To aid Notre Dame’s case even further, there isn’t much competition. Arkansas, which was No. 6 in the BCS, lost to LSU. West Virginia, which was No. 7, was upset by South Florida.

Yet let’s make believe Notre Dame isn’t Notre Dame. Let’s pretend the Irish are really Boise State or Rutgers or Wisconsin. With the Irish’s schedule, would the BCS bend over backwards to put such a 10-2 team into one of its lucrative slots considering the teams it beat and the way it lost to the teams it lost to?

The Irish will get in because they’re the Irish, not because they’re necessarily deserving.

Because of their schedule, it’s difficult to get a true read on Notre Dame. So much of the Irish’s appeal has to do with history, with Knute Rockne and waking up the echoes, and now with Weis and his large but charismatic presence on the sidelines. But how good are they?

“They’re a good football team,” said USC linebacker Keith Rivers after Saturday’s game. “They’re just as good as anyone else we’ve played.”

Said USC coach Pete Carroll of the Irish: “They’re a great team and they’re going to get theirs.”

I guess what he means is their cut of the BCS pie. As far as recognition as one of the premier programs in the country, the Irish still have a lot of work to do despite their record.

The Irish haven’t won a bowl game since they took a 24-21 decision over Texas A&M in the Cotton Bowl on January 1, 1994. In January of this year, they were pulverized by Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl, 34-20.

Everyone in and around the Notre Dame program has been thrilled since Weis stepped on campus. And there was cause for buzz. He was a successful offensive coordinator with the New England Patriots, he has Super Bowl rings and he has a gritty, New Jersey pragmatism that endears him to football folk.

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But the disparity between USC and Notre Dame was significant Saturday night. It was even wider than the score indicated. The Trojans have recruited kids who are faster and more athletic. As tough and competitive as they are, the Irish don’t seem to have gained any ground on USC, Ohio State, Michigan and maybe others in the upper echelons of college football.

“This being the last game, playing in Southern California, five straight losses versus USC, it’s pretty disappointing,” defensive end Chris Frome said. “But we have one game left to prove ourselves as a team and to win a bowl game, which we haven’t done here in over a decade.”

But they keep getting invited. When you’re Notre Dame, maybe that’s all that matters.

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