Cotton Bowl: Clemson Near Unanimous Favorite in Media Predictions (So Far)

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: Media members releasing bowl predictions overwhelmingly favor whichever team is playing against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

I’m keeping track of each media member’s bowl predictions here.

At present, 54 of the 59 writers believe the Clemson Tigers will prevail in the Cotton Bowl clash on Dec. 29 at AT&T Stadium. The five Irish backers include two from the university’s student newspaper, a former Notre Dame beat writer now writing for Sports Illustrated and former head coach of the UCLA Bruins.

The Tigers are currently an 11 or 11 ¹⁄₂ point favorite over the undefeated Irish, according to oddsmakers.

Notre Dame is 5-12 in bowl games since the Cotton Bowl following the 1993 season and 0-6 in major bowls since then. If you believe that past bowl results have any bearing on future results, then there’s ample reason to think the Irish will disappoint.

Media were more split last year, with the LSU Tigers being favored in about 60 percent of predictions I found. My recollection was the predictions were as lopsided for LSU in 2014 as they are for Clemson this year, but I only have a few anecdotal examples.

I’ll continue to update the prediction tracker up until kickoff at 4 p.m. Eastern on Dec. 29.