San Diego State Aztecs 2025 Season Preview

The San Diego State Aztecs head into the 2025 season looking to rebound from a rocky start under head coach Sean Lewis, who took over the program in 2024 following Brady Hoke’s retirement. Lewis, known for his up-tempo offensive mind from his time at Kent State and Colorado, faced growing pains in his first year, with the Aztecs finishing 4–8 again in 2024.

Despite the record, the Aztecs showed signs of life offensively down the stretch, moving away from the plodding, defense-first identity that defined the Hoke era. Quarterback Jalen Mayden graduated, leaving a wide-open competition heading into 2025 between redshirt freshman AJ Duffy and Oregon State transfer Ben Gulbranson. Whoever wins the job will have weapons, including breakout sophomore wideout Tre Edwards, who led SDSU in receiving yards last season.

On defense, San Diego State still leans on its physicality and fundamentals. New defensive coordinator Brian Ward, brought in from Arizona State, will look to return the unit to top-50 national form after an inconsistent 2024 showing.

The Mountain West is wide open this year, and while SDSU isn’t a favorite, they’re not out of the mix. Books have their win total set at 5.5, making them a potential sleeper for bowl eligibility. 

Betting on San Diego State

There are many ways to bet on San Diego State this season. Before the games actually kick off, futures bets are the main ways to get in on the action. Futures bets include markets like college football win totals, Mountain West championship odds, or betting on who wins the Heisman Trophy.

Once games are being played, moneyline bets, point spread bets, and totals bets are the standard types of college football bets.

Betting the San Diego State moneyline

A moneyline bet is a wager on which team wins. Margin of victory is irrelevant, it’s just about which team ends up winning in the end.

This is what a hypothetical San Diego State moneyline betting market would look like:

• Utah State +220
• San Diego State -200
  
  SDSU is a -200 moneyline favorite in this game. Favorites are designated with minus (-) odds and underdogs are designated with plus (+) odds. An underdog winning a moneyline bet provides more value than a favorite because of its plus odds.
  
  Here’s what it would look like: If you bet $10 on the Utah State moneyline at +220 and it won, you would win $22 in addition to your original stake of $10 for $32 in total. However, if San Diego State wins as expected, an SDSU -200 moneyline bettor would only win $5 and the $10 stake.
  
  Experiment with moneyline odds with the Action Network betting odds calculator.

FAQ: How to bet on the moneyline | How to make a parlay 

Betting San Diego State point spreads

Betting the point spread is predicting whether a team wins or loses by a certain amount of points in a given game. Point spread favorites are expected to win by a certain amount of points (the spread), while the underdog is expected to lose by that same amount.

If you take the favorite and they win by that amount of points or more, then you win the spread bet. However, if the favorite doesn’t win by enough points or straight up loses, then the underdog would cover the spread.

Here’s what a hypothetical San Diego State point spread looks like.

• Utah State +6.5 (-110)
• San Diego State -6.5 (-110)
  
  San Diego State must win by seven points or more in order to cover the spread. Utah State can cover if it loses by six or fewer points, or just wins the game. Spread bets also factor in the quality of the teams, so a great team like Georgia would just have an incredibly high spread when it plays lower competition.

Most spread bets are priced at -110, although sometimes you’ll see them at -105 or -115. For every dollar you hope to win, you’d have to wager $1.10 on a -110 spread.

FAQ: Everything you need to know about point spreads 

Betting the San Diego State total

Betting the total is wagering on how many combined points will be scored in a game. You must predict if the final score of a game finishes higher or lower than the listed projection from the sportsbook.

The total for this game is 48.5 points. A bet on the over requires at least 49 points to be scored in this game, while an under bet needs the game to finish with 48 points or fewer.

• Over: 48.5 (-115)
• Under: 48.5 (-105)

If San Diego State wins 23-20, then a bet on the under would win. However if the final score was 30-23, then the over would hit.

There are also corresponding payouts for overs and unders. In this matchup, betting the over means you would need to bet $1.15 for every $1 you’d like to win, and a bet on the under takes $1.05 to win $1.

FAQ: Betting the point total, explained | What is a push? 

San Diego State Player Props & other bets

College football prop bets are not allowed in every state with legal sports betting, but some states aren’t quite as restrictive.

Propositional bets, commonly known as prop bets, are bets on statistical outcomes within the game. A football prop bet could be a player’s yardage total in a game, such as over/under 230.5 passing yards. Other prop wagers would be total catches or an anytime touchdown bet.

DFS platforms like PrizePicks provide prop betting alternatives. With PrizePicks, you can forecast whether a player has more or less production than their listed statistical projection on PrizePicks. It also lets you group picks together with the goal of getting a higher payout.

FAQ: Here’s how prop betting works