Notre Dame Football: Vegas Sets Irish Over-Under at 9.5 Wins

The first over-unders for the upcoming season are starting to be released in the Vegas sportsbooks. Notre Dame football is set at 9.5 wins.

This information wasn’t available when we published our Notre Dame football gambling article a couple of weeks ago, but one Las Vegas sportsbook put out a bunch of over-under win totals for the upcoming college football season.

Vegas insider Brad Powers tweeted out the numbers for some of the most high-profile programs this coming season. These win totals come from CG Sportsbooks.

They had Notre Dame at 9.5 wins.

That really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone who follows the Irish — or gambling — closely.

Taking a look at the 2019 Notre Dame football schedule, the Irish should be favorites in ten of their games. The only exceptions are the games against the Michigan Wolverines and Georgia Bulldogs — both on the road.

If you are going to bet on this particular over-under of 9.5, it comes down to a couple of things. For one, how confident are you that this Notre Dame team could lose games to Michigan and Georgia and still have it in the tank to win out?

The prospect of a season-ending trip to Stanford gives me pause.

Another factor is your confidence in Michigan. We’ve seen a bunch of preseason polls and rankings that have the Wolverines as a Top 5 team. From what I’ve seen on social media, most Irish fans — myself included — think that’s way too high. In fact, going off the polls and rankings I’ve seen, I have Michigan as the most overrated team in the country heading into 2019.

But is Notre Dame good enough to beat them in Ann Arbor? That’s a potential deal-breaker. If the Irish “steal” that game, they can lose to Georgia, suffer an upset loss later down the line and still hit the over.

I’ve read other comments from Irish fans who may be more inclined to bet the under. A lot of high-level talent walked out of the door at the end of the 2018 season, and some Notre Dame realists are not very confident heading in the 2019 campaign.

At the end of the day, we all want the Irish to win’em all. But we also want to be smart with our money. These personal struggles of ours are why the buildings are so tall and the lights are so bright in Sin City.