Being Single Has Its Advantages

Notre Dame is playing at Michigan on Saturday in a game ABC doesn’t want you to miss, but there is another game going on involving the Irish:

It’s called cat-and-mouse.

As the Big East Conference struggles for survival and the Atlantic Coast seeks a 12th team to make its hopped-up conference a dirty dozen, Notre Dame remains an elusive and tantalizing wild card.

“I couldn’t tell you what Notre Dame is doing or thinking,” one conference commissioner said recently. “There are so many rumors about Notre Dame it’s unbelievable.”

Notre Dame can save college football as we know it ... but it probably won’t.

See, only the Swiss treasure independence more than the Irish.

With one phone call, Notre Dame could rescue the Big East, staggering after the defections of Miami and Virginia Tech to the ACC, from second-class status.

And although Notre Dame is a Big East member in most other sports, Commissioner Michael Tranghese doesn’t even say rosaries anymore hoping the Irish will make it a full football partnership.

You also can bet that, within a year, the ACC is going to make a run at the Irish.

Could you imagine a football conference that features Florida State, Notre Dame, Miami and Virginia Tech?

The smart money, though, says Notre Dame will turn down the ACC. Some speculate Notre Dame would never join the ACC as long as Miami was a member, the bitterness of “Catholics vs. Convicts” too fresh in memories.

But this has more to do with Notre Dame’s staunch belief that it is better off as a solo act.

And you know what? Notre Dame may be right.

If Notre Dame were ever going to join a conference, it would have entered the Big Ten when it had the chance.

Still, the “what will Notre Dame do?” question is so often whispered that some Irish power brokers have taken to hiding under four-leaf clovers.

A request to interview Notre Dame Athletic Director Kevin White for this column was denied. White basically has been out of pocket since the Big East-ACC story broke.

Feelings still are raw after the ACC fiasco and Notre Dame doesn’t want to get dragged publicly into the speculation.

Irish spokesman John Heisler said this week that Notre Dame would have preferred the Big East stayed intact, and also reiterated that the Irish’s position on being football’s most powerful independent has not changed.

“This appears to be a cherished part of our identity,” Heisler said.

Joining a bowl championship series conference would provide the safety net of revenue sharing and automatic BCS qualification for winning a league title.

Notre Dame, for example, could win the Big East Conference with an 8-3 record and a No. 20 national ranking and be assured of a $13.5-million bowl game. As it stands, the Irish must now win nine games and finish in the top 10 to assure themselves a BCS bid.

But the benefits of going it alone outweigh the risks.

Notre Dame has its own network TV deal with NBC and plays a national schedule it can control.

“It’s given us an awful lot of flexibility,” Heisler said of independence. “We haven’t lacked for people wanting to play us. Our geographic range of alumni and students continues to be coast-to-coast.”

Notre Dame can never say never about joining a conference.

Someday, the landscape may change. Maybe NBC cancels “The Notre Dame Football Program” on Saturdays and replaces it with “Saved By the Bell: the College Reunion Years” (a reprise role for former Irish star Bob Golic?).

Maybe someday, Notre Dame will need a place to call home.

But today is not that day, and don’t place a bet on tomorrow.

Bust or NFL

Maurice Clarett as Curt Flood?

Puh-leeeze.

The Ohio State (for now, tick ... tick ... tick) tailback may be the first player to challenge the NFL’s eligibility rules, but this is only because he wore out his welcome so fast in college he may have no other choice.

There is no way, at 19, that Clarett is physically or emotionally ready for the NFL but, that said, he also deserves to give it the old college try.

The NFL rule is seemingly indefensible; the best the league can do is throw down legal spike strips to force a protracted court fight.

The NFL rule stipulates no player is eligible for the draft until three years after his high school class graduates, which makes Clarett eligible in 2005.

And just because Clarett deserves the legal right to play in the NFL doesn’t make it a good thing. Clarett, for one, hasn’t proven he can survive the rigors of a college season.

