Contrary to popular belief Notre Dame had a tougher schedule than Alabama which makes them an even better prospect to beat the spread on January 8th in Florida.
And they went unbeaten unlike the Tide who lost to Texas A&M.
In an excellent article in CSN Chicago J.J. Stankevitz notes that the Irish schedule was definitely tougher as they played fewer patsies, only Boston College and Wake Forest ranked 122nd and 117th respectively.(Wow how BC have fallen)
Alabama on the other hand beat up on Western Kentucky (No. 80), Florida Atlantic (No. 131), Western Carolina (No. 199) and Auburn (No. 83). Alabama played four top-20 opponents in Texas A&M (No. 6, and a loss), Georgia (No. 7), at LSU (No. 11) and Michigan (No. 20).
On the other hand Notre Dame beat No. 8 Stanford, No. 34 BYU, and No. 9 Oklahoma to give them an edge considering Alabama lost to A&M.
Little wonder then that Jeff Sagarin's strength of schedule rankings placed Notre Dame at No. 31 and Alabama at No. 34.
All of which points to a greater potential of an Irish upset of the Tide when the sides meet in Miami
Now that would be cool!
3 Comments
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.pilib04 | Dec 26, 2012, 01:18 PM EST
There was a better article in Yahoo Sports, by Pat Forde, comparing Notre Dame's schedule with that of Alabama and Georgia and the rest of the SEC. Game by game, using the Sagarin ratings, comparison proved ND with toughest schedule.
PhlutiePhan | Dec 24, 2012, 11:36 AM EST
Hope springs eternal within the human breast. I root for ND as a BC fan which is the real Irish school whether ranked #122 or no. Those 'Bama running backs, the bammer and the sprinter will be really tough to handle. They wear you down and then go for the jugular in the fourth quarter. We will know on Jan 7.
PhlutiePhan | Dec 24, 2012, 08:30 AM EST
If you have determined that Notre Dame is the better team why would you say it would be an upset if they won ? Wouldn't it be the other way around ?