We like the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to defeat the Indiana Hoosiers on Friday at 8:00pm ET for a number of reasons. Here are some of the more important ones:

Since losing to Northern Illinois, Notre Dame has looked like one of the best teams in the country.

The Irish have now won 10 straight games and have covered the spread in eight straight.

ND is also 5-0-1 versus the spread over their L6 games played against Big Ten teams.

We're very impressed with what they've done. But, Indiana had a very easy schedule this season.

In the Hoosiers only big game, they lost 38-15 to Ohio State.

Lay the points with the home team in this first playoff game of four in the first round.

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