The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame are now the the #1 team in the nation in all the polls, including the Bowl Championship Series, for the first time ever. Notre Dame is the only remaining undefeated team, other than Ohio State, who is ineligible for any postseason bowls this year. The last time Notre Dame was #1, was in 1993, after beating then #1 Florida State, but losing the next week to Boston College. Both teams finished with one loss, but Florida State was voted #1, even though Notre Dame had beaten them. A head to head match-up is the best way to decide which team is better, unless the losing team has a coach named Bobby Bowden, who hadn’t won a national championship yet, and the winning coach, Lou Holtz, won it all five years earlier. At least that’s my guess.
Anyway, the Irish finished the last 2 years with an 8-5 record, and were not even ranked in the preseason college football polls. But with a win against USC this Saturday, Notre Dame will play in the National Championship Game against the winner of the SEC Championship game. Unless either Alabama of Florida lose this weekend, and that loser wins the SEC Championship Game, then the door is opened for Oregon or Kansas State, or maybe some other teams. Kansas State was #1, until being blown out by Baylor 52-24 on Saturday. Oregon would have been #1, except they lost to Stanford 17-14 in overtime.
Notre Dame travels to Los Angeles for its last game of the season. USC will have to play without their preseason Heisman Trophy favorite, quarterback Matt Barkley. He injured his throwing shoulder in a 38-28 loss to crosstown rival UCLA. If USC loses, the preseason #1 team will end the regular season with 5 losses. The Irish have improved dramatically under third year head coach Brian Kelly. Their defense leads the country in scoring defense at 10.1 points per game. Even though their quarterback Everett Golson, is in his first year as the starter, the offense has scored enough to win all of their 11 games, thanks to a great defense. Golson did have his best game of the year last week, in throwing for 346 yards and 3 touchdowns in a 38-0 thrashing of Wake Forest.
A return to greatness for Notre Dame is the best thing that could happen to college football. They have the biggest following of any team in the nation, and also the largest number of haters. It’s hard to find a college football fan who neither roots for Notre Dame, or hates them. The haters probably dislike the fact that the Irish have all their games on NBC, or other networks, and are the only team specifically named in the rules for figuring out who will play in the BCS games, because they are the main independent team in the country. After 6 straight years of the SEC winning the national championship, Alabama and Florida will play for the right to meet Note Dame to end the season #1. So get over it haters, Notre Dame is back, and in the BCS Title game if they beat USC on Saturday.
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