2025 Staff Pick’em Week 0

After the 2024 Pick’em where only Cole was above .500 for the season, we managed to be evenly split across the middle mark and were actually right more often than not overall with a staff record of 456-432 (51.4%). Andrew won at 81-67 (54.7%) with Cole and Import tied at 80-68 (54.1%). You lot of nerds combined to go 72-69 (51.1%). Tom and I were 1 swing decision off .500 at 73-75 (49.3%) while former editor and SB Nation pariah Christian D’Andrea aka TrainIsland was solidly in last at 69-79 (46.6%).

This is the last Week 0 in college football due to a decision yesterday by the FBS Oversight Committee to remove restrictions on the weekend before Labor Day and make it the new opening weekend with no waiver availability to play earlier. Currently, Week 0 games must meet a list of criteria like being played overseas (North Carolina “at” TCU in Dublin) or involve a team that plays at Hawaii to give them more schedule flexibility around that game. The new schedule will guarantee that every team has 2 open dates by having 14 weeks to play 12 games unless you choose to play the 13th game allowed by playing at Hawaii for cost recuperation.

It is a hefty one, too, with 8 FBS vs FBS matchups including North Dakota State and Sacramento State making their FBS debuts. There is even a conference matchup between NC State and Virginia. The insanity around player eligibility rules, judicial rulings (permanent or TROs and all of the injunctions and strike downs that follow), and the transfer portal means you should probably take our picks as way less than informed than even normal.

As it stands, we had 2 unanimous picks (Technically, as of writing, Andrew did not pick the Jacksonville State at North Dakota State game, so he got lumped into the Bison herd by default. No, I won’t count that game in his record if I do not get a response before kickoff.) One game had a member going solo with another instance of the slim 4-2 majority. The other four were even splits. Half of the game being even splits probably is an indicator of how unsure we are since most of us generally draw from similar news sources along with built in biases and expectations, especially on non-SEC teams.

1. Normally, the picks are for all SEC games with one dealer’s choice where I get to choose another game to make us pick. For Week 0, every game with an FBS team in it will be picked.

2. The picks will be made AGAINST THE SPREAD. Too many games are easy to pick heads up. Also, this will serve as a PSA for why you should not get into sports gambling, which is especially important with sports gambling being legal in Tennessee now.

3. The lines will be taken from Oddsshark’s consensus spread some time Monday, so they may not match what is listed at the time this article is published. I also have a couple backups since Oddsshark is sometimes slow to the FBS vs FCS matchups. This did not help this week.

Normally, the picks are for all SEC games with one dealer’s choice where I get to choose another game to make us pick. For Week 0, every game with an FBS team in it will be picked.

The picks will be made AGAINST THE SPREAD. Too many games are easy to pick heads up. Also, this will serve as a PSA for why you should not get into sports gambling, which is especially important with sports gambling being legal in Tennessee now.

The lines will be taken from Oddsshark’s consensus spread some time Monday, so they may not match what is listed at the time this article is published. I also have a couple backups since Oddsshark is sometimes slow to the FBS vs FCS matchups. This did not help this week.

Jacksonville State (+6.5)
@*
North Dakota State

Sacramento State (+9.5)
@
Eastern Michigan

New Mexico State (+32.5)
@
Florida State