The 2025 College Football season is right around the corner, which means it is time to start looking for the best win total bets for the upcoming season.
In this series, I will take a look at win total bets for a few appealing teams in each of the four major conferences.
| 2025 College Football Over/Under Best Bets |
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| Big 12 Best Win Total Bets |
| ACC Best Win Total Bets |
| Big 10 Best Win Total Bets |
| SEC Best Win Total Bets (Coming Soon) |
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2025 College Win Total Best Bet: Washington Over 6.5 wins
Washington is a candidate to be one of the breakout teams in the Big Ten.
Sophomore quarterback Demond Williams Jr. is a key reason the Huskies have potential.
Williams made just two starts last year, against Oregon and Louisville.
Although Washington lost both games, Williams was impressive 一 especially in a rough road environment against the Ducks.
Williams will be supported by the return of leading rusher Jonah Coleman and leading receiver Denzel Boston.
Washington’s defense also has a chance to take a step forward under new coordinator Ryan Walters.
Although Walters flopped in his first head coaching gig at Purdue, he previously helped rebuild a strong defense under Bret Bielema at Illinois.
The Huskies, likely aided by Walters’ recruiting, also made some key defensive portal additions.
Linebacker Taariq Al-Uqdah, formerly of Washington State, should immediately be a leader in the middle of the Husky defense.
Tacario Davis (Arizona), CJ Christian (FIU), and Alex McLaughlin (Northern Arizona) are also likely starters in a revamped secondary.
2025 College Win Total Best Bet: Northwestern Over 3.5 wins
Northwestern won four games a year ago and made a significant upgrade at the quarterback position.
Former SMU starter Preston Stone joins the Wildcats, replacing Jack Lausch, who will move to the backup role.
Based on ESPN’s Total QBR metric, Lausch ranked 109th in the country a season ago.
Stone ranked 31st during his last full season as a starter in 2023.
Competent quarterback play is going to allow Northwestern to remain competitive in the type of games that got out of hand at times last year.
The risk in placing this bet is the Wildcats’ brutal road schedule:
- Week 1 at Tulane
- Week 7 at Penn State
- Week 9 at Nebraska
- Week 11 at USC
- Week 14 at Illinois
The season-opener in New Orleans won't be easy, but Northwestern might benefit from former BYU quarterback Jake Retzlaff‘s last-minute transfer to Tulane.
Even if he plays in Week 1, he won’t be fully up to speed on the team’s offense.
If the Wildcats do lose to Tulane, an 0-5 mark road is possible, but that wouldn’t necessarily prevent Northwestern from hitting this over.
There are at least five winnable home games on the schedule:
- Western Illinois
- Louisiana Monroe
- UCLA
- Purdue
- Minnesota
The other two home games (Oregon and Michigan) are likely losses, but a 4-3 home record still gets us a win on this over.
2025 College Win Total Best Bet: Illinois Under 7.5 wins
Illinois went 10-3 a season ago, and quarterback Luke Altmyer returns.
That might make the over on this modest 7.5 wins look appealing, but a closer look at the 2024 season turns up fool’s gold.
For starters, there were some close calls.
Illinois needed overtime to beat Nebraska and a Purdue team that went winless against the FBS.
The Illini also struggled to put away Northwestern and Rutgers, and they were upset by a similarly mediocre Minnesota squad at home.
The primary concern facing Illinois is a defense that has been trending in the wrong direction.
These two opponent-adjusted stats jump out (via Sports Info Solutions):
- Ranked 131st in rushing yards before contact allowed
- Ranked 83rd in pressure rate generated
Struggling against the run and the pass isn’t a recipe for a successful season, but in 2024, the Illini only played two offenses with a pulse (Oregon and Penn State).
This year, the Illini face Ohio State, USC, Indiana, and Washington in Big Ten play, all of which should be able to exploit Illinois' defensive issues.
Illinois also faces Duke in non-conference play, which will be a challenge after Duke added quarterback Darian Mensah via the portal.
Although teams do sometimes make significant leaps in the transfer portal era, there’s no reason to believe Illinois’ defense will make a quick turnaround.
According to 247 Sports, only three of Illinois’ top 12 portal additions are on the defensive side of the ball, and only two of those have significant starting experience (EDGE Leon Lowery Jr. and DL Jason Thompson Jr).