Week 7 of the 2025 college football season brings about some massive conference clashes with College Football Playoff implications, headlined by No. 8 Alabama facing No. 14 Missouri and No. 7 Indiana visiting No. 3 Oregon. There are also key SEC showdowns in College Station and the Cotton Bowl, where the No. 5 Texas A&M Aggies and No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners look to stay unbeaten on the season.
SportsLine college football expert Bruce Marshall, the longtime executive editor of The Gold Sheet, has gathered information on Saturday’s top games and shares everything bettors need to know about Week 7 of the college football season. For those who are interested in college football betting, be sure to check out Marshall’s plays, as he’s 19-15-1 (+267) across his last 35 college football against-the-spread picks.
No. 7 Indiana at No. 3 Oregon (-7.5, 55.5)
We admit it has taken some getting used to with Indiana now involved in featured games these days.
Last year’s arrival of Curt Cignetti from James Madison has changed the narrative in Bloomington. Though he inherited a veteran roster, Cignetti immediately proved he knew what he was doing as the Hoosiers unleashed a ferocious attack behind Ohio transfer QB Kurtis Rourke, who piloted the second-highest scoring offense (41.3 ppg) in the country. After reaching the playoff last season, the Hoosiers arguably look more potent in 2025, recently having put 63 points on a very good Illinois team currently sitting No. 17 in the rankings. Cignetti’s QB find from the portal this season has been former Cal pilot Fernando Mendoza, who has picked up where Rourke left off and then some, already on 16 touchdown passes to move into Heisman Trophy contention. The offense, however, might even have more balance than a year ago with Maryland transfer RB Roman Hemby potentially en route to a 1,000-yard season.
The schedule hasn’t been chock-full of patsies, either, with Illinois and Iowa already dispatched from the Big Ten. Cignetti is also 11-5 ATS since last season, which includes a gift safety on the final play at Iowa City to allow the Hawkeyes to slip inside of that 6.5 spread.
Like IU, the Ducks are also off of a bye week into this once-unlikely showdown at Autzen Stadium, and served notice in the recent OT win at Penn State that Dan Lanning has another legit national contender on his hands. Former UCLA transfer QB Dante Moore passed his litmus test at Happy Valley and looked so good against the Nittany Lions that he’s been thrust into the thick of the Heisman discussion. Moore, with 14 TD passes and just one pick while completing nearly 75% of his throws, seemed to come of age in the Penn State win, but the defense deserves equal billing, ranking seventh overall (238 ypg) and tied for sixth in scoring defense (12.2 ppg).
While these respective offenses deserve all of the headlines they receive, we can’t help but notice how well each of these defenses have been performing, too, and especially note the recent games involving the Ducks in which the scores have been landing Under (three straight), and also note that the Hoosiers got into a defensive war at Iowa a few weeks ago before finally surviving 20-15. Thus, our first recommendation here is for these sides to land beneath the mid 50s on the totals side with a secondary preference to the well-balanced Hoosiers, who have the sort of real gunslinger in Mendoza to trade points in Eugene.
Florida at No. 5 Texas A&M (-7.5, 46.5)
Like those various insect species that can supposedly survive a nuclear attack, it’s hard to get rid of Billy Napier. Take last week’s game at the Swamp against Texas, which many thought would likely put an end to the mostly underwhelming Napier regime in Gainesville, now into its fourth season. Napier seems to be able to coax big efforts from his players in the nick of time to ease the pressure. The favored Longhorns were flustered and Napier’s Florida pulled clear to a 29-21 win. While the victory hasn’t totally removed the pressure on Napier, it has bought him a bit more time.
DJ Lagway seems back to normal and just had his best game of the season as he passed for 298 yards against the Longhorns. Along the way, RB Jadan Baugh finally had a breakthrough game, while the pieces began to fit defensively as the many recent blue-chip Florida recruits made their presence felt with a voracious pass rush that sacked Arch Manning six times. This was the Florida everyone expected to see this season. Can Napier carry this newfound momentum?
The Aggies look a tougher hurdle than the Longhorns a week ago, partly because Texas A&M is getting more confident work at QB from Marcel Reed, whose stock has been on the rise since bursting upon the scene as a freshman last fall and burnishing his reputation with that last-minute drive to victory at Notre Dame on Sept. 13. Collin Klein’s offense, however, is rather well-balanced and leaning to the run roughly 60% of the time with Le’Veon Moss and Reuben Owens. In the last two wins, both also at College Station against Auburn and Mississippi State, Mike Elko’s defense has reappeared after some shaky efforts out of the gate, especially the shootout at Notre Dame when the Reed-led offense had to score 41 to record a one-point win.
