BEST LINES:  Pinnacle u9½ -118 BET365 u9½ +120 SportsInteraction u9½ +115 5DIMES u9½ +110

Posted on August 10 before the first game of season.  

Notre Dame already has dropped from a 7-point to a 1-point favorite over Michigan in Week 1, from an 8-point to a 6-point favorite over Stanford on Sept. 29 and from a 9-point to a 7-point favorite over Florida State on Nov. 10. Yeah, they’re favored but those are not guaranteed wins but any stretch. In fact, the Fighting Irish could lose two or even all three and it would surprise nobody. The Irish are a mere three-point road favorite at Va Tech on October 6th and they’re just a 7-point road favorite at Wake Forest on September 22. They’re also be a small dog at USC in their final game of the regular season. Although those point spreads are based on early projections and things change, they are available at some joints so one could bet them today.

What we know for sure is that expectations and pressure is always high in South Bend. They are college football royalty with a massive following but we don’t envision a 10-2 record here from a team that that lost two offensive linemen who were taken in the first 10 picks of the NFL draft, who lost their star running back (Josh Adams) and star wide receiver Equanimeious St. Brown. Five of their opponents’ win totals are between seven and nine, and three others are at six. They have a tough schedule, they lost some very key players and win totals cannot and do not take inevitable injuries into consideration. Man, a lot of things will have to go right for the Irish to go 10-2 and so win or lose, we're going with the best of it here.

You will also notice that BET365 has this number at +120 while Pinnacle has the under at -118. That, too, is good information, as Pinnacle remains the sharpest book in the industry.

PLEASE NOTE: We'll have NFL Futures (season win totals) posted sometime next week or before August 18.

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