He gained more than 1,200 yards as a freshman, but also missed three games and parts of two others because of injuries.

Iowa Coach Kirk Ferentz, a former NFL assistant and a man who would benefit from seeing Clarett out of the Ohio State lineup, says challenging the rule would be a mistake.

“You’re going to see college guys that should be in college playing in the NFL and crashing and burning, and no one’s ever going to hear from them again,” Ferentz said. “That’s my prediction.”

Off the top of my head, I can think of two players who may have been ready for the NFL at age 19: Bo Jackson and Herschel Walker.

And Maurice, you’re no Bo.

BCS Liner Notes

What many smart people still don’t get about the non-BCS schools’ fight against the BCS is that A) television, not college presidents, will determine the future of college football and B) tradition trumps Tulane.

Tulane President Scott Cowen is leading the fight for the non-BCS conference schools, but the bottom line is that ABC will almost always want to televise Ohio State versus Michigan rather Tulane versus anyone.

This isn’t about antitrust, this is about reality.

The networks are interested in brand names the same way fast-food restaurants are interested in Coke.

Notre Dame has an exclusive contract with NBC, regardless of the Irish’s won-loss record. Why? Because Notre Dame has a tradition Tulane could not approach in 100 years.

Not everything is equal in college football.

“This is not Lake Wobegon and everyone is just a little above average,” Oregon President David Frohnmayer said.

Non-BCS schools are never going to be full-fledged players in the BCS because the top schools have always generated, and probably always will generate, a disproportionate amount of the revenue. You get the feeling that, deep down, non-BCS schools know this and are just trying to cut the best deal they can get.

Hurry-Up Offense

* Monday’s BCS meeting in Chicago wasn’t all stuffed shirts and drooping eyelids. As school presidents prepared for a national conference call to discuss their meeting, a reporter in the room announced he had an important question for Frohnmayer.

Reporter: “What’s the deal with Oregon’s uniforms?”

Frohnmayer broke into a broad smile. “I think they’re terrific,” he said.

Oregon’s “yellow” uniforms have been uniformly panned, with some people comparing Duck jerseys to roadside “yield” signs. Frohnmayer said it wasn’t important whether he liked the outfits. “The key,” he said, “is the players like them.”

* Here’s how Arizona, fresh off a 59-13 drubbing from Louisiana State, received nine points in this week’s Associated Press poll. A voter accidentally dropped the “State” when he submitted his No. 17 ranking for Arizona State.

* You think Auburn fans aren’t a bit testy after the team scored three points in two games? A letter writer to Sunday’s Birmingham News calculated that Coach Tommy Tuberville earns $31,250 a week, meaning that Auburn’s two losses have cost the school $20,833 a point. Ouch.

Auburn, which opened with the most touted backfield in the country, ranks 115th out of 117 schools this week in rushing, averaging 41.5 yards a game. If Auburn keeps this up, we may have to reclassify USC’s win as a “cupcake” on the schedule.

* Some memories don’t fade ... Texas plays host to Arkansas this week in a renewal of an old Southwest Conference rivalry. In 1969, the teams played what some dubbed “the Game of the Century,” a 15-14 Texas victory. Thirty-four years later, Arkansas Athletic Director Frank Broyles, then the school’s coach, claims he still hasn’t watched a tape of the “classic.” He also swears he will never read the recently released book on the 1969 matchup.

Why not? “We lost that game,” Broyles said.

* Penn State (1-1) limps into Nebraska this weekend with renewed questions about the state of Joe Paterno’s program. After consecutive losing seasons, Penn State rebounded to 9-4 last year, but this year’s squad looks marginal at best. “We’re not a particularly good football team right now,” the 76-year-old Paterno acknowledged this week. “We’re coming out to Lincoln with trepidations. We don’t have any false expectations.”

Is this the beginning of the end? Maybe not. The Nittany Lions are young on the offensive and defensive lines and should be much improved next year, which could give Paterno one last run at the conference title.