Notre Dame and the BCS: The “Notre Dame Rule”

The Hawaii Bowl set records in viewership—for its bowl and for all ESPN regional bowls. The Hawaii Bowl had a live rating of 3.03 and combined with replay, had 3.70 rating, reaching 6.6 million viewers. 

For the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, Notre Dame received 45,000 ticket requests for their allotment of 15,000 tickets.

Blame the businessmen behind the BCS, blame your conference commissioners, but don't attack Notre Dame.

Would the BCS prefer Notre Dame be totally independent, sign its own contracts with the bowls, and enjoy the “feast or famine” of a market economy for the Irish? Think of the money they would lose.

Notre Dame has much to gain by going totally independent outside the BCS and taking home only what market forces and its performance each year would demand.

Notre Dame's BCS bowl performance stinks.

Absolutely. No question that they are still evolving into a national powerhouse and have a lot to prove.

Bielema: “They don’t take, maybe, into consideration past bowl history. Notre Dame hasn’t won in the last nine bowl appearances, or whatever it is. And to me, we’ve proven over time that we deserve the opportunity.” (Source: see above)

Hindsight is always 20/20, Bret. In 2005-06, Barry Alvarez, then head coach at Wisconsin, voted the Irish as fifth in the nation (poll finish was sixth). In 2006-07, the Big Ten coaches had an average ranking of 10.6 for Notre Dame (poll finish was 11th).

The only teams higher than ND that were not selected were Wisconsin (seventh) and Auburn (ninth) who were ineligible by BCS rules since they were their conference’s third teams.

Big Ten coaches, including Bielema’s previous head coach, have ranked Notre Dame slightly higher or at the final BCS poll ranking. If Notre Dame has been overrated, it has been by Wisconsin, other Big Ten, and other coaches nationally, pollsters, and the computers.

Most of this talk is the kind of posturing and gamesmanship that goes on in BCS rankings. Bielema just needs to make sure his Badgers are one of the top two Big Ten teams. Otherwise, they have not proven they deserve the opportunity. Blame the BCS for the rules.

While Wisconsin is in negotiations to play Notre Dame in the future, Bielema implies that an independent Notre Dame does not deserve the same opportunity his team does because they are not a conference team and the BCS is for conferences.

I’d prefer the top 10 teams, no matter what conference they are in, be the BCS teams, and that each get a full share. But each conference has to assure its pieces of the pie.

The “Notre Dame Rule:” Preferential Bull

Should Notre Dame qualify for a BCS berth, they will, with all statistical probability:

1. finish higher than one or more BCS conference champions
2. have a better record than one or more BCS conference champions
3. meet stricter criteria than one or more BCS conference champions and a non-BCS qualifier

The Irish will also:

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