Stanford Football Big Underdogs in Home Opener vs. Boston College

With Stanford football's home opener set for Saturday against Boston College, we wanted to check in on the betting odds to see what the line was set at, following Stanford's 0-2 start to begin the 2025 campaign.

The folks over at Fanduel don't have a lot of faith in the Cardinal to bring home a win in this one, placing Stanford at +13.5 on the spread, and putting the over/under for the game at 44.5 points. In other words, they're seeing this as a 30-14 type of game, with Boston College coming out on top.

Given the 0-2 start to the season and the quarterback play the Cardinal have received so far, it's hard to argue with that reasoning. Stanford has mustered just one offensive touchdown this season, and it was from running back Micah Ford against Hawaii. Last Saturday, they fell 27-3 to BYU on the road.

Reason for optimism against Boston College

If you're looking for a reason to think that Stanford can pull off the upset here and notch their first win of the season, then all you have to do is take a look at Boston College's first two games. On the bright side, they haven't been able to get the running game really working just yet, topping out at 97 yards on the ground against Fordham.

On the other side of that coin, the BC passing game has been lethal, going for 458 yards in that game, with Dylan Lonergan also tossing for 390 yards and four TDs in their 42-40 double overtime loss to Michigan State. That should provide the Stanford defense with a plan of attack. If they can limit the passing game even just a little, they may be able to keep this one closer than expected.

The running game not being a huge factor just yet could be a reason for the Stanford defense to send more pressure at the QB, or at least provide a number of different looks to Lonergan to mess up Boston College's timing in the pass game.

The other positive sign here is that they have given up plenty of yards defensively, which will set up a battle of their highly moveable defense facing off against the immobile Stanford offense.

Something is going to have to give, and with plenty of questions swirling around how long starter Ben Gulbranson can hold down the QB1 spot, perhaps this is the game we see a change—or he starts flinging the ball around the field. Either works.

Of course, there will also be opportunities for Stanford to run the ball, with the Spartans hanging 149 rushing yards on 33 attempts on Boston College last weekend. The Cardinal offense also seemed to get into a bit of a rhythm on their final drive of the BYU game (before the INT), and perhaps that hurry-up pacing is something they stick with heading into Saturday's contest.

One reason for concern against Boston College

While Stanford lost 27-3 against BYU, an average college football offense would have made that a lot closer contest. Six of the points that the Cougars scored were on field goals following turnovers deep in Stanford's zone. The defense did a great job of limiting the damage in this one, and holding BYU to 21 points (minus those two gifts) is a pretty solid accomplishment.

The one bit of pushback here is that they played fairly well in a number of facets, but they also had an extra week of preparation time with the bye in Week 1. This week we'll be seeing how Stanford performs when they're on regular rest and a regular schedule against a team that they're not favored to win against, but is still a beatable program.

It's not crazy to think that everything could come together for the Cardinal this week and they earn their first win of the season in their return to The Farm. At the same time, they'll need a solid defensive performance to limit the passing game of Boston College, and they'll also have to be able to move the ball themselves.

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.
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