Week 9 of the College Football season sees two of the nation’s biggest teams renew their rivalry for the 44th time as the #8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish travel to Ann Arbor for a date with the #19 Michigan Wolverines. These two teams first met in 1887 when the Wolverines actually taught Notre Dame how to play the sport for the first time. Since then the two teams have met sporadically over the time with Michigan winning 14 times at home, Notre Dame winning on the road seven times and Michigan winning 901-766 during the whole series.
Michigan still has a very outside chance of making the Big Ten championship, but they will have to win out and they will need both Penn State and Ohio State to start losing some games quickly. Notre Dame has an outside chance of making the College Football Playoff, but will need to win out, and like Michigan, will need the teams ahead of them to help them out and lose.
Below is my pick for #8 Notre Dame at #19 Michigan. All lines are from the FanDuel Sportsbook.
#8 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (-1) at #19 Michigan Wolverines: O/U 52 points (-110/-110)
#8 Notre Dame had a bye week last week and it was probably very well timed as the Fighting Irish had a hard fought 30-27 win last time vs USC. Notre Dame was up 17-3 at halftime, but USC fought back to make it a 23-20 game in the fourth quarter, but the Irish were able to stand strong and finish out the win. The Fighting Irish have played a ranked team two other times this season and beat then #18 Virginia 35-20, but fell at then #3 Georgia 23-17 for the Fighting Irish’s’ lone loss this season. This is Notre Dame’s last game vs a ranked opponent this season, so they need to take advantage and perform well if they have any hope of getting into the playoff. Notre Dame is 4-2 ATS and the under has hit in four of their six games in 2019.
#19 Michigan is coming off a tough loss at then #7 Penn State last weekend, but the offense looked like it got rolling in the second half and the Wolverines will look to carry that over to this Top 20 showdown with Notre Dame. The Wolverines have already played three ranked teams this season and they currently hold a 1-2 record after a win over then #14 Iowa and losses at then #13 Wisconsin and then #7 Penn State. Michigan is 3-4 ATS and the over has hit in five of their seven games this season.
Series History: Michigan leads the all-time series 24-17-1, but it is Notre Dame who is currently on a two game winning streak.
Game Prediction: I like Michigan to carry over the momentum from the second half last weekend to this week, so I am backing Michigan at +1.
YTD College Football Results: 22-20