Gator Bowl: Notre Dame opens up as favorites over the South Carolina Gamecocks

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have accepted an invitation to play in the Gator Bowl against the SEC’s South Carolina Gamecocks. According to DraftKings Sportsbook, the Irish are currently 5.5 point favorites over South Carolina with an OVER/UNDER of 53.

To be honest, I’m a little surprised at this line. Notre Dame and South Carolina had similar seasons in a number of ways — most specifically in terms of the results each school had in the game against the Clemson Tigers.

South Carolina’s starting quarterback, Spencer Rattler, is going to play in the bowl game while Drew Pyne (Notre Dame’s starting quarterback for the last ten games) has already entered the transfer portal. While it will likely be Tyler Buchner at quarterback for Notre Dame, it could be Steve Angeli — who has yet to throw a pass in a college football game.

There’s still no official word about the status of Michael Mayer or Isaiah Foskey in terms of them playing in the game or not.