National media predicts the winner of the Sugar Bowl.
The No. 2 Georgia Bulldogs (11-2, 6-2) will face the No. 7 Notre Dame Fighting Irish (12-1) in the Sugar Bowl. The winner advances to the College Football Playoff semifinals. Georgia-Notre Dame will play on Wednesday, January 1 at 8:45 p.m. ET in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Sugar Bowl will air on ESPN.
Georgia is 1.5-point favorites over Notre Dame, despite the absence of starting quarterback Carson Beck. Georgia will start Gunner Stockton, who is making his first career start against Notre Dame’s formidable defense.
Members of the media believe Notre Dame will defeat Georgia, but the media has been wrong several times this season.
National media predictions for Georgia vs. Notre Dame.
“Everything points to a Notre Dame win, even with Kirby Smart’s knack for preparing his teams for playoff runs,” CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello said. Five of CBS’ seven college football pundits chose Notre Dame to upset Georgia.
Prediction: Notre Dame wins and covers.
Josh Pate, of 247Sports, declared, “I am going to pick Georgia to win this game and cover,” “And I think Georgia is in a great position to shock a lot of people… they’re either going to wilt and Gunner Stockton can’t get it done or they’re going to have the cattle prod to the side of the neck of college football.”
Forecast: Georgia prevails and wins.
“I’m siding with a physical, defense-driven Notre Dame squad over UGA and a backup QB,” said David Kenyon of Bleacher Report. “(Gunner) Stockton tallied just 4.4 yards per attempt on 16 passes in relief of Beck against Texas and otherwise has zero significant reps in college. He’s very talented and very unproven.” Kenyon believes Notre Dame will win partly because Georgia is without Carson Beck.
Prediction: Notre Dame 20, Georgia 17 “Georgia owns the all-time series between the two teams, 3-0, but this is a different Notre Dame team that they have faced. Their confidence is sky-high, and they believe that they can beat anyone. This will be a slug-it-out game, but the Irish barely prevail,” said Michael Chen of Fighting Irish Wire. Prediction: Notre Dame 24, Georgia 20
Our prediction
If Georgia had Carson Beck, then I’d be picking the Bulldogs with confidence. However, I don’t have a ton of trust in Stockton, so I’m back and forth on this pick. I am rolling with Georgia because they are more battle-tested and I think they’re going to win the line of scrimmage. Prediction: Georgia 27, Notre Dame 20 Overall prediction tally Three of the five writers have Notre Dame winning and covering. Two writes have Georgia winning the Sugar Bowl.
Notre Dame wins: 3; Georgia wins: 2.
