Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS Southern Cal Trojans: Betting Lines

You better believe this rivalry has come back

WE’RE BAAAACCCKKKKK

Back like we never left. After a wonderful Cheeseburger Bye Week and a one-year, Covid-induced year off from playing USC, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are back to playing a game against the USC Trojans. Because of the conference-only schedules from last season, the Irish are playing two games in a row in this series at home, which is pretty unheard of. After being back and forth as a slight favorite and then slight underdog two weeks ago, the Irish are now definitely a home favorite in this rivalry for Saturday night. Let’s get into it.

ND vs. USC Betting Lines

The Irish and the Trojans match up where the Irish are having an overall solid, but not great, season so far. The Trojans have been somewhat of a mess with them firing Clay Helton earlier in the season. Especially with the game at home after a Bye Week, it makes sense that the Irish are favorites against the spread like they are. The Irish are exactly 1-possession favorites. Also, with both offenses generally able to score a fair amount of points, the O/U is set somewhat high at 58 flat.

Taking a look at what Oddsshark is predicting shows that they think the game would be a close Irish win. Both teams would score a little bit, and the Trojans actually would cover that 7-point spread. They also predict the under would hit for the point total, just barely. Some trends include the over hitting in 4 of the last 6 Notre Dame games. However, the Irish are 2-6 ATS in their last 8 games in October, and USC is 4-2 in ATS in the last 6 games against ND.

Matty G’s Prediction

I predict that the Irish will win this game. I am torn on the point spread with it being exactly 7 points. I would of course love this to be a 2017-esque rout, but these rivalry games, especially ND-USC, are wonky and close games. I think the Irish win but by fewer than 7 points just to make us all crazy. It shouldn’t be that way, but I will err on the side of a closer game. I do think the over hits, though. For that to happen, a score would be something like 34-28. I could see some juices flowing on both sides for some points to be scored here.

DAMHSA BUA Count

For this game, I will set the DAMHSA BUA O/U at 3.5. Jonathan Doerer could get into the mix with some field goals. So, do you think we will go over or under 3.5 TDs scored by the Irish on Saturday night? If we go with the predicted score I mentioned above, that could be 4 TDs and 2 FGs, so I’ll stick with the over on this. Let me know what you think about this in the poll and about anything with the betting lines in the comments.

Go Irish. Beat SC.