The fifth and final matchup of the 2025 college football Week 0 slate takes place in primetime for fans on the East Coast, as Timmy Chang’s Hawaii team hosts the Frank Reich-led Stanford Cardinal.
Both teams struggled in 2024, going a combined 8-16 overall. Stanford had a rough go of its first season as a member of the ACC, while Hawaii suffered its third straight losing season under Chang, who starred at QB for the Rainbow Warriors in the early ’00s.
There’s reason for optimism for both of these teams in 2025, though, especially for Hawaii, as we’ll detail below.
Stanford vs. Hawaii Betting Odds
This summer, Stanford opened as a 2.5-point favorite in this game, but the line has since moved in favor of Hawaii.
It’s worth noting that Hawaii has the seventh-longest odds to win the Mountain West (+2000 at DraftKings), while Stanford is expected to be one of the worst teams in the ACC — the Cardinal are currently listed at 50000 to win the league at DraftKings.
How To Watch Stanford vs. Hawaii
- Kickoff: 7:30 p.m.
- TV: CBS
Stanford vs. Hawaii Betting Analysis
- Stanford 2024 record (3-9, 2-6 ACC)
- Hawaii 2024 record (5-7, 3-4 Mountain West)
Stanford Betting News
Stanford went 4-2 while playing an abbreviated schedule due to the pandemic in 2020, but otherwise has not had a winning season since 2018, as David Shaw went 10-26 in his last three full seasons.
Unfortunately for the Cardinal, things got even worse under Troy Taylor, who was dismissed this offseason after going 3-9 in both 2023 and 2024.
With Andrew Luck now in charge as the program’s GM and his former Colts coach, Reich, at the helm as interim head coach for 2025 to right the ship, Stanford is probably a year or two away from competing. Down the road, the Cardinal could be a team to watch under Luck, though.
Stanford’s starting QB this year, Ben Gulbranson, joined the Cardinal this offseason after spending 2020-204 with Oregon State, where he threw a total of 156 passes as a backup the last two years. The busiest season of Gulbranson’s career to date was 2022, when he played in 10 games, completing 121-of-195 passes for 1,455 yards, with 9 TDs and 5 interceptions.
The top player for Stanford last year, star WR Elic Ayomanor, is now in the NFL after leading this offense with 63 catches for 831 yards and 6 TDs last fall.
Stanford will need a big year from Gulbranson and/or one of its transfer backs and receivers to exceed expectations in 2025.
Defensively, the “good news” is that most of last year’s top players are back, but that might not be a good thing given that unit’s struggles last year, when it gave up over 33 points per game.
Hawaii Betting News
There’s a lot to like offensively for Hawaii, at least on paper, after then-true freshman QB Micah Alejado put up massive numbers in last year’s regular season finale.
It was just one game, but Alejado’s 400-yard, 5-TD night vs. New Mexico in late November sparked hopes that he’ll be a significant upgrade on Hawaii’s starter the last three years, Brayden Schager. There’s also a lot to like about Hawaii’s receiving options, including preseason first-team All-Mountain West WRs Pofele Ashlock and Nick Cenacle.
Between Alejado, Ashlock and Cenacle, Hawaii should have the best passing attack of the Chang era.
The Rainbow Warriors defense returns most of last year’s top pieces, and it has a chance to take another step forward in Dennis Thurman’s second season as DC.
Stanford vs. Hawaii Pick, Best Bets
I might be overreacting to what Alejado did in one game a year ago, but it’s hard to argue that a player who throws for 469 yards and 5 touchdowns in their first start (with no sacks and no interceptions in 57 (!) dropbacks) has a chance to be special.
It’s too early to predict a huge season for Alejado and/or Hawaii, but this team has the makings of a darkhorse in the Mountain West. At the very least, I like the Rainbow Warriors to handle Stanford at home tonight. At the moment, there’s just very little reason to be high on the Cardinal on either side of the ball.
We already mentioned Alejado to throw for 300-plus yards in thi game being a solid prop option in this game in a few places, including in the latest edition of the Newsweek Sports Betting newsletter. You can sign up for that here.
And for this game, let’s go with Hawaii on the spread and Hawaii to go over its team total. I also recommend a small alt-spread play, like a half-unit, on the Rainbow Warriors to win by at least a touchdown.
Best bets:
- Hawaii -2.5 (-110 at FD, bet365) — 1 unit
- Hawaii Team Total Over 26.5 (-105 at DraftKings) — 1 unit
- Hawaii (alt spread) -6.5 (+166 at DraftKings) — 0.5 units
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