The 2025 college football regular season kicked off on Saturday, headlined by a ranked Big 12 matchup across the pond in Ireland.
With Week 0 in the books, here are our winners and losers from the first weekend of the college football season.
Winner: Going for it on fourth down with a chance to win the game
Arguably, two fourth-down decisions were the most consequential in Associated Press No. 22 Iowa
State Cyclones’ 24-21 win over Big 12 rival No. 17 Kansas State Wildcats.
Let’s start with the good. With 2:26 remaining in the fourth and facing a fourth-and-3 from Kansas State’s 16-yard line, Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell elected to keep his offense on the field instead of kicking a field goal and taking a six-point lead.
The decision was correct on multiple fronts. By settling for a field-goal attempt, Campbell would have given Kansas State, which had no timeouts, over two minutes to score a possible winning touchdown.
The risk of failing to convert was offset by allowing Kansas State the ability to extend the game with a field goal as opposed to needing
a touchdown to win. And again, if the Wildcats got in the end zone, would it really have mattered if Iowa State lost by one instead of four points?
The Cyclones didn’t have to worry about that. Instead, quarterback Rocco Becht found running back Carson Hansen, who picked up the first down, allowing Iowa State to run out the clock.
Loser: Going for it on fourth from your own 30-yard line in a three-point game
Conversely, Kansas State head coach Chris Klieman’s fourth-down call from his own 30-yard line with 8:19 remaining was much less excusable.
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