Notre Dame vs Texas A&M Picks, Odds & Public Betting Splits

• #7 Notre Dame travels to College Station to face #20 Texas A&M to open their season
• After being a pick’em earlier this offseason, the Aggies are now 3-point favorites Saturday night
• Keep reading for the latest Notre Dame vs Texas A&M odds, picks, and betting splits

Notre Dame faces a tough road test to open their season. They travel to Kyle Field to play #20 Texas A&M at 7:30 pm ET. These two historic college football programs have played each other five times, but none since 2001. Notre Dame leads the series 3-2, but Texas A&M won their last meeting.

Both teams come into the 2024 season with a lot of changes. Texas A&M has a new head coach in Mike Elko, and Notre Dame has a new starting quarterback in Riley Leonard, both coming from Duke. With the two programs eyeing a spot in the new, expanded College Football Playoff, the winner of this Week 1 game will be on the right track to claim their seat.

ND vs TAMU Odds

The college football odds list Texas A&M as a 3-point favorite over Notre Dame in Week 1. With -150 moneyline odds, the sportsbooks are giving the Aggies a 60% chance to win this game and start 1-0.

This line has moved a lot since it opened over the summer. Notre Dame was -1 at one point, then it turned into a true pick’em. The money kept coming in and the line started to move in Texas A&M’s direction even more. Now the line has held at Texas A&M -3. The O/U has also seen some movement. The total is sitting at 45.5 right now, but it opened at 49.5.

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Odds as of August 29 at Fanatics Sportsbook.

Notre Dame vs Texas A&M Betting Splits

Notre Dame ML is receiving a lot of the money in the latest college football betting splits. 91% of the betting handle is on Notre Dame (+130) to go into College Station and win the game. 74% of the ATS betting handle is on Texas A&M to cover as the favorite. The public also likes for this game to be a low-scoring one, as 77% of the bets are on the under.

Notre Dame Betting Trends

Notre Dame comes into this season as the #7 team in the country after finishing 9-3 (8-4 ATS) last year. Marcus Freeman enters his fourth season as the head coach of the Fighting Irish, and he has brought in some help for his offense this season. Riley Leonard impressed last season at Duke and is a quarterback who can throw to spots and manage the game well. He is also a physical runner with the ball in his hands. Perhaps more importantly, Freeman brought in LSU’s offensive coordinator from last season to run the offense for Notre Dame.

Notre Dame will weaponize Irish QB Riley Leonard in the run game against Texas A&M.

Marcus Freeman: "To have the ability to have designed quarterback runs or truly read defenders with a quarterback that can pull it is something that’s going to help our offense have success.” pic.twitter.com/KgGQzMElqh

— Tyler Horka (@tbhorka) August 29, 2024

They brought in some wide receivers transfers as well, so it will be exciting to see how this offense plays in 2024. Where they might struggle is on the offensive line. They lost both their tackles to the NFL Draft and have had some injuries this offseason as well, so there will be a lot of inexperience in that group.

Like other Notre Dame teams in the past, their defense will be solid. They have a great defensive coordinator and a talented unit, so if they can put it all together this season, they will have a path to the College Football Playoff.

Texas A&M Betting Trends

The Jimbo Fisher era at Texas A&M is officially over, and the Mike Elko era has begun. The old Texas A&M defensive coordinator brought in Collin Klein from Kansas State as offensive coordinator, so between those two coaches, there should be fewer in-game blunders in this era vs the last.

Texas A&M went 7-5 last regular season and went 5-7 against the spread.

Conner Weigman is back under center for the Aggies and is healthy. If he can stay healthy, this will be an exciting offense. They have enough playmakers to help Weigman out as well.

The Aggies will look at their defense a lot this season. They have a lot of talent returning in the front seven as well as adding Nic Scourton and Cashius Howell to rush off the edge. This defense last season finished sixth in sacks with 42 and fourteenth in rush yards allowed per game with 108.8. They are pretty deep in the secondary as well, especially after bringing in Dezz Ricks from Alabama.

Notre Dame vs Texas A&M Picks

There are two intriguing matchups to look at in what should be an exciting game. The first is Mike Elko vs Riley Leonard. It is not very often that a brand new head coach faces his old quarterback in his first game and vice versa. Elko knows Leonard very well, and Leonard knows some of Elko’s tendencies as well. I believe the head coach has the edge there and will be preparing his talented defense to defend Leonard’s play.

The other matchup will be Texas A&M’s defensive line vs Notre Dame’s inexperienced offensive line. The Aggies have a massive advantage in the trenches and will make Leonard’s night difficult. Kyle Field is already one of the toughest atmospheres to play in, and when the defense gets stops and sacks, the crowd will only get louder.

I like Texas A&M to win and cover the spread because of this, but I still believe it will be a close, low-scoring game. Notre Dame’s defense is a strong unit as well, and while both of these offenses have some excitement with their new coordinators, it may take some time for both of them to get in a groove since it is Week 1. I like Texas A&M Under 45.5 as well.

ND vs TAMU Picks: 

Texas A&M -3 (-110)

Under 45.5 (-110)