Week 1 CFB Picks: Texas looks to make their mark at the Shoe

After a soft opening last week, the 2025 CFB season officially kicks off with a much-anticipated showdown between top-ranked teams in Week 1. #1 Texas will visit #2 Ohio St., and YouBet.com will include the big game among its three-pack of picks. 

All lines courtesy of BetMGM, with times listed in Eastern Standard Time. Let’s get the season off to a profitable start!

Texas at Ohio St., 12 p.m.

Both teams were forced to reload after making the College Football Playoffs, but Texas enters the season with top-ranked quarterback Arch Manning, who gained valuable experience leading Texas to a 3-0 record while Quinn Ewers was sidelined last year. Ohio State lost a pair of regular-season games before quarterback Will Howard found his best form during the postseason, performing at an extremely high level in victories over Texas and Notre Dame to win the championship. There will be growing pains for their new signal caller since Will Howard's departure. A hangover effect looms as more than a realistic possibility for an Ohio St. team that lost 14 players to the NFL Draft, including the core of their offensive and defensive lines, as well as both coordinators. Texas’ roster is better equipped to start the season fast. They will have more firepower from the starting blocks than Ohio St., which doesn’t want to get into a high-tempo game, and Texas is better up front defensively, led by Anthony Hill Jr. and arguably the nation’s best linebacking corps.

We love Texas on the money line (+100).

Mississippi St. at Southern Miss, 12 p.m. 

The line has dropped, but Southern Miss still offers value as a double-digit home underdog. This will be the second consecutive year that the coach of the top team in the Sun Belt Conference has taken nearly his entire squad to a new school. After leading James Madison to a Sun Belt title in 2023, Curt Cignetti brought his best players to Indiana and went 11-1 in the Big 10. Sam Huff parted ways with Marshall after leading them to a Sun Belt title last year, and the head coach brought about 20 key players with him to Southern Miss, which also added potential impact transfers from other schools. Mississippi State went 2-10 last year, losing 41-17 at home to Toledo in Week 3. And while improvement is expected in 2025, Mississippi St. will face a serious challenge against a sneaky Southern Miss team with a winning culture among its players and coaches.

Along with playing Southern Miss and the points (13.5), we will get some action on the Southern Miss money line (+375). 

Temple at UMass, 3:30 p.m.

Both teams are seeking an identity offensively, having brought in waves of new players via the transfer portal after hiring new head coaches and offensive coordinators during the offseason. As a result, points will be at a premium as Temple and UMass look to hang their hat on defense early in the 2025 campaign. Along with a well-regarded secondary, UMass brings a couple of important players back from injury to accompany some potential impact transfers in the defensive front seven. And they’ll need to be good defensively, given the question marks on offense. New Temple defensive coordinator Brian Smith has the reputation for quick turnarounds and limiting explosive plays, and turnovers may prove to be the difference in a projected low-scoring game.

We’ll side with the Under (47.5).

Week 1 Plays

We will play 2 units on the following:

Texas money line (+100)
Southern Miss (13.5)
Under Temple-UMass (47.5 points) 

And 1 unit on the Southern Miss money line (+375).