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00:00And that starts Friday night, Kev, in South Bend.
00:07In-state showdown between the 7-seed Notre Dame and the 10-seed Indiana with a generational
00:13and historic season.
00:15Seven and a half points spread in favor of the Irish.
00:18We have all talked about IU's strength of schedule and their step-up spots all season
00:22long.
00:23Can they step up to match the occasion in South Bend on Friday?
00:26Look, I think Indiana's certainly getting some love out there.
00:29I think people think the Hoosiers are going to be within the mix of this.
00:34If I may register one more complaint, though, because I agree with you, the pageantry, and
00:39that's where I'll lean on you to look at these stadiums.
00:42The reality is, and this is my maybe more aggressive thing, if we got rid of conference
00:48championship games and we took what the committee had 1 through 16, and everybody got a home
00:54game, the games we would have had, then we would have had those bangers.
00:58We would have had Ohio State hosting Alabama.
01:00I didn't move anything around.
01:01We would have had Georgia hosting Miami, Oregon would have hosted Iowa State, Oregon gets
01:07to have that home game there.
01:09Missing out on those things, I think, is very, very unfortunate ultimately here, but to go
01:15back to the game, Lacey, for Notre Dame, a victory here isn't enough, I think, when we
01:21talk big picture, because Indiana's one spot against a championship-level contender.
01:27They were destroyed by Ohio State, so we've been wondering for a long time now, because
01:32the Notre Dame schedule's obviously really opened up to be easier for them, is can Notre
01:35Dame be as impressive as Ohio State was in their game against Indiana?
01:39I think they can be, but again, I expect Indiana to be within margin in this game.
01:45With the extra week of preparation and the fact that it is an in-state rivalry per se,
01:50I think they're going to bring everything but the kitchen sink to Notre Dame.
01:53That doesn't mean Notre Dame wins this game and moves on.
01:56I'm not saying that.
01:57I think Notre Dame potentially wins a very close game.
02:00I do believe it's lower scoring in the area of 24 to 20, and the reason why I say that
02:05is Indiana, with the best turnover margins in all of college football, plus 15, in playoff
02:10type of games, the teams that can create turnovers and run the football effectively, ultimately
02:15win or are within margin, Indiana can do that.
02:18Now that being said, Notre Dame has won nine straight and has one of the best secondaries
02:22in all of college football, going to be a very intriguing matchup.
02:25And you'll see some rather lofty spreads for our opening round games.
02:29Texas, the heftiest favorite, double digits as they will host Clemson, the ACC champs,
02:34and even in the 8-9 matchup, Ohio State at home in the shoe, more than a touchdown favorite
02:40next Saturday night against the Volunteers.
02:43If there is an upset, do not plant that flag, Tennessee!