Notre Dame Football: Irish Open as 4-point Favorite Over USC
By Andrew Hall
As expected and like every game this season, Notre Dame opens a favorite over USC.
Notre Dame football fans should expect another classic against intersectional rivals, USC. The Irish opened up as a 4-point favorite over the Trojans, according to Vegas Insider.
Coming off of a 4-8 season, Las Vegas favored the Irish in every single game this season.
Against Temple, the Irish were favored by 19.5 points. Notre Dame ended up covering and defeated the Owls by 33 points. The Fighting Irish opened as a 14-points favorite over Boston College and won by a margin of 29 points. In perhaps Notre Dame’s biggest victory, the Irish entered East Lansing as a 3.5 point favorite. The Irish crushed the Spartans by 20 points. The biggest spread on the season came against Miami (OH) when Notre Dame was favored by 21. Again, the Fighting Irish covered the spread, winning by 35 points. In the last game the Irish played, they entered as 13.5 point favorites over the Tar Heels. The Notre Dame football team suffocated North Carolina in route to a 33-10 victory.
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In Notre Dame’s lone loss on the season, the shark favored the Irish by 5-points over Georgia. Despite a valiant effort, the Irish ended up losing t
hat contest by 1-point.
Would Notre Dame enter with a better state of mind if Las Vegas listed them as underdogs? Perhaps. However, everything shown by the team this season makes fans and experts believe that the Irish are an extremely mentally tough team. They are looking to crush any team in their path regardless of where that team ranks.
ESPN Football Power Index lists Notre Dame as a heavy favorite
Aside from the betting line, ESPN FPI (Football Power Index) believes that Notre Dame holds a 78.1% chance of beating the Trojans. This is an absurd number considering where these teams began the season. However, USC looks extremely vulnerable aside from their victory over Stanford. In addition, Notre Dame has looked dominant in every game they have played beside their 1-point loss to the No. 3 team in the country, Georgia.