It's official. Georgia football and Kirby Smart will be playing Notre Dame in the College Football Playoff quarterfinal at the Sugar Bowl. 7-seed Notre Dame handled their business at home against Indiana , which marks the first win in the expanded CFP.
So now that Georgia finally knows who their opponent is, it's time to start making predictions and discussing what UGA's chances are at advancing to the CFP semifinals. So to help with those predictions, let's take a look at what Vegas has to say about this game.
Georgia vs. Notre Dame Current Odds
As of Saturday Dec. 21 at 6:30 am EST, Georgia is a 1.5 point favorite over Notre Dame according to FanDuel Sportsbook. The over-under is set at 44.5 points as well. ESPN's Football Power Index on the other hand gives Notre Dame a 56.1 percent chance to win this game.
It is worth noting that the Irish are favored to win on most other sportsbooks, but FanDuel does currently lean in favor of Georgia right now.
Georgia vs. Notre Dame Prediction
This game is extremely difficult to get a good read on for a lot of reasons. The most obvious reason is that Georgia is now turning to backup QB Gunner Stockton, who reportedly will be Georgia's starting quarterback for their entire CFP run. Sure Stockton has a half of experience during UGA's win over Texas in the SEC Championship, but that isn't too much experience to draw on.
There also is somewhat of a question mark surrounding how Georgia will do after all of this time off. One might think the Bulldogs have an advantage by having this extra time off compared to Notre Dame, but sometimes the team who is hot and coming off the most recent game actually plays better, especially early in the game. And there is still 12 days before this game, so that is likely plenty of rest for Notre Dame anyways.
This game however still just feels like one that Georgia will win. A lot of people are doubting if the Bulldogs will be able to get it done with Stockton under center, but this Georgia team has so much talent around the field that they will be able to hang with anyone. Oh yeah, Stockton is pretty good too and isn't getting as much credit as he deserves.
Prediction: Georgia wins 20-17