Penn State football an early underdog to Notre Dame in College Football Playoff Semifinal

It’ll be a matchup of college football royalty next week in South Beach when the Penn State Nittany Lions and Notre Dame Fighting Irish meet in Hard Rock Stadium for the Orange Bowl. Each program will have the opportunity to reclaim its place atop the sport, moving within 60 minutes of a National Championship with a win.

James Franklin and the Nittany Lions have lived in and around the top five of the rankings practically all season and now have proved they belong there with impressive wins over SMU and Boise State to reach the College Football Playoff Semifinal.

But now for the first time during this current playoff run and for only the third time this season, Penn State football heads into next week’s Orange Bowl matchup as an underdog. Notre Dame holds a slight -1.5-point advantage in the betting markets following Thursday night’s victory over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl.

Two of the most storied programs in college football history, the Orange Bowl will only be the 20th time that the Nittany Lions and Fighting Irish have faced off on the gridiron.

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The series is perfectly knotted at nine games apiece, with one tie between the two programs. It’ll be only the second bowl matchup between the two schools, the first coming in the 1976 Gator Bowl.

Playing each year between 1981 and 1992, the programs renewed their series for a brief two-game stint in 2006 and 2007, with each side emerging victorious at home. Penn State football won the latter of those matchups, a 31-10 rout of the Irish in the first Beaver Stadium White Out game.

© Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

Notre Dame enters the contest at 12-1 on the year, with wins over then-No. 20 Texas A&M, No. 15 Louisville, No. 24 Navy, and No. 19 Army during the regular season. During the College Football Playoff, the Fighting Irish eliminated No. 10 Indiana and No. 2 Georgia.

Kickoff from Miami is set for January 9, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.

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