Notre Dame football: Is Alabama really 20 points better than the Irish?

The Notre Dame football team is a heavy underdog against the Alabama Crimson Tide, but the spread seems way too high in the Rose Bowl.

To be a part of the College Football Playoff is an honor that teams earn by playing well across their entire schedule. For the Notre Dame football team, they absolutely deserved to be one of the four teams selected, although many felt that they should have been left out.

Critics cited their effort against Clemson in the ACC title game, a game that saw the Irish blown out and dominated on both sides of the ball. That cause the Irish to fall from a No. 2 or 3 seed in the CFP, to the No. 4, where they drew the shortest straw by taking on the Alabama Crimson Tide.

Alabama is favored to absolutely pummel the Irish, but are the oddsmakers, right?

Alabama is a 19.5-point favorite against Notre Dame

Alabama has been downright dominant since their game against LSU was postponed, beating teams by an average of over 40 points leading up to the SEC Championship Game. Florida and star quarterback Kyle Trask had a good gameplan for the Tide on the offensive side of the ball, hanging 46 points on them in a six-point loss.

Notre Dame has a solid mix of weapons as well, and if they can be better upfront than they were in the ACC Championship game, they are going to put points on the board.

Plus, Notre Dame has a fantastic quarterback in Ian Book, who recently finished in the top-10 in the Heisman Trophy voting. After a record-setting career in South Bend, Book is not going to end his run with the Irish with a blowout loss, though the oddsmakers would like to believe that will certainly happen.

Truth be told, Notre Dame has the talent on both sides of the ball to not only stand tall against Alabama but to actually make this one closer than expected. Book has a host of weapons in the passing game, running back Kyren Williams is a star, and the Irish have one of the top-3 offensive lines in college football.

Stopping the Alabama offense is a whole other issue, as they have two of the four finalists for the Heisman Trophy in quarterback Mac Jones and wide receiver DeVonta Smith. Also, Najee Harris has 24 touchdowns on the ground at running back, so if the Irish are going to get blown out, it will be because the defense failed to stop this three-headed monster.

If I were a betting man, I am taking Notre Dame with the points.