Tag: national semifinals

Notre Dame to play Maryland in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Looking forward to this matchup?

Notre Dame will welcome Maryland to Purcell Pavilion this upcoming season for the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It should be one of the better matchups in this year’s iteration as both programs are coming off Sweet 16 appearances. The Irish have the slimmest of leads in the all-time series, 5-4. The teams last met during a 92-victory in the 2014 edition of this event.

The Irish have a 7-1 all-time record in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. A win in this game, which will be played Dec. 1, would make the Terrapins the second program they’ve beaten twice in this event alongside Iowa. The other Big Ten opponents to fall to the Irish are Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

While this game is worth looking forward to, it will be far from the all-time series’ highest stakes. Twice, the Irish have downed the Terrapins in the NCAA Tournament. The first time happened in the 2012 regional finals, and the second during the 2014 national semifinals.

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Early predictions for Notre Dame vs. Alabama in Rose Bowl are one-sided

Many early predictions for Notre Dame and Alabama in the Rose Bowl show one common theme.

The turnaround from conference championship weekend to the College Football Playoffs is going to be short. In less than two weeks we’ll see the Irish hit the field against the Crimson Tide in the second national semi-final. Even though there isn’t much turnaround time, plenty of experts have weighed in early with their predictions on how the games will play out.

Over at ESPN, Adam Rittenberg gave score predictions for all the bowl games (insider article) and Notre Dame fans won’t be happy with his prediction. Rittenberg believes that Alabama will soundly beat Notre Dame, guessing the score will be 45-20 in favor of the Tide.

At 247Sports, they polled more that just one analysts, a total of 7 of their experts gave an early prediction for this years Rose Bowl. Once again, the Irish are getting slighted, as each of their seven experts have Nick Saban’s squad topping Brian Kelly’s.

None of the 7 had the game close, two of them had the Irish playing within 21 points, while the rest of their predictions had margins larger than that.

The Crimson Tide with Saban at the helm have never been an easy-out for any team, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t beatable. Just this weekend Florida gave them a battle, but the Gators ultimately fell short of knocking off the No. 1 team in the country.

The Irish can use all of this media fodder as motivation, not many people will think that they stand a chance. That was the same thing that happened on the November 7th, and we all remember how that game turned out.