Contrary to popular belief Notre Dame had a tougher schedule than Alabama which makes them an even better prospect to beat the spread on January 8th in Florida.

And they went unbeaten unlike the Tide who lost to Texas A&M.

In an excellent article in CSN Chicago J.J. Stankevitz notes that the Irish schedule was definitely tougher as they played fewer patsies, only Boston College and Wake Forest ranked 122nd and 117th respectively.(Wow how BC have fallen)

Alabama on the other hand beat up on Western Kentucky (No. 80), Florida Atlantic (No. 131), Western Carolina (No. 199) and  Auburn (No. 83). Alabama played four top-20 opponents in Texas A&M (No. 6, and a loss), Georgia (No. 7), at LSU (No. 11) and Michigan (No. 20).

On the other hand Notre Dame beat No. 8 Stanford, No. 34 BYU, and No. 9 Oklahoma to give them an edge considering Alabama lost to A&M.

Little wonder then that Jeff Sagarin's strength of schedule rankings placed  Notre Dame at No. 31 and Alabama at No. 34.

All of which points to a greater potential of an Irish upset of the Tide when the sides meet in Miami
Now that would be cool!