Air Force vs. Notre Dame: Do Irish Deserve Top 25 Ranking with Win?

I was listening to a college football debate on ESPN Radio last week, and the topic was "Teams that live in the past."

This includes both professional and college sports teams, and while names like the Dallas Cowboys, the L.A. Dodgers and the New York Knicks certainly filled my mind, it didn't take long for me to come up with my answer, which I felt 100 percent confident about.

The Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program.

No matter how bad this team is. No Matter how many losses this team racks up and how many overrated quarterbacks they spit out to have short-lived NFL careers. No matter what this program continues to do to stay in the national spotlight, people still believe this program deserves the credit they are given on a year-in, year-out basis.

The Fighting Irish are 3-2 heading into today's game against Air Force. So we ask, if Notre Dame wins this game, are they deserving of a top 25 ranking?

This answer is simple and short: no, they are not. Not in any way, shape or form.

In order to be a top 25 team at this point in time, you shouldn't have one or even two losses. Maybe if those two losses were against two great teams, such as the case with Florida State and Texas A&M. But even then, a good team with one loss should be slated ahead of those two-loss teams.

Now, here is a Notre Dame team that already has two losses, which came against a South Florida team that got embarrassed by Pittsburgh last weekend, and a Michigan team that hasn't played a respectable opponent outside of the Irish yet this season.

Notre Dame did beat a good Michigan State team at home, which was a nice win, but a narrow victory over Pittsburgh and a road victory against a horrendous Purdue team is not impressive by any strength of the imagination.

If you look at teams that aren't ranked right now, one-loss teams like Michigan State, Washington and an unbeaten Houston team are well-deserving of a ranking over Notre Dame, even if they do beat Air Force by double digits.

Check the numbers, check the facts, check yourself before declaring Notre Dame as being worthy of a top 25 ranking.