Why Notre Dame Is BCS Bound Again in 2008-09

If it's possible to do so, I simultaneously cheered and cringed as I watched six Notre Dame opponents lose on the opening weekend of college football.  I'm guessing your reaction upon seeing the title of this article was to do one or the other.

After all, Kirk Herbstreit told me that the Michigan game was the key to Notre Dame's season on three consecutive SportsCenters...and the Wolverines flubbed away another home opener to a non-BCS conference team while I sat in an airport bar, wondering what that meant for the Golden Domers.

Then I looked down the rest of an uncharacteristically soft Irish schedule, in search of teams that "should" beat ND. 

Pitt?  Not the way Team 'Stache looked in a home loss to Bowling Green. 

Washington?  No matter how badly Tyrone Willingham wants to beat his previous employer, his continued struggles with the Huskies prove that Notre Dame was justified in firing him.

So here it is: Without having seen the Irish play a game, Michigan State and USC are the only teams that should beat them.

San Diego State, Michigan, Purdue, Stanford, North Carolina, Washington, Pittsburgh, Boston College, Navy, and Syracuse are either less talented, less experienced, or both.  Those teams will all be underdogs against Notre Dame.

Why, then, the cringe?

10-2 would put Charlie Weis back in the BCS for the third time in four seasons—and while a 10-win season would be a thrilling turnaround from last year's 3-9 record, I know this Irish roster isn't quite ready to compete on that level again.

Next year, Notre Dame should contend for a title.  This year, the Irish are better off winning a non-BCS game and snapping the school's hideous nine-game bowl losing streak.

Furthermore, the same logic I use to argue that Notre Dame should win 10 games dictates that the schedule isn't strong enough to warrant a BCS berth if the Irish lose two or more contests.

So in December, if the Irish accept a bid to face Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl (as they did in Weis' first season), I'll cheer...but I'll also cringe.  Just as I did back in August.

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