LAS VEGAS \u2014 The last time Notre Dame won a national football title, in January 1989, Tim Murray was 15 months old.<\/p>\n
Touchdown Jesus, the fists-up leprechaun and the rest of the Golden Dome lore would seep into his psyche, thanks to alum\/father Chris and sister Beth, part of the Fighting Irish\u2019s first female lacrosse team in the late 1990s.<\/p>\n
His Nationals did win the World Series in 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut Notre Dame football is No. 1, and it\u2019s not close,\u201d Murray said. \u201cNotre Dame football is the reason I\u2019m a sports fan, the reason why I work in sports. A Notre Dame national championship …<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would be hard to put into words what it would mean.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Maryland native co-hosts the Vegas Sports & Information Network\u2019s weeknight \u2018\u2018PrimeTime\u2019\u2019 show, with Matt Youmans.<\/p>\n
Since Marcus Freeman took over as coach in 2022, Notre Dame\u2019s legion of football aficionados have been spoiled by the squad\u2019s 64.8% (34-18-2) record against the spread, best in the nation.<\/p>\n
Ridiculous returns on their investments.<\/p>\n
Only one element is missing.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame last won it all when Lou Holtz guided it to that 34-21 victory over West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 2, 1989.<\/p>\n
Caution<\/p>\n
In tapping experts about Notre Dame\u2019s chances to go undefeated this season and to win a national title, my first call went to Murray, due to his Irish fervor.<\/p>\n
In an initial release of pigskin odds, FanDuel in mid-March made Notre Dame\u2019s win total 11\u00bd (+158 over, -196 under).<\/p>\n
Only Texas Tech shared that projection, but has been downgraded after quarterback Brendan Sorsby\u2019s gambling allegations.<\/p>\n
William Hill tabbed the Irish as the early +600 national-title favorite.<\/p>\n
Murray believes this Irish iteration is poised for its best shot at a national title since 1993, with its most-skilled quarterback, in sophomore CJ Carr, since the Brady Quinn era (2003-06).<\/p>\n
\u201cNotre Dame will be favored in every regular-season game, with an amped-up focus after last year\u2019s playoff snub,\u201d he said. \u201cIt will have, arguably, the best defense in the country. And no opponent, on a neutral field, would be more than a three-point favorite against the Irish.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, he doesn\u2019t gauge +160 as a rewarding return on an undefeated campaign.<\/p>\n
To make the national playoff, though, BetMGM had the Irish at an overwhelming -700, trailed by Indiana (-300), and Miami and Oregon (both -275).<\/p>\n
Murray will, at some point this preseason, \u201chave a title ticket in pocket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Up to +750<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Circa and Station Casinos, at +750 (or risk $100 to win $750), had the best title odds on the Irish. BetMGM, DraftKings and the Westgate SuperBook were +700.<\/p>\n
Youmans predicts Notre Dame to be a double-digit favorite in 10 games. He could only wager under that 11\u00bd total, though, so he passes.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs deep and talented as this Notre Dame team will be, what happens if CJ Carr gets injured?\u201d he said. \u201cIf you bet over 11\u00bd, you need the best-case scenario to play out for three months.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut in football, there are always injuries and bumps in the road. Hopefully, Carr stays healthy and develops, and we see this play out in the playoff this time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Land mines<\/p>\n
Long Island handicapper Tom Barton believes Notre Dame\u2019s opener against Wisconsin at Lambeau Field will be challenging.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, Notre Dame\u2019s coaching and talent is supreme, he says, but Miami, SMU and BYU also concern him.<\/p>\n
\u201cToo many land mines, and they only have to step on one,\u201d Barton said. \u201cPlus-600 is tempting … but I won\u2019t bet anyone who isn\u2019t at least 10-to-1.\u201d<\/p>\n
In Texas, Sean Higgs calls Miami the toughest test and BYU \u201ctricky.\u201d He forecasts that an undefeated Notre Dame might be \u201ctoo cocky\u201d for likely ranked SMU.<\/p>\n
So he dodges the total, too, and discounts a national title.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like Texas and [quarterback Arch] Manning,\u201d Higgs said, \u201cto finally live up to all the hype.\u201d<\/p>\n
True value<\/p>\n
Also in the Lone Star State, \u2019capper Paul Stone\u2019s power ratings show Notre Dame being a double-digit favorite 10 times, favored by seven against Miami and BYU.<\/p>\n
The schedule is enviable, Stone believes Carr could challenge for the Heisman Trophy and nine of the Irish\u2019s top 10 tacklers return to that stout defense.<\/p>\n
However, Stone dislikes both sides of that 11\u00bd total. Most college teams, he says, have at least one unexpected \u201chiccup\u201d in a season.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame is among his typical national-title contenders, but he pinpoints 14-1 LSU and new coach Lane Kiffin as value.<\/p>\n
\u201cKiffin is the self-proclaimed Portal King, and nobody did better,\u201d Stone said, highlighting former Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt\u2019s transfer to Baton Rouge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Leavitt can stay healthy and return to 2024 form, I could see the Tigers making a serious run at the title.\u201d<\/p>\n
The drought<\/p>\n
Tim Murray has been figuring which Notre Dame game he\u2019ll attend this season. He\u2019s been to nearly three dozen.<\/p>\n
He has replaced Manti T\u2019eo, his devoted Lab mix that passed away last summer, with nearly identical Clover.<\/p>\n
Wife Emily and he raise young son Sawyer who, of course, raves about Notre Dame football and covets the No. 4 Jeremiyah Love jersey he got for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Sawyer is 8. Does Tim foresee Sawyer celebrating a Fighting Irish football national championship before he turns 38?<\/p>\n
\u201cGod, I hope so!\u201d Tim said with a laugh. \u201cBut yes!\u201d<\/p>\n
NOTRE DAME2026 Football Season<\/p>\n
9\/6 Wisconsin (in Green Bay)<\/p>\n
9\/12 Rice<\/p>\n
9\/19 Michigan State<\/p>\n
9\/26 at Purdue<\/p>\n
10\/3 at North Carolina<\/p>\n
10\/10 Stanford<\/p>\n
10\/17 at BYU<\/p>\n
10\/31 Navy (in Foxborough, Mass.)<\/p>\n
11\/7 Miami<\/p>\n
11\/14 Boston College<\/p>\n
11\/21 SMU<\/p>\n
11\/28 at Syracuse<\/p>\n
COLLEGE FOOTBALLNational Title OddsOdds Team<\/p>\n
+650 Texas<\/p>\n
+750 Notre Dame, Oregon and Ohio State<\/p>\n
+800 Indiana<\/p>\n
+900 Georgia<\/p>\n
11-1 Miami (Fla.)<\/p>\n
14-1 LSU<\/p>\n
Source: CircaSports.com<\/p>\n
ATS RECORDSince 2022Pct. Team<\/p>\n
.648 Notre Dame (34-18-2)<\/p>\n
.632 Texas Tech (33-19-1)<\/p>\n
.630 Troy (34-20)<\/p>\n
.616 Ohio State (33-20-3) and Oregon (34-21-1)<\/p>\n
.610 Hawaii (30-19-1)<\/p>\n
.608 James Madison (31-20)<\/p>\n
.606 Missouri (31-20-1)<\/p>\n
Source: TeamRankings.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 The last time Notre Dame won a national football title, in January 1989, Tim Murray…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636444,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,99],"class_list":["post-636443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636443"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636443\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}