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Nick Saban picked No. 20 Texas A&M to beat No. 7 Notre Dame on ESPN’s College GameDay Saturday morning.
Saban wasn’t alone, and he wasn’t going out on a limb either. Desmond Howard and Pat McAfee also picked the Aggies, who are a 3-point favorite in the matchup (via DraftKings). But Saban didn’t point to any clear matchup edge A&M has over the Irish on the field. Rather, he pointed to the 12th Man as a potential difference-maker.
“I love Marcus Freeman and think he’s done a great job at Notre Dame but I’ll tell you what. Until you’ve played in this place, a night game at Texas A&M, you do not know what it’s like,” Saban said. “I’m going with Texas A&M in this game because I think the noise will have a huge factor in the outcome of this game.”
Nick Saban picks Texas A&M over Notre Dame: ‘Until you play in this place, a night game at Texas A&M, you do not know what it’s like’ pic.twitter.com/SHtx1mo2LG
— Brent Zwerneman (@BrentZwerneman) August 31, 2024
The Aggies will like that. The recruiting department might already have that cut up and ready to roll. Since 2018, Texas A&M has had one of the best records against the spread at home of any team in the country. The Aggies are 23-15-1 ATS at home. Straight up, A&M is 31-8 at home during the same time frame.
“The last time we played here at night — which was 3 years ago — y’all beat us,” Saban said earlier in the broadcast when first-year head coach Mike Elko was on the set. “After winning 19 games in a row, Bryce Young was so confused by your pressures that we had no chance.”
And that’s the area to highlight on Saturday night. Notre Dame will open the game with an offensive line that has 6 combined starters and it’ll face a defensive front with elite pass-rushers across the board.
Kickoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET on ABC.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
