2011 Bowl Predictions: Does Notre Dame Have the Edge over Florida State?

The Florida State Seminoles (8-4) and Notre Dame Fighting Irish (8-4) will meet up in the Champs Sports Bowl Thursday with the opening kickoff scheduled for 5:30 ET from Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium in Orlando.

Odds-makers sent out the Seminoles as three-point neutral-site favorites, while the total has fallen by two points at most spots to settle in at 46.

Let's take a closer look at this contest that features two proud college football programs from a betting perspective.

Florida State Seminoles Playing in Their 30th Consecutive Bowl

Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher has maintained the program's proud history of making it to the postseason since Bobby Bowden's retirement, as the team will be making its 30th consecutive bowl appearance Thursday.

Playing in the Champs Sports Bowl for the second time in four years, the Seminoles will look to improve upon their 24-14-2 all-time mark in postseason play.

Florida State is 6-0-1 against the spread in its last seven bowl games.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish Playing Their Ninth Bowl Game in Florida

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish will be playing inside the Sunshine State for the ninth time during the postseason, which is their most frequented destination in 31 bowl appearances.

From a handicapping perspective, the Fighting Irish have tallied a 2-3 record when playing in the Orange Bowl, while going 1-2 in the Gator Bowl.

Thursday's game will be the program's first in the Champs Sports Bowl.

Florida State's Rush-Defense

The Florida State Seminoles finished the regular season ranked sixth nationally against the run, allowing just 81.8 yards per game.

Notre Dame will definitely want to try and establish some sort of rushing attack, averaging 166 rushing yards per game, which is 51st in the country.

The Fighting Irish were out-gained by a combined 415-98 margin on the ground in their last two losses against the USC Trojans and Stanford Cardinal.

Notre Dame's Defense in the Third Quarter

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish defense has been incredible coming out of the halftime break this season, allowing just 13 combined points in the third quarter. Sports bettors will definitely want to keep an eye on the halftime line if this game is close after two quarters.

Overall, the Fighting Irish ranked 34th nationally in allowing just 348.8 yards per game, while sitting 29th in surrendering 20.9 points a contest.

Florida State's Higher-Ranked Trend

The Florida State Seminoles entered the bowl season as the No. 25 team in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, while the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are unranked.

These two college football powers will be meeting in this particular situation for the fourth time, with the Seminoles capturing wins in the previous three contests.

Florida State captured victories in all three games, winning by at least five points in each.

Notre Dame Fighting Irish vs. Atlantic Coast Conference Teams

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish have enjoyed tremendous success against current members of the Athletic Coast Conference, coming in with a dominating 81-32-2 record.

It's important to note that the school has a losing 2-4 mark versus Florida State.

Florida State Loves Visiting Orlando

Both programs will have plenty of fans supporting them on Thursday inside the Florida Citrus Bowl Stadium, but Florida State has tallied a 7-0-2 mark when playing in Orlando.

The Seminoles registered an impressive 42-13 win over the Wisconsin Badgers in the 2008 Champs Sports Bowl the last time they played inside this particular venue.

Notre Dame Turnovers

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish must avoid turnovers in order to pull off a mild upset, sitting just ahead of East Carolina and SMU with the worst turnover differential nationally.

Brian Kelly has likely preached ball security in practice since the team's 28-14 road loss to the Stanford Cardinal to end the regular season on Nov. 26, but the Fighting Irish committed 10 turnovers in their first two games following a long offseason.

This will definitely be a key in determining the victor.

Prediction

Sometimes playing within your own state can be a non-motivating factor, but not for Florida State in drawing Notre Dame.

The Seminoles are a tremendous 9-1-1 ATS when playing in a neutral-site contest, while the Fighting Irish are 1-6 ATS as an underdog in bowl games.

Pick: Florida State Seminoles (-3)