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RotoBaller's Mike Marteny's ESPN College Football Pick'ems for Week 2. Picks with confidence points for Week 2 of the 2025 NCAA college football season. Expert upsets, targets, avoids, and predictions.
We have a good turnout this year with 65 entries in the RotoBaller Reader's Group. All but two entries got at least half of the picks right, which is why we do the confidence version. Three entries (PAPI PEREZ, WeagleweagleWDE, and chrismiller19) led the way this week with 48 points. That's not bad out of 55 possible!
Momirka13 had 47 points. YoungsterBiggie and Rakija Brown both had 46 points. We had 34 entries that had at least 40 points or more. It's a long season, but we have some people off to a good start!
It took 544 points to win our group last year, which was up from 541 in 2023. This year should be just as competitive! If you aren't off to a good start, you're not alone. I missed four games last week, but one was for eight points. Ouch!
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College Football Pick'em Overview
This article will be about the confidence game mode. You can also read my against-the-spread picks here every week for every game, so you know how I'm leaning toward that version of the game. Each week, I will recap who's dominating the group before I get into the picks. If you're going to beat everyone, all of the readers will know about it!
Let's get to the countdown! I will count them up from least confident (1) to most (10). You know, for dramatic effect. If I do change my pick or points sometime during the week, I will try to update the article or post it on X. Otherwise, you know all of my picks each week.
Good luck out there. We don't have as much star power as we did in Week 1, but there are still some good ones out there!
(1) Ohio over West Virginia
Yes, the public is heavy on West Virginia (97%), but I'm not convinced that the Mountaineers are significantly better than Rutgers. This game is also a road game for West Virginia, and Ohio gave Rutgers all it could handle on the road.
I decided to go with Ohio here because of the way that Parker Navarro and Sieh Bangura played against Rutgers. The Rutgers defense is at least as good as West Virginia's. I'm trying to steal a point here since Ohio has at least a puncher's chance at a win.
(2) Syracuse over Connecticut
Syracuse has talent, but it is a very young team this year. It had some good moments against Tennessee and some bad ones. We can expect the same thing here. UConn is not a bad team. The spread (-6.5) reflects that, since it is generally accepted that home-field advantage is worth seven points. Vegas has this as a toss-up on a neutral field.
That's a little too close for me to put a lot on this game. The public is heavy on Syracuse (94%), but UConn returns its QB (Joe Fagnano), leading rusher (Cam Edwards), and top receiver (Skyler Bell) from 2024. This is going to be a close game, and one that Syracuse loses if it makes mistakes.
(3) Illinois over Duke
Darian Mensah's Duke debut:
😈 27/34
😈 389 YDS
😈 3 TD @DukeFootball pic.twitter.com/sXX54r54f3— ACC Network (@accnetwork) August 29, 2025
Elon isn't good, but neither is Western Illinois. We didn't learn anything about either team in the opener. This is another one where the public is seeing the ranking beside Illinois and ignoring Duke, and I get it. Duke was worth ignoring last year. This is not the same Duke team. This feels like a trap for Illinois heading into Durham, so I am assigning confidence points accordingly.
(4) Vanderbilt over Virginia Tech
Kyron Drones was locked down by the South Carolina defense. Vandy's defense isn't quite as good, but it should be able to handle the struggling Tech offense. The Hokies didn't look any better than last year.
Vanderbilt's Week 1 opponent was a very overmatched Charleston Southern team. Diego Pavia looked good, and the defense looked good, but against that level of competition, it's really hard to tell. I'm leaving this a bit lower, but I wasn't at all impressed with the Hokies in the opener.
(5) Virginia over North Carolina State
Wow, Virginia looked good against Coastal Carolina. I understand that the Chanticleers aren't where they were in 2020, but they have still had good recruiting classes come into Conway since then. NC State had trouble with East Carolina again, but at least it won this time.
Chandler Morris reminds me of a certain Oklahoma QB that now resides in Tampa Bay…
Just an observation. pic.twitter.com/h6j4q74xLr
— Jake Malasek (@jakemalasek) August 30, 2025
The irony is that Chandler Morris started his college journey at Oklahoma in 2020. Morris has finally looked the part in stop No. 4 in his college career. I don't know that it's safe to call Virginia "back" after one game, especially with the struggles running the ball, but this offense looks better than it has since Brennan Armstrong was there.
(6) Kansas over Missouri
Honestly, Sam Horn going down for Missouri didn't move the needle for me. Beau Pribula was with him neck-and-neck all spring and into summer. This is based on how Kansas looked against Fresno. Jalon Daniels looked back to his 2022 form.
62 yards in the air. I think Jalon Daniels’ back is feeling good again pic.twitter.com/6ldtbQN3SZ
— Trevor Sikkema (@TampaBayTre) August 30, 2025
What really seals this for me was Missouri's line struggling against Central Arkansas in the first half of that game. Kansas' front seven has looked very good in both games. I know it's inferior competition, but what is Central Arkansas? Kansas takes home the Indian War Drum for the first time since 2008. I love that 81% of the public is on the other side of this.
(7) Oklahoma over Michigan
Oklahoma has as many 11 win seasons since 2010 as Michigan has since 1906.
— SEC Numbers Guy (@secnumbersguy) September 2, 2025
Michigan allowed 17 points to a bad New Mexico team. Bryce Underwood looked good in his debut, but are all of these draft picks off the Michigan defense starting to take its toll? I feel pretty good about Oklahoma taking this at home.
(8) Iowa State over Iowa
The road team has won ¡El Assico! in each of the last five meetings. Iowa brought in FCS Championship quarterback Mark Gronowski, but the result was much of the same. The passing game was a disaster. Was it a planned disaster?
This offseason: excited to see what Iowa's offense looks like with Mark Gronowski at QB.
Iowa in the opener: pic.twitter.com/ePZO3sya8I
— Bryan Fischer (@BryanDFischer) August 31, 2025
Iowa, like Michigan, looked purposely vanilla in the opener, and didn't panic when the offense stalled. It did what it was doing again. Iowa State has looked strong in two games. Last week, Rocco Becht had as many incompletions as the team had failed third downs (one). One looks like a well-oiled machine. The other looks the same as it always has.
That's why I'm picking against the trend to end this year in Ames. Iowa State appears to have improved, despite losing two of the best receivers in school history.
(9) SMU over Baylor
Baylor looked awful at home against Auburn. I don't think SMU's defense is as good as Auburn's, but I know the offense is better. I may be overreacting a bit over Baylor, but I don't think so. The defense, especially the run defense, was terrible. SMU can gallop with the best of them.
Kevin Jennings to Romello Brinson for one of the most entertaining touchdowns this weekend pic.twitter.com/CDuqVIsHdP
— T.J. Randall (@TJ_Randall12) August 31, 2025
(10) Arizona State over Mississippi State
The Bulldogs looked better than last year in the opener, but let's face it ... they couldn't possibly get worse. Sam Leavitt and Kyson Brown took care of business against Northern Arizona, and it was what I expected. Arizona State threw more than it did last year. Jordyn Tyson had a huge game. The Bulldogs don't have an answer for Tyson, either.
