The Bantrym Board: College Football Week 1
Five picks. One Best Bet. Every receipt kept. The Bantrym Board is back for a full Week 1 college football slate.
The Bantrym Board: College Football Week 1
Five picks. One Best Bet. Every receipt kept.
Week 0 is in the books.
The first-ever Bantrym Board went 2-1. North Carolina +9.5 covered. Memphis won outright. NC State +4 gave us our first loss.
Not perfect.
We'll take it.
Season Record: 2-1
Now the real shit starts.
Week 1 gives us a full slate, so we're expanding the Board from three picks to five. We've got two short favorites, two massive underdogs, an Iowa Over that will probably take years off my life, and our first official Best Bet.
Let's get into it.
⭐ BEST BET: UCLA -1.5 @ Cal
I'm buying Nico Iamaleava stock again.
I know. We've done this before.
Nico came into college as one of the best quarterback prospects in the country. The arm talent was there. The athleticism was there. He helped take Tennessee to the College Football Playoff, then came the NIL drama, the transfer to UCLA, and a 2025 season that was pretty damn disappointing.
He finished last year with 1,928 passing yards, 13 touchdowns and seven interceptions.
Not exactly what everyone pictured when this dude was a five-star recruit.
But I'm not ready to give up on him yet.
Because now UCLA has Bob Chesney.
And everywhere Chesney has gone, he's won.
He went 44-21 at Assumption. Then 44-16 at Holy Cross. Then he took over James Madison and went 21-6 in two seasons.
Last year JMU went 12-2, finished 8-0 in the Sun Belt, won its first Sun Belt Championship and made the College Football Playoff.
Now Chesney gets Nico.
That's what has me buying UCLA.
Because even during a disappointing season, we still saw flashes of the quarterback everyone thought Nico could become.
He didn't just lead UCLA in passing last year.
He led the Bruins in rushing yards, rushing attempts and rushing touchdowns too.
And against No. 7 Penn State, we saw the ceiling.
Nico threw for 166 yards, ran for another 128 and accounted for five touchdowns in UCLA's 42-37 upset.
That guy is still in there.
The question is whether Chesney can get him out consistently.
I'm betting he can.
This isn't UCLA bringing in some recycled coach because he had a recognizable name. Chesney has spent his career building winning programs, and now he gets one of the most physically talented dual-threat quarterbacks in college football.
Maybe the problem with Nico was never talent.
Maybe he needed an offense and a coach willing to lean all the way into what makes him dangerous.
Move him around. Use the RPO game. Make defenses account for his legs. Stop asking him to become whatever everyone thought a five-star quarterback was supposed to look like and build the offense around the player he actually is.
There's obviously risk here.
Nico still has to prove he can consistently beat defenses with his arm. UCLA is coming off a 3-9 season. Chesney hasn't coached a game at UCLA yet.
We don't actually know what this thing is going to look like.
But that's also why we're getting this number.
UCLA -1.5.
I'm not asking Nico to win the Heisman Saturday night.
I'm not asking UCLA to suddenly win the Big Ten.
I'm asking Nico Iamaleava and Bob Chesney to beat Cal by two points.
I'll take that bet.
The Pick: UCLA -1.5
⭐ BANTRYM BEST BET: UCLA -1.5
We're buying the Nico comeback.
Let's see if Chesney can finally unlock the quarterback we were promised.
SMU -3 @ Florida State
I'm not buying Florida State yet.
They opened the season with a 34-17 win over New Mexico State.
Fine.
They were also favored by more than 30 points and let New Mexico State hang around far longer than they should have.
Now the competition gets significantly better.
SMU comes into Tallahassee ranked No. 19 with Kevin Jennings back at quarterback and legitimate expectations of competing for the College Football Playoff.
And this is where I think the matchup gets interesting.
SMU has been one of the better teams in the country at getting after the quarterback over the last few seasons. That's not exactly what you want to deal with when you're Florida State and still trying to prove the offense has actually turned the corner.
There are questions about SMU too.
They lost a lot of production at running back and receiver, so I'm not expecting them to walk into Doak Campbell and drop 50.
But that's not what we need.
We grabbed SMU -3.
Just win the football game by more than a field goal.
Florida State has spent the offseason telling everyone things are different.
Monday night would be a pretty good time to prove it.
Until then?
Give me the Mustangs.
