Welcome to Week 0, baby. Hopefully, you have gotten all the chores done around the house so you can focus on the Week 0 college football betting slate. Granted, there’s only a couple games to bet on so I figured I’d give you the best bet for the first game of the year, Notre Dame-Navy.

The Facts

Sam Hartman, 18th all-time with 110 touchdown passes, transfers into South Bend after the QB woes for Notre Dame the last few years. Stability at that position is so important in college football. Unfortunately for Hartman, there’s not a whole lot of major talent on the outside for him to throw to. Oh, so the Fighting Irish are just going to stuff the ball down Navy’s throat? Not so fast my friend.

Navy returns nine, read that again, 9 defensive starters from last year’s 3rd ranked rushing defense in the country. In fact, Notre Dame’s leading rusher from the game these two played last year was Audric Estime who had 49 yards. That game ended in a Notre Dame 35-32 victory, but they didn’t score a single point in the 2nd half.

Offensively for Navy, they’re going to a more modern version of the very famous triple option. Normally such a change would worry me about the offensive output, but Navy returned 8 on offense so the amount of continuity on this team through the offseason has me intrigued.

Your Best Bet- Navy +20.5

We all know the saying, something about how you finish. I don’t care that Notre Dame scored 35 in the first half of the game last year. A new offensive coordinator for Notre Dame and quarterback with no prior history together doesn’t scare me. I actually think Navy can win this game outright, worst case scenario my proprietary model (my brain) tells me this game ends 31-17. The best bet for Notre Dame-Navy is Navy +20.5.