Notre Dame Football: How Many Wins Before the Irish Are Overrated Again?

Notre Dame football sits just outside college football's Top 25 polls with a 4-2 record going into their bye week before taking on the USC Trojans. 

After last Saturday's dominant victory against Air Force at Notre Dame Stadium, how many more victories are required before the Irish are, again, overrated?

The Allegations of Unearned Rankings...and Bowl Games

It's often argued that Notre Dame's football program is always overrated due to media bias and a soft schedule.  Some say that as soon as a recruit commits to the Irish, he gets an additional star. 

Further advancing this argument is the lengthy bowl skid Notre Dame endured, beginning with a 1995 Fiesta Bowl loss to Colorado in Lou Holtz's last game. 

That losing streak ended only recently, after the Irish defeated Hawaii in the 2009 Hawaii Bowl. But, that streak included blowout losses to Oregon State, Ohio State and LSU in Notre Dame's only three BCS appearances.

To understand why the Irish have been consistently overrated from the mid-1990s through the 2000s, one must first understand the dynamics of college football.

BCS, Broadcasting and Baloney

At the heart of college football is the desire to reward the nation's most lucrative fanbases, rather than rewarding a football team's merit. 

Those who run the current system like the idea of money more than they care for any notions of fairness or hard work on the football field.  College football is a system driven by the media, as evidenced by the media's vote in the Associated Press Top 25 poll and the current conference upheaval, driven solely by the pursuit of additional television revenue.

Presidents at BCS schools don't mind the current system either, as their cartel of schools engage in anti-competitive practices, which allow mere scraps of money and bowl access to fall to non-BCS programs. 

Between the BCS Presidents and the television networks, the system is aligned to ensure that BCS schools stay lucrative, and the media can maximize profits from its media darlings—while each exerts its influence when necessary. 

To illustrate this fact, one need only look at the AP National Title awarded to the USC Trojans when the media took offense that its weaker darling wasn't invited to the 2003 BCS National Championship.

To Playoff or Not to Playoff

If the current college football system truly embraced any notion of fairness and rewarded those who've played their best during the season, the fans would see a 16-team playoff with 11 automatic conference bids and five at-large bids. 

This would reward conference champions, while allowing room for those few teams who are good but couldn't quite win their conferences or those who aren't affiliated with a conference.

The current BCS system blatantly ignores merit, only rewarding BCS conference champions the right to play in meaningless bowls unless a BCS school is fortunate enough to make it to the national title. 

In that case, a legitimate No. 1 should be playing a legitimate No. 2.  A merit-based system would at least allow No. 3 to play No. 4, No. 5 to play No. 6, etc; but that isn't today's reality.

After this brief digression, where does that leave the argument that Notre Dame is overrated, or soon will be?

Give Notre Dame Your Bowl Bid...They Bring Us More Money

Nobody plays the "Notre Dame" card better than the media. 

All broadcasters know is that the mere mention of the Irish attracts viewership from a national following of fans and opposition, alike.  The duality of viewership keeps the Irish atop their respective Division I peers every year in terms of football revenue, only losing that title to the University of Texas once in a while. 

People tune in to cheer the Irish as much as they tune in to enjoy Notre Dame's misery.

Bowls choose Notre Dame every time they're presented the opportunity, choosing monetary gain over any conference loyalty.  They know the Irish sell every ticket and come en masse to the host city. 

This year, for a regular season game, the Pitt Panthers charged $30 to $35, except when Notre Dame came to town.  Instead, Pitt more than doubled the face value of its tickets to $75 for general admission seats and nearly the same for club seats. 

Now, add the BCS to the equation, outside the BCS National Championship, and one begins to talk about real money.  Nobody needs to maximize their financial gain more than BCS bowls, and the only way to get the Irish involved is to ensure they qualify. 

To do so, Notre Dame must finish in the Top Eight of the BCS standings at the end of the year.  If the Irish are close, you can bet the AP Poll will do its best to give the them the votes they need to qualify.  After all, viewership drives ratings, and nobody drives ratings like Notre Dame.

Until college football decides to reward merit and not money, the Irish will be regularly found on television, in bowls and in the Top 25, whether their performance on the field warrants it or not.

Addressing the Allegations

Those who claim the Irish are overrated may be correct, but the claims they use to support their arguments are often unjustified. 

Does Notre Dame play a soft schedule compared to other schools? 

Critics often cite the regularly-scheduled games with the Academies, Big East teams and lowly Purdue.  However, the Irish regularly compete against the most bowl-bound teams in a season and regularly rank in the top third of teams in schedule strength, partly due to the fact that Notre Dame refuses to schedule Bowl Subdivision teams.

Do Irish recruits gain an additional star after committing to play in the house that Rockne built? 

This argument can certainly be made, since Charlie Weis regularly recruited Top-10 classes that were mediocre at best.  Highly-recruited players like Steven Filer, Deion Walker and Sam Young failed to live up to their billing. But, many Irish fans point to Weis' inability to develop players as leading to the dismal performance of these blue-chip athletes. 

For every flop, though, there is a Manti Te'o, Michael Floyd, Golden Tate or Jimmy Clausen, who've performed at or beyond expectations. 

Maybe Notre Dame received a nudge from the recruiting services, but development under Brian Kelly over the next couple of years may well prove that these players earned their high-school accolades.

Have the Irish earned their bowl berths over the last decade and a half? 

The losing streak would say, "No," and it would likely be correct.  It seems, however, that the media and fans across the nation can only take so many Irish losses before they start losing interest and ranking the Irish appropriately, if not lower. 

Currently, Notre Dame is lucky if it can break into the Top 25, despite crucifying those ranked ahead of it.  The luster of Lou Holtz has worn off, as the slightest sparks of Notre Dame's former glory have failed to ignite continuous success over the past few years. 

The Irish are moving in a positive direction, however.  If that momentum continues, the media is likely to warm up to Notre Dame again. 

Will Notre Dame haters be correct when they say the Irish are overrated?

How Many Wins in 2011 Before the Irish Are Overrated?

After a lengthy discussion about bowls, money and college football, the question still remains, "How many wins before the Irish are overrated this season?"

Considering the 2011 team's successes and failures, one should come to the conclusion that it would take more wins than the season holds games for the Irish to be overrated. 

In fact, this 2011 squad is significantly underrated and will have to fight all season to regain the respect it had before the South Florida debacle.

The 2011 Notre Dame Fighting Irish are eighth in total offense with 2,805 yards, and they're 26th in total defense. 

Without a total of nine turnovers in the first two games, the Irish would not be sitting with two losses and outside the Top 25, but in the Top 10 and attempting to find an undefeated season. 

Though Notre Dame soundly defeated a ranked Michigan State team 31-13 and lost to a ranked Michigan team at the last second of the game, the Irish are still on the outside looking in.

No, the only way this Notre Dame team can be overrated this season is if it loses one more game, yet makes it to a BCS game.  With the possibility of four or more undefeated teams this season, an Irish BCS bowl with three losses would be laughable, and highly unlikely.

In the end, this is a prolific offense and stout defense that struggled early with a multitude of turnovers.  Having addressed the turnover issue, however, this Irish team should finish the season with only one more loss, while regularly padding its stats with inferior competition. 

It will take hard work, but an Irish team that can run the table should proudly make it into the Top 15 without a second thought as to the merit of its ranking.