Notre Dame vs. Alabama Prediction
Notre Dame and Alabama will meet in the Rose Bowl Game Presented by Capital One on Friday afternoon at 4:00 p.m. ET in the first of back-to-back college football playoff semifinal games. Listed as a whopping 19.5-point favorite, will the Crimson Tide cover or is there a better play on the board?
Game Snapshot
331 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (+19.5) at 332 Alabama Crimson Tide (-19.5); o/u 66
Venue: AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX
4:00 p.m. ET, Friday, January 1, 2021
TV: ESPN
Notre Dame Fighting Irish Game Notes
Notre Dame redshirt senior QB Ian Book completed 20-of-28 passes for 217 yards in a 34-10 loss to Clemson on Saturday in the ACC Championship Game. Book (6’0/212) was under constant duress in this contest, and ended up taking six sacks. While the accuracy was fine as it usually is, he was unable to make plays out of the pocket, and didn’t have enough time to get the ball downfield against a Tigers’ team that was much better defensively than their first matchup. Book has been outstanding in 2020, but this wasn’t one of his better games. That’s obviously an understatement.
Alabama Crimson Tide Game Notes
Alabama senior WR Devonta Smith has been named the Associated Press Player of the Year. A finalist for the Heisman Trophy, Smith (6’1/175) made history on Tuesday. The senior wide receiver is the first at his position to win AP Player of the Year honors since the trophy was established back in 1998. The Heisman has largely been dominated by quarterbacks in recent years, with Alabama RB Derrick Henry (2015) being the only non-QB to win the award in the last decade. We’ll have to wait until next month to see if Smith will change that.
Notre Dame vs. Alabama Betting Prediction
The Fighting Irish are 4-0 against the spread in their last four non-conference games, are 6-1 against the number in their last seven games versus an opponent with a winning record and are 4-1 at the betting window in their last five games following a double-digit loss at home. Notre Dame is also 5-2 against the number in its last seven neutral site contests and have covered in four of its last five games coming off a loss of more than 20 points either home or away. ‘Bama, meanwhile, is just 2-6 against the spread in its last eight games played in the month of January.
ROSE BOWL COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEMIFINAL PREDICTION: NOTRE DAME FIGHTING IRISH +19.5
