Notre Dame vs. Michigan State betting preview: Odds, picks, predictions, kickoff for Week 3 college football — SkimNews
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- Notre Dame enters Saturday's game 2-0 after a 41-13 win over Wisconsin and a 52-0 rout of Rice, and QB CJ Carr has gone 35-for-49 for 492 yards and six touchdowns through two games as a Heisman Trophy contender.
- Michigan State is also 2-0 but in Year 1 under former Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald, having already matched half of their 2025 win total after two games.
- Notre Dame's remaining schedule features No. 11 BYU (away), No. 5 Miami (home), and No. 16 SMU (home) — no SEC or Big Ten heavyweights — meaning the College Football Playoff committee will expect the Irish to dominate unranked opponents like the Spartans.
- The Irish skipped last season's bowl games after failing to make the CFP, and head coach Marcus Freeman has all the incentive to pile on points against an overmatched Michigan State team.
- DraftKings is offering $200 in bonus bets for new $5 wagers on the Notre Dame–Michigan State game and other Week 3 matchups as part of its ongoing new-user promo war with FanDuel and BetMGM.
- The SportsLine Projection Model — on a 33-21 run on top-rated CFB money-line picks since 2024 and upgraded for 2026 to better account for the transfer portal — projects the Over 51.5 points to hit in 66% of its 10,000 simulations.
Why it matters: With no ranked opponents left on Notre Dame's schedule until the CFP, this is a resume-padding game the Irish need to win decisively — and the SportsLine model's 66% Over projection gives bettors a data-backed reason to expect a shootout rather than a grind-it-out rivalry game.
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