Notre Dame Fighting Irish VS Oklahoma State Cowboys: Fiesta Bowl Betting Lines

THE FREEMAN FIESTA

Ladies and gentlemen, we are BACK. After a long month riddled with the insanity of a coaching search no one saw coming, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are playing a game on New Years Day. And this game is a big one for many reasons. We have a New Years Six game coupled with Marcus Freeman’s first ever game as newly-appointed head coach. Additionally, this Fiesta Bowl against the Oklahoma State Cowboys is the first ever meeting between ND and OSU. With a lot going on as backstory for this game, let’s take a look at how we see the betting lines for this bowl game.

ND vs OSU Betting Lines

As we can see above, the lines for this game are very tight. The Irish sit as a 2.5-point favorite in this Fiesta Bowl. That is where the line opened earlier in the month when the game was announced. There has been some fluctuation - I saw the line dip to ND -1.5 at one point, but now we are back to this opening line. Since the game got announced, Oklahoma St. had some coaching and player changes while the Irish had Kyle Hamilton and Kyren Williams announce they were declaring for the NFL Draft and won’t play in this Fiesta Bowl. So, I’m actually surprised at how much the spread stayed steady.

With both defenses playing so staunchly this season, it makes sense that the game total is at 44.5. For offenses that can score, though, this seems a tad low to me. Additionally, we can see the game is expected to be close with two pretty evenly-matched teams, as the Irish are only a slight favorite and the Cowboys are barely an underdog on the money line.

It’s a little tough to get exact reasoning behind it, but Oddsshark is predicting Oklahoma State to win by a very slim margin and the over to hit on the game total. It must have something to do with the very strong defense that OSU has had this season, which is true. They predict some back and forth scoring from both offenses, and I could see that. Their prediction is also interesting because they note that the Irish covered the final 7 games ATS in the regular season, and both teams’ unders have hit at a strong clip in the back half of the 2021 season.

Matty G’s Prediction

I’m not going to sit here and tell you anything else after the momentum that Marcus Freeman has and the offense staying mainly the same (especially with Tommy Rees still at the head). I predict the Irish to win and cover. I’m hoping we see us finally get over that NY6 game hump and win a big bowl game in January. Also, I think that the over hits in this one. I don’t know if it will necessarily be a shootout, but hitting the over and the Irish covering would equate to a score of 24-21 or even higher than that. I could definitely see more points being scored in this one, so let’s go with that over.

Darren Yamashita-USA TODAY Sports

DAMHSA BUA Count

I’m going to set the DAMHSA BUA O/U at 4.5. Let me know if you think the Irish score more or fewer than 4 TDs in the Fiesta Bowl. I’ll go over here because I’m all in on the hype train. Let us know what you think about the TDs scored in the poll below and give us your thoughts on all of the lines for this game in the comments.

Go Irish. Beat Cowboys.