Which school is nerdier, Kansas State or Iowa State? Depending on your poor timing when you ask a Wildcat, you may get a terse dismissal. Another time, you will receive an earnest insistence that Manhattan is the academic powerhouse in this conversation.
It is nice that Kansas State University fans think so. Alums should be proud of their schools. But they are wrong in this comparison.
They are not wrong just because Kansas State trails Iowa State by 44 spots in the 2025 rankings from U.S. News. They are wrong because the original question does not quite grasp how nerdy Iowa State is.
Let’s reframe it: What school is nerdier, Kansas State University or the Iowa State University of Science and Technology?
Those are their official names, and realizing that confirmed that ISU S&T will win in Dublin this weekend to kick off the 2025 college football season and our college football predictions.
College football predictions Week 0
Iowa State moneyline (+140 at Caesars)
Jalon Daniels anytime touchdown (+105 at Caesars)- Kansas Team Total Over 31.5 (-110 at Caesars)
Western Kentucky Team Total Over 35.5 (-115 at Caesars)
Hawaii -2.5 (-105 at FanDuel)
Iowa State moneyline
The nerdier school always wins in Dublin. Literally, in nine FBS vs. FBS games played on the Emerald Isle since 1988, the nerdier school has won nine times.
Georgia Tech upset Florida State last year. Notre Dame demolished Navy in 2023. Northwestern stunned Scott Frost and Nebraska in 2022.
Georgia Tech beat Boston College in 2016. Penn State beat the degree farm for Hilton night managers in 2014. Notre Dame topped Navy in both 2012 and 1996.
Then go all the way back to 1989 and acknowledge the 42-story Cathedral of Learning at Pittsburgh makes it nerdier than the State University of New Jersey. Lastly, with all due respect to the armed forces, Boston College’s 38-24 win against Army in 1988 seals the universal truth that the nerdier school always wins in Dublin.
Why? Maybe they are better used to disjointed sleep schedules thanks to long studying. Perhaps they are not as enticed by the Temple Bar District. Most likely, there is no logical explanation.
It is just true.
And it will remain true Saturday, thanks to the Iowa State Cyclones' renewed and healthy defense getting the better of a new-look Kansas State Wildcats offensive line trying to find cohesion without long-time offensive line coach Conor Riley. In a Week 0 game in an unusual environment, trust in the team with better trench play makes sense, particularly at plus-money odds.
Plus, the Iowa State University of Science and Technology is nerdier than Kansas State University.
Jalon Daniels anytime touchdown
After the Kansas Jayhawks started 0-6 against the spread and 1-5 outright last year, it rattled off five straight ATS wins while going 4-1 to make a bowl game a vague possibility. That entire surge could be traced to star quarterback Jalon Daniels.
As Daniels goes, so goes Kansas.
He rushed for a touchdown in just five of 12 games last season, but look back to 2022, his last season of both health and comfort with his offensive coordinator. Daniels scored on the ground in six of nine games that year, carrying the Jayhawks to their first bowl game in 14 years.
Jeff Grimes’ departure for Wisconsin after only one season in Lawrence should be to Daniels’s benefit, now listening to only Jim Zebrowski, his quarterbacks coach for four years already.
Zebrowski and Daniels should set the tone out of the gates this season. They need to focus on the downfield game with a new crop of receivers, but Daniels also needs to reassure his entire team what this season can look like. That is best done when he is a dual-threat.
The Fresno State Bulldogs' entire roster seems to be in flux, so asking for all things from Daniels should not be too much for at least this week.
Kansas Team Total Over 31.5
How much more needs to be said here if expecting Jalon Daniels to both rush for a touchdown and focus on his downfield game with a new crop of receivers?
Fresno State returns only three defensive starters amid a program reset after spending 2024 with an interim head coach. That should lessen usual turnover worries with Daniels, and without that concern, expect Kansas’s offense to dictate this game.
The Jayhawks fans will relish it. They have not seen a game in Lawrence since 2023.
Western Kentucky Team Total Over 35.5
Western Kentucky Hilltoppers head coach Tyson Helton has again reached into the transfer portal, not just for a quarterback but for an entire offensive scheme. Abilene Christian transfer quarterback Maverick McIvor was joined by Abilene Christian offensive coordinator Rick Bowie in heading to Bowling Green, and only an efficient offense should overshadow their combination of spectacular names.
Returning production rankings and power ratings math fail to comprehend that ability to hit the ground running. Against a defense returning no starters on defense, there is already plenty of reason to bet on Western Kentucky’s scoring in Week 0.
But look at the Sam Houston State Bearkats offense, too. First-year Bearkats head coach Phil Longo has only one speed: Fast. His offensive pace has long doomed his teams’ corresponding defenses at Wisconsin and North Carolina. Longo will not slow down, no matter how much of a liability his defense may be.
That will only emphasize that liability.
Hawaii -2.5
No head coach in college football is more open about being aware of the spread than Hawaii Rainbow Warriors head coach Timmy Chang. It gets him headlines, and that presumably helps him in recruiting. It is a sound approach as long as he never adjusts a game plan to account for the spread.
But more importantly, at the moment, the Stanford Cardinal fired head coach Troy Taylor in March, hiring Frank Reich as an interim coach for this season. That led to a talent exodus. This spread may have moved across zero since it first opened, but more movement makes sense.
The world struggles to grasp how much of a one-way roster churn the Cardinal suffered.
Teams with late coaching changes opened last season 24-40-1 against the spread. Stanford, Kent State, and Bowling Green should all be faded into October this year.
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change.
Not intended for use in MA.
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