The Aggies, however, haven’t been especially good against the line lately, dropping eight of their last ten on the spread, and even last week’s win and cover against MSU took a while to ferment, as the scoreline was still just 7-3 going into the final quarter. We suspect it might even be harder to extend the margin on the Gators. It’s a different Lagway now who can likely keep Florida very close at Kyle Field.
No. 15 Michigan at USC (-2.5, 56.5)
The old “eye test” can sometimes deceive. Certainly, there were few style points scored by either side in Michigan’s workmanlike 24-10 win over Wisconsin last Saturday at the Big House. That is exactly what makes the Wolverines so intriguing week to week, especially when they’re underdogs and especially when on the road.
The challenge for host USC is to prove it can stand up to one of the “line of scrimmage” Big Ten teams like the Wolverines that have proven tough matchups since the Trojans joined the league last year. Wins over downgraded Nebraska and Wisconsin last season don’t quite qualify and while most of these losses have been on the road, USC hasn’t beaten a true Big Ten powerhouse at the Coliseum since it entered the league. There are questions we have regarding the defense, which on the surface might seem like it can deal with the still-learning Underwood. Remember the Trojans couldn’t hold off a very one-armed Wolverines entry last year at Ann Arbor, when Michigan was even more imbalanced yet played smash mouth football to the tune of 290 yards rushing to eventually wear down the Trojans.
Granted, USC wins the style points argument here, especially with QB Jayden Maiava now fully indoctrinated into the Lincoln Riley offense and having passed for almost 1,600 yards already this season. D’Anton Lynn’s Trojan defense, while improved from the Alex Grinch versions earlier in Riley’s tenure, has been giving up too many big plays lately and was gashed for 65 points across the past two games. Recent history says Michigan can win this game outright and might not need any of the small help it is getting from the oddsmakers.
No. 6 Oklahoma (-1.5, 43) vs. Texas
Forgive us for feeling like we’ve been sold a bill of goods when it comes to this version of the Longhorns and Arch Manning in particular. Who, or what, then, is to blame? Steve Sarkisian? How about Peyton and Eli? Maybe members of the national sports press and media brigade? Rampant overhype from Instagram and other social media platforms? Or a combination of any of those mentioned?
The latter explanation might be best, not that it matters much in regard to Manning. He’s showing only brief glimpses of the supposed potential that had made him the consensus Heisman favorite entering the new season, and one of the main reasons the Longhorns were a consensus preseason No. 1 team in the polls for 2025.
It hasn’t gone as planned for Manning, whose best game came against a woeful Sam Houston while tossing picks in his other four starts, or for Texas, which slipped out of the polls entirely after last Saturday’s 29-21 loss at Florida. We’re not quite ready to give up on the Longhorns, reckoning Texas has been dealt two of college football’s most daunting and hostile road assignments. We’d still rather give the benefit of the doubt to Sarkisian, a noted QB whisperer who was gushing over Manning in the preseason and still believes Manning will deliver. Meanwhile, Pete Kwiatkowski’s defense has been mostly up to the task, conceding only 9.0 points per game, though team meetings for the unit since the Florida game might have been a bit tense.
The real key to this Red River Rivalry at the Cotton Bowl probably lies on the Sooners side and whether QB John Mateer is available after undergoing hand surgery two weeks ago. The original timetable for Mateer’s recovery was one month, but as is often the case with gridiron stars, the timeline tends to move up, especially when other factors are involved. Backup Michael Hawkins Jr. seemed to be playing somewhat under wraps last week against Tulsa and does have some experience from last season when he started a handful of games, including a win at Auburn.
If it’s Hawkins again on Saturday, there will be even more pressure on the Brett Venables defense, which has been mostly up to the task this season. (For what it’s worth, Mateer was upgraded to probable on Thursday.)
For those reasons and others (especially if Hawkins remains at QB for OU), we suspect clearing the total at 43 is going to be a real challenge; the Under might be our top preference. As the Longhorns also aren’t a real visitor for one of these showdown games, this also figures to be the spot where Sark’s team draws its line in the sand and keeps any hopes alive of competing for the SEC title. That angle is an easier sell if we know for sure that Hawkins, not Mateer, will be taking the Sooners’ snaps.