Week 0 College Football Schedule, Power Ratings and Odds

Week 0 College Football Power Ratings:

The long, challenging, and exciting summer of preparation for the 2025 college football season can finally be put into action this week. Week 0 is here, our first chance to see what some of these teams look like following yet another crazy offseason of transfers and coaching changes. It really does make the process of creating college football power ratings so much more difficult, but the hope is always going to be that the extra research and evaluation proves fruitful.

This year’s power ratings came together differently for me than those in the past. Usually I go through each team by position group, place my values on those units, add ‘em all up, and go with it. This season, I surveyed the power ratings of friends and respected bettors in the business, and then sprinkled in some of my own adjustments based on the teams I like more than the market and the teams I like less than the market.

A shortcut? Maybe, but my belief is that these people are more tuned in to all of the happenings of the offseason, the rankings of incoming and transfer classes, returning production, and all of the ingredients that go into the proverbial soup. Obviously I still did my own research, especially for the four conferences that I wrote up for our VSiN 2025 College Football Betting Guide. I just leaned a little more on the smart minds who are able to put more of their time into CFB pursuits, as my role here with VSiN forces me to be up on nearly all the sports that are in season.

The reality is that having a good base is critically important, but it’s even more important to be able to make the proper adjustments as the season goes along. We’re all going into college football seasons a little bit blind at this point. But, reading and reacting to results, market moves and trends, and being adaptable to get ahead of line moves and make sharp wagers in the following weeks is how to truly have a successful season.

So, as always, I’ll be posting these college football power ratings updates on Sunday nights or Monday mornings as we go forward. I take the difference in rating between the two teams, add my home-field advantage value into the formula, and then try to beat line moves early in the week or use these as a deciding factor later in the week.

Like I’ve said before, I consider Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday CFB handicapping to be more on the quantitative side. Starting Wednesday and beyond, the handicap becomes more qualitative, as things like the weather forecast and injury reports get clearer. I do rely less on my power ratings as the week goes along and more on the news and the X’s and O’s of the game.

But, I do believe that this is a good resource and a valuable starting point for me and I’m happy to share it with all of you as well.

