshman quarterback? That’s really, really tough. Florida State is now 1-10 in ACC games over the past 2 seasons. Last year’s FSU team eventually quit on Norvell’s staff and I think we could see something similar happen this year. What better place to start than a 10:30 p.m. ET kickoff all the way across the country? Meanwhile, Stanford’s passing offense has been semi-competent for the last month or so. I think the Cardinal can keep this within a couple of scores.
Pick: Stanford +18 (-110 on bet365)
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
