2005 Notre Dame Handicapping Review

 

By Tom Wilkinson

 

Notre Dame is not just one of college football’s ultimate “name brand” teams, but one of the all time “name brand” teams in all of sports betting. Even people who don’t care about college football will bet on Notre Dame football. Their sports betting appeal and utter lack of consistent sports handicapping value rates right among the top with baseball’s New York Yankees, basketball’s Los Angeles Lakers, and pro football’s Dallas Cowboys. Entering the 2004 season, Notre Dame had finished in the red against the odds in four of the previous six seasons as year after year they offer little value or reward, yet still command the top of the lists of football picks for multitudes of sports bettors.

In Bob Davie’s final season as head coach in 2001, Notre Dame finished 5-6 straight up and 4-7 against the odds. New head man Tyrone Willingham got his era off to an incredible start with eight consecutive wins both straight up and against the odds as the Irish still were somewhat of a sports handicapping bargain and underrated because of the dismal end to the Davie era. By the time they faced Boston College as 9.5-point favorites, however, their value was shot and a violent sports handicapping market correction began in which Notre Dame lost four of their final five games against the pointspread. The correction continued into 2003 as they lost their first four games against the odds before splitting their final eight games to finish 4-8 against the line for 2003 with a 4-12 mark in their last 16 games. Add to that a 5-7 straight up record and Willingham began to learn about the ugly side of being Notre Dame’s head coach.

Many online sports bettors had soured on Notre Dame and didn’t trust them to be on their lists of football picks to start 2004. Thus, the Irish began the season in the rare position of offering sports handicapping value. After losing their opener at BYU 17-20 as 5-point chalks their value increased even more as their appeal was damaged even more. Notre Dame went on to beat the sports betting odds in five of their next six games to stand at 5-2 both straight up and against the odds as they hosted Boston College, the team that began their downfall two years prior. As 7-point chalk, the Irish fell 23-24, which began a streak in which they lost four of their final five games against the pointspread in 2004 as Willingham was fired at the end of the regular season. Notre Dame covered just 11 of his final 29 games after that 9-0 start to his brief career.