Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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UPON FURTHER REVIEW TODD D. BURLAGE o borrow an old Irish quip, "This deal is fouled up like Hogan's goat." As our beloved Irish T The SEC … And Everybody Else unexpectedly land in the middle of national championship chatter, the annual injustice that is the Bowl Champion- ship Series is finally hit- ting close to home. Many "experts" sug- college football poll, and the average rank- ing from six different computer calculations. The computer rank- gest even if Notre Dame wins out and finishes the regular season 12-0, its BCS profile won't be strong enough to earn a place in the title game without myriad help from other contenders. And in the event the Irish stumble ings add criteria such as schedule strength and wins over top-25 teams to the win-loss record, setting aside subjective factors such as margin of victory, voting alle- giances and style points. Because of schedule Alabama looks the part of a repeat and worthy national champion, but there is no doubt its road to the BCS title game is easier then Notre Dame's due to its affiliation with the SEC. PHOTO BY JOHN RHODES to one regular-season loss, is there any hope of a place in the championship game if the other unbeatens also fall? Since 2006, four Southeastern Con- first BCS poll was released Oct. 14. Heading into the Pittsburgh weekend, Notre Dame rated first in four of the six computer polls. ference teams got a mulligan and a title shot, including Alabama last sea- son. SEC stalwart LSU lost to both Kentucky and Arkansas in 2007, then parlayed its mulligan and a foot-wedge into a national title — with two losses. For quick background, three com- ponents are weighted equally and blended to compile rankings for BCS worthiness. The three are the USA To- day coaches poll, the Harris interactive strength, Notre Dame has been at or near the top of each of these im- partial computer rank- ings — and typically ranked higher than Alabama — since the man polls emphasize blowouts and the "eye test" when rating teams, devaluing Notre Dame's gutsy wins against Purdue, Stanford, Michigan and BYU — all of which somehow became "overrated" opponents after Irish victories. The best evidence of a flawed BCS And that's the point of the story. Perhaps unintentionally, the two hu- comes almost every year from the Southeastern Conference. The perpet-