Friendship or feelings?

Basically, In September I started at a new College, I transferred over from an all girls school, to a college with Primarily males. (I mean, male to female ratio is around 10:1, if not higher.)
I was immediately thrown off guard, with so many guys around, but there was one guy who helped me out, showed me around, sat with me at lunch and so on.
It ended up that we both began to participate in the same activities, by choice, even choosing to stay in college later on certain days together, for no real reason. If either one of us was ever sat alone, the other would turn up and sit down.
The problem is, saying I 'like' this guy is an understatement, just the thought of him makes me smile.
But, we are both known as nerds, and he is certainly rather shy around some people.
There have been a few hints dropped, like how he slipped and mentioned that he treats me nicer than other people, plus he doesn't speak to any other females. We aren't particularly competitive people, but when it comes to each other we always have to have a winner, all being fun though.
However, I speak to many other guys (Due it being a male orientated college) , I don't know if this would put him off, but I also don't want to mention my feelings for him for the fear of wrecking our friendship.
In other words, I am completely stuck on what to do next...

You are allowed to speak to other men. If you like this one guy though, don't flirt with the other guys.

Since your guy is shy & nerdy, you are going to have to buck up his confidence. Find a way to let him know that if he asks you out, that you will say yes.

And, if you don't mind me asking, how do you buck up someone's confidence?

You could say something like, "I like your shirt/shoes today." Lol... Find an excuse to brush up against him or touch him. Say, "I think you have something on your face, can I get it?" And gently brush an imaginary speck off him and say, "just a piece of lint." You could always say, can I see your hands? And then if he lets you, compliment them on their smoothness or roughness if he's got rough working hands (it's just an excuse to touch in a more than friendly way, people that are friends don't generally touch). Or you could give him and annoying poke to get his attention for the first of the day, or elbow him in a playful not painful way if he teases you about something. :) There is lots of things you could do. You could get him his favorite coffee or some hot chocolate, make sure it's a drink he likes. Or, this would really give him the idea, try to hold his hand, but he might get too surprised by that, not sure. Just flirt.

The trick is to not express feelings but a desire to go out on a date. It's not the 1950's where women sit and wait for the man to do everything. It's a new modern age where it's ok to ask a guy out on a date (guys, especially shy ones welcome this). So ask him out. It doesn't have to be dinner, it can be as simple as mini golf, a trip to the comic book store and then go for a coffee.

Hell over 20 years ago I asked guys out on dates, with 100% success in them saying yes!

That's some helpful advice, thanks guys!
I mean, we went out on a trip once, looked round the game shops & grabbed a bite to eat. Maybe I should try getting him to do something like that again... Possibly with the new year sales and such.