BCS Rankings: Notre Dame and Teams That Will Crack Top 25

We are getting down to the end in the 2011 college football season. We are getting to the point where BCS rankings really matter towards garnering a high-quality bowl game. These three teams will be in high-quality bowl game discussions after they crack the Top 25 on Sunday night.

West Virginia

West Virginia is the best team in the Big East Conference this season, not saying much. They didn’t crack the Top 25 last week, but without playing this week, they will get in by default.

They have their huge Backyard Brawl with Pittsburgh on Friday and they will be ranked for the showdown.

Who knows how the Big East will shake out? Just when you think West Virginia is the best team they lose to Syracuse, just when Cincinnati seems like the best team they lose to West Virginia.

It’s crazy. The madness will continue, but, for now, the Mountaineers deserve a Top 25 ranking.

Notre Dame

After starting the season 0-2, Notre Dame has won eight of the last nine games. Brian Kelly has done a magnificent job of rallying the troops and making the Fighting Irish relevant again.

The only poor loss Notre Dame has had this year was the opener against South Florida. Their other losses came against USC and at Michigan.

Even though their victory over Boston College was close (16-14), they still won and that’s the bottom line. It’s not how you win, it’s if you win.

Notre Dame won. They’re 8-3. That’s deserving of a Top 25 rank.

Georgia Tech

It wasn’t pretty, but the Yellow Jackets' 38-31 victory at Duke got the job done. There is no question that the Yellow Jackets deserve a Top 25 rank.

They lost to Virginia and Miami on the road and Virginia Tech at home. Virginia would be a poor loss in recent history, but not this season. The Cavaliers are 8-3, 5-2 in the ACC.

Georgia Tech hasn’t had a “bad” loss all season long yet they found themselves out of the Top 25 last week. They won’t be this week.