Week 0 College Football Power Ratings

Rank	Team	PR	HFA
1	Ohio State	91	3.5
2	Texas	91	3.5
3	Penn State	90	3.5
4	Georgia	89.5	3
5	Alabama	89.5	3.5
6	Clemson	87	2.5
7	Notre Dame	86.5	3
8	Oregon	86	3.5
9	LSU	85.5	3.5
10	Michigan	84	3
11	Texas A&M	83.5	2
12	Florida	82.5	2
13	Oklahoma	82	3
14	Tennessee	81.5	3.5
15	Mississippi	80.5	3
16	South Carolina	79.5	2.5
17	Arizona State	79.5	2
18	Indiana	79	2.5
19	Miami (Florida)	79	2
20	Louisville	79	3.5
21	Auburn	78.5	2
22	USC	77.5	3
23	Kansas State	77.5	3.5
24	SMU	77	3.5
25	Baylor	77	2
26	TCU	77	3
27	Texas Tech	76.5	3
28	Illinois	76.5	2
29	Iowa State	76	2
30	Missouri	75	3.5
31	Nebraska	75	2
32	Washington	74.5	3.5
33	Iowa	74	3
34	Utah	74	3
35	Georgia Tech	73.5	2
36	Arkansas	73	2
37	Kansas	72.5	2.5
38	Boise State	72	3.5
39	BYU	72	2
40	Minnesota	72	2
41	Wisconsin	72	2
42	Virginia Tech	71.5	2
43	Vanderbilt	71.5	1.5
44	Florida State	71	2
45	UCLA	69.5	2
46	Pittsburgh	69.5	2
47	Colorado	69	2
48	Cincinnati	69	1.5
49	Duke	69	3.5
50	Boston College	68.5	2
51	Houston	68.5	2
52	Tulane	68	2.5
53	Kentucky	68	2
54	Rutgers	68	2
55	UTSA	67.5	3.5
56	North Carolina State	67	2
57	North Carolina	67	2
58	Navy	67	2
59	Mississippi State	67	2
60	UCF	66	2
61	Syracuse	66	2.5
62	West Virginia	66	2
63	Michigan State	66	2
64	Virginia	65	2
65	Arizona	65	2
66	Memphis	64.5	2.5
67	California	64	2
68	James Madison	64	3
69	Maryland	63.5	2
70	Oklahoma State	63	2
71	South Florida	63	1.5
72	Northwestern	62.5	1.5
73	San Jose State	62	2.5
74	UNLV	61.5	2.5
75	Louisiana-Lafayette	61	2
76	Oregon State	60.5	3.5
77	Army	60	2.5
78	Stanford	60	1
79	Liberty	60	3
80	Toledo	60	3
81	Fresno State	60	2
82	North Texas	59.5	2
83	Texas State	59	2
84	Wake Forest	59	2
85	Old Dominion	59	1.5
86	East Carolina	59	2
87	Ohio	59	3.5
88	Buffalo	59	2
89	Connecticut	58.5	2.5
90	Georgia Southern	58	3.5
91	South Alabama	58	2
92	Air Force	58	2
93	Washington State	56	3
94	Colorado State	56	2
95	Western Kentucky	56	2.5
96	Coastal Carolina	56	2
97	Appalachian State	55.5	2
98	Hawai’i	55.5	2
99	Miami (Ohio)	55	2.5
100	Northern Illinois	55	1
101	Arkansas State	55	2
102	Wyoming	54.5	2
103	Troy	54	3
104	Bowling Green	54	2
105	Purdue	54	1
106	Louisiana Tech	52.5	2
107	San Diego State	52.5	2
108	Louisiana-Monroe	52	2
109	Marshall	52	3
110	Georgia State	52	1
111	Western Michigan	52	2
112	Nevada	51	1
113	Jacksonville State	51	3.5
114	Florida Atlantic	51	2
115	Southern Mississippi	51	2
116	Rice	50.5	3
117	Utah State	50.5	2
118	Sam Houston State	50	1.5
119	UAB	48.5	2.5
120	Temple	48.5	2
121	Central Michigan	48.5	2
122	New Mexico	48	2
123	Florida International	48	2
124	UTEP	48	2
125	Missouri State	47.5	2
126	Charlotte	47.5	1
127	Eastern Michigan	47.5	2
128	Delaware	47	3
129	Middle Tennessee	46.5	2
130	Akron	46	2
131	New Mexico State	45.5	2.5
132	Tulsa	44	1
133	Ball State	43.5	2.5
134	Massachusetts	42	1
135	Kennesaw State	42	1.5
136	Kent State	37.5	1

As the season goes along, I’ll write up my weekly adjustments (up/downs) for teams and also give a little more context to the biggest of the line moves. In the past, I’ve relied a lot more on my priors and all of my offseason research to avoid making drastic adjustments too early, but in the portal era, and with some of the things that Steve Makinen talked about in his College Football Stability Scores article, I’m expecting to be more aggressive this season.

I’ll talk more about that process next week, especially because it will be easy to hone in on the nine FBS teams in action and with just four box scores to evaluate.

My Week 0 College Football Lines

(note: games are ordered by rotation number)

Date	Away Team	Home Team	Line
8/23	Iowa State	Kansas State (N – Dublin)	-1.5
	Sam Houston State	Western Kentucky	-8.5
	Fresno State	Kansas	-15
	Stanford	Hawaii	+2.5

Some mild deviations from the market, but these are all tough games. A game in Dublin has inherent landmines. Hawaii flipped to a favorite, as my number mirrors the opening number instead of the current one, but starting on the island is tricky. If the price keeps dropping on Kansas, I might be a player there. I tend to agree with the Western Kentucky move and those two teams may be adjustments for me for next week.

It’s okay to treat some games as fact-finding missions, especially if it’s a team that you feel less sure about than others. Keep that in mind, as we’ll all be very excited about the start of the season, but it is a time to be smart about your bankroll.

I’ll be posting this weekly Power Ratings update all season long, including my lines on the games. Keep it locked in right here at VSiN and bookmark our weekly College Football Hub to get all of our written content every week during CFB season.