Virginia Cavaliers vs Notre Dame Fighting Irish Prediction, Odds and Picks for Tomorrow, 11/16/24

The Virginia Cavaliers take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in South Bend. Virginia is having a nice season with a 5-4 record which already surpassed their preseason win total of 4.5. They still have 3 games left on their schedule to try and get to 6 wins and make a bowl game, but those games will be tough. They have 8th-ranked Notre Dame this week, ACC leader SMU next week, and a rivalry game against Virginia Tech to finish the season. It will be a tough road to get to a bowl game but they have a chance. Notre Dame controls their destiny to get to the College Football Playoff. They are 8-1 with Virginia this week, Army at home next week, and USC on the road to end the season. A loss and they are more than likely out but if they win out to finish the season they are most definitely in. It starts with this game against Virginia. 

Notre Dame has been phenomenal this season, especially against currently unranked opponents. They had a bad loss to Northern Illinois but their margin of victory against unranked teams is 38 points. The Irish have a top-15 offense and a top-5 defense statistically. They average 38.3 points and 412.1 yards per game and allow on average only 11.1 points per game and 274.6 yards per game. They have looked incredible defensively all year long allowing only one team to score more than 20 points all season. Virginia is not on the same level statistically. They rank 83rd offensively and defensively, but the Cavaliers have been sneaky against good teams. They lost to Louisville 24-20 but covered the spread of 7, 48-31 to Clemson but covered the spread of 20.5, and they are coming off a 24-18 win over Pitt as 7.5 point dogs. Virginia has covered 5 of their last 6 games and this is the biggest spread they have seen this year. The Cavaliers may not have the same talent as the Irish but Notre Dame has looked sloppy this year. Against teams with winning records, Notre Dame’s margin of victory is only 19.4 points. I like Virginia and “the Hoos”  to cover in this game. It is the biggest spread they have seen all year and Notre Dame has not been blowing out teams with winning records like most people think. Take Virginia to cover on the road. 

Virginia +23 is available at the time of publishing. Playable at that number.