The Stanford Cardinal have secured a spot in the Pac-12 championship game, and will shoot for a second straight conference title in a couple weeks against Arizona State.
But first, Stanford takes a break from Pac-12 play for a rivalry game with the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame Saturday night down on the Farm.
The Cardinal looked like they were in big trouble, as far as defending their Pac-12 championship of a season ago was concerned, after losing two weeks ago at USC. But Saturday Stanford destroyed Cal in the Big Game, while Oregon was being destroyed by Arizona.
The combination of the two outcomes puts Stanford in the conference title game, and in line for another BCS bowl.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, bounced back from a loss at Pitt two weeks ago to defeat BYU Saturday 23-13 to get to 8-3 on the season. However, the Irish are also just 4-6-1 ATS.
Stanford has beaten Notre Dame three times in a row until last year, when the Irish, with help from a goal-line stand, beat the Cardinal 20-13 in overtime in South Bend.
As of early this week Stanford was favored by 14 points over the Golden Domers at Sportsbook.
They bring a 9-2 record (6-5 ATS) to the Week 14 battle against the 8-3 Fighting Irish, who are 4-6-1 ATS against the spread. Over under bettors have seen Stanford go 5-6 so far and the Fighting Irish go 5-6.
View Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs Stanford Cardinal Odds and Stats.
Bettors looking to back the visiting Fighting Irish in this one found them as 14-point underdogs on the Sportsbook college football point spread at Sportsbook. Bookmark the college football odds pages to see where the over under number opens in this game.
According to the Power Rankings here at OddsShark it's the No. 22-rated Cardinal and the No. 52-rated Fighting Irish in this matchup. Predictive formulas point to a 37-29 win for the Cardinal on Saturday.
Notre Dame was a 23-13 Sportsbook in its last match at home against BYU. They covered the 1-point spread as underdogs, while the total score of 36 sent UNDER bettors to the payout window.
How They Match Up:
Offensively, the game matches up Stanford's No. 44-ranked offense (33.36 PPG) against a Fighting Irish defense that ranks No. 35 at 22.55 PPG. The Cardinal passing attack has averaged 199.36 yards per game, less than the Fighting Irish give up through the air (205.64 YPG on average).
In comparing defenses, the Fighting Irish own the league's No. 41-rated front 7 in terms of stopping the run, allowing 151.5 yards per game when on the road. Stanford, on the other hand, rates No. 42 this week in generating rushing yards at home.
A few Fighting Irish at Cardinal trends to consider:
Notre Dame is 4-2 ATS in its last 6 games
Notre Dame is 4-7-1 ATS in its last 12 games
Notre Dame is 5-1 SU in its last 6 games
The total has gone UNDER in 4 of Notre Dame's last 5 games
Stanford is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games
Stanford is 17-2 SU in its last 19 games
The total has gone UNDER in 5 of Stanford's last 6 games
Stanford is 4-1 ATS in its last 5 games at home