The Pick: SMU -3
Akron +27.5 @ Wake Forest
Welcome to the disgusting portion of the Bantrym Board.
Akron +27.5.
Let me make something very clear:
I do not think Akron is better than Wake Forest.
I do not think Akron is going to win this football game.
I'm not even sure I want to watch Akron play this football game.
But 27.5 points is 27.5 points.
And there's actually more behind this than blindly grabbing a giant underdog.
Akron returns 16 starters and 59 players from last year's team. They also finished the season winning three of their final four games.
Wake Forest is coming off an impressive 9-4 season under Jake Dickert, but the Deacs return only eight starters and have been rebuilding significant pieces of the roster through the portal.
Wake should win.
They might control the entire game.
They might make this pick look completely idiotic for three quarters.
But we're not asking Akron to be good.
We're asking them to stay within four touchdowns.
Wake Forest can beat Akron's ass and Akron can still cover.
That's the beauty of this pick.
And one more thing for the receipts:
We locked Akron +27.5.
The market has already moved below that number.
If you're reading this and only seeing +24.5, that's not our number.
We make the picks. We keep the receipts.
The Pick: Akron +27.5
Godspeed to anyone actually watching this game.
Iowa vs. Northern Illinois OVER 44.5
Yes.
You read that correctly.
We're betting an Iowa Over.
I'm an Iowa fan.
I understand exactly how fucking stupid this sounds.
I've spent years watching this team turn football into a competition to see who can punt closest to the opponent's three-yard line.
And now I'm betting them to help score 45 points.
What could possibly go wrong?
Here's the argument.
Iowa is favored by more than 30 points in this game.
At a 44.5 total, the market is basically telling us Iowa needs to do most of the work.
I think they can.
Northern Illinois is coming off a 3-9 season after averaging just 17.1 points per game last year. Iowa's defense, meanwhile, allowed only 16.1 per game.
That's the scary part.
The good part is that Iowa shouldn't need NIU to score 20.
Iowa should have a major advantage up front and should be able to lean on the running game. And with the Hawkeyes replacing enough defensive experience, I'm willing to gamble that NIU finds one touchdown somewhere.
That's all we need.
Give me something like:
Iowa 35, NIU 10.
Forty-five.
Cash the ticket by half a point and never speak about this again.
Could we get Iowa 31, NIU 6?
Absolutely.
In fact, that might be the single most Iowa football result imaginable.
But for one Saturday afternoon, we're choosing offense.
I already regret writing that sentence.
The Pick: Iowa/NIU OVER 44.5
Boise State +24.5 @ Oregon
Let's establish something before anyone gets mad:
Oregon might be fucking awesome.
They're No. 2 in the country. Dante Moore is back after throwing for more than 3,500 yards and 30 touchdowns last season. They're loaded with talent. They're playing at Autzen.
I'm not betting against Oregon being good.
I'm betting against 24.5 points.
There's a difference.
Boise State isn't some random team showing up in Eugene to collect a check.
The Broncos went 9-5 last season, bring back quarterback Maddux Madsen, and return a backfield that produced nearly 2,000 rushing yards between Dylan Riley and Sire Gaines.
That matters when you're catching almost four touchdowns.
Can Boise run the ball, shorten the game and make Oregon work enough that we're still alive in the fourth quarter?
That's the bet.
We also know Boise isn't intimidated by this stage.
The last time these programs met at Autzen, Oregon needed a last-second field goal to escape 37-34.
Different teams. Different year. I'm not using a game from two seasons ago to predict this one.
But Boise State isn't walking into Eugene to take pictures of the uniforms.
They're going there expecting to compete.
Oregon can dominate this game and we can still cash.
Oregon 38, Boise 17?
Beautiful.
Oregon 42, Boise 21?
Also beautiful.
Oregon 45, Boise 17?
We never liked college football anyway.
Give me the points.
The Pick: Boise State +24.5
THE BANTRYM BOARD — WEEK 1
⭐ BEST BET — UCLA -1.5 @ Cal
SMU -3 @ Florida State
Akron +27.5 @ Wake Forest
Iowa/NIU OVER 44.5
Boise State +24.5 @ Oregon
Season Record: 2-1
Five picks.
One Best Bet.
No deleting tweets. No pretending the bad picks never happened. No 14-leg parlays that mysteriously get posted only after they hit.
We'll be back next week with every result.
Win or lose.
We make the picks. We keep the receipts.