The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and Penn State Nittany Lions are expected to play the closer of the two College Football Playoff semifinals.
Notre Dame is a slight 1.5-point favorite for Thursday's Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium.
The point spread is tight because Notre Dame and Penn State advanced to the semifinals in similar ways.
Both programs produced a pair of double-digit wins in the first round and quarterfinals. They both used strong rushing attacks and dominant defenses to open up the leads in those games.
The play of the two defenses makes it easy to believe it will be a low-scoring game, and in fact, the over/under for the Orange Bowl is nine points lower than the total set for the Cotton Bowl.