College Football Odds: Stanford Notre Dame prediction, odds, pick

Stanford lost a close game against Oregon State. The Beavers have had a terrible season. Notre Dame is winning games rather than losing them. They beat BYU 28-20 in Las Vegas. They need to build confidence and a sense of toughness for upcoming big games against Clemson and USC. It's part of their problem to let inferior opponents hang around too long. For example, they let BYU hang on for too many minutes. Last weekend they had 216 more yards than BYU. However, the Irish had 22 more minutes in time of possession and 11 more first downs.

Stanford will cover the spread against Notre Dame. The Cardinal have been disappointing this season, but they looked better against Oregon State. Notre Notre beat Cal by seven points and BYU by eight.

Notre Dame is improving, but they are not dramatically better than they were at the start of the year. Stanford is a bad team, so Notre Dame could cover the spread.

Stanford remains a below-average team. Notre Dame's offense is better and will not struggle the way it did in September.

Notre Dame is favored by 16.5 points over Stanford.