Notre Dame vs. Syracuse odds, spread, lines: Week 9 college football picks, predictions by computer model
Notre Dame and Syracuse do battle from under the Dome as college football's season turns to Week 9 on Saturday.
It's been an up and down debut season for Marcus Freeman, leading the Irish to a 4-3 record that includes losses at home to Marshall and Stanford, but it coming off a comfortable victory over UNLV.
Meanwhile, the Orange saw their undefeated record go down last week at Clemson despite an inspired defensive performance, and one very questionable non-penalty late in that game. Syracuse is still 6-1 and with plenty of time to make a quality bowl game.
What do the experts think of this matchup? Let's see how the College Football Power Index computer prediction model projects the game.
Notre Dame vs. Syracuse picks, predictions
Week 9 college football picks: Notre Dame vs. Syracuse
The computer is siding with the home team this week, as Syracuse has the 60.7 percent chance to defeat Notre Dame on Saturday.
That leaves the Fighting Irish a 39.3 percent chance to upset the Orange and avoid falling to .500 again on the year.
The oddsmakers tend to agree, naming Syracuse the narrow 3 point favorites to take down Notre Dame, according to the lines at SI Sportsbook, which set the over/under mark at 45.5 points for the matchup.
Notre Dame sits at No. 21 on the index's 131 college football rankings this week, projected to win 6.7 games on the season, but still with an estimated 9.9 point advantage against average teams, according to the computer.
FPI ranked Syracuse at No. 2 in the ACC this week behind Clemson and at No. 18 nationally with a 10.5 point advantage over neutral teams, according to the projections.
The index estimates the Orange will win 9.1 games but with just a 0.02 percent chance to win the division after the Clemson loss.
AP top 25 voters named Syracuse the No. 16 team in their latest poll, while the Fighting Irish failed to quality for the official rankings.
College Football Power Index
Football Power Index (FPI) college football rankings and computer prediction model are a measure of team strength that predicts a team’s future performance.
Rankings and scores predictions are based on 20,000 simulations of a team’s season, using a combination of analytics, including scores to date, quality of opponents, and a team’s schedule.
College football rankings
According to AP top 25 poll
1. Georgia (31 1st-place votes)
2. Ohio State (18)
3. Tennessee (13)
4. Michigan
5. Clemson (1)
6. Alabama
7. TCU
8. Oregon
9. Oklahoma State
10. USC
T-10. Wake Forest
12. UCLA
13. Penn State
14. Utah
15. Ole Miss
16. Syracuse
17. Illinois
18. LSU
19. Kentucky
20. Cincinnati
21. North Carolina
22. Kansas State
23. Tulane
24. NC State
25. South Carolina