Notre Dame Story: At Large, in Charge

Notre Dame lost at home this year to a Michigan State team that finished 5-6.

The Irish have lost the last seven bowl games they have been invited to and haven’t played in a major one since the 2000 season, when they were crushed, 41-9, in the Fiesta Bowl by Oregon State.

Two-loss Fresno State almost defeated No. 1 USC on the road Saturday and earned a No. 16 ranking in all three major polls for it.

Two-loss Notre Dame almost defeated No. 1 USC at home on Oct. 15 and is ranked No. 5 in the Harris poll and No. 6 in the Associated Press and USA Today coaches’ polls.

Fresno is headed for the Liberty Bowl; Notre Dame is one victory from cinching a bowl championship series berth.

In case you missed it, Notre Dame is Notre Dame and nobody else comes close.

Notre Dame’s visit to 5-5 Stanford on Saturday, a lousy-looking matchup anyway you snooze through it, has bowl officials in a tizzy.

John Junker of the Fiesta Bowl is flying up to make sure Notre Dame doesn’t suffer a cataclysmic third defeat to a team that lost to UC Davis.

If Notre Dame beats Stanford to finish 9-2, the Irish are going to cash a $16-million BCS check -- and this is the last year they get to keep all the money.

Hearts in South Florida skipped a few beats this week when rumors floated Notre Dame might be more interested in the Orange Bowl now that it wouldn’t have to play Miami -- too much bad blood there dating to Catholics versus Convicts -- after the Hurricanes probably coughed up a chance at the Atlantic Coast Conference title by losing to Georgia Tech.

But if you want to follow the money, follow Junker.

And Junker will be in Palo Alto.

If USC and Texas play in the Rose Bowl, the Fiesta Bowl gets the first and the third pick in the BCS selection process.

After sounding out bowl officials, it seems likely the Fiesta Bowl will take 9-2 Notre Dame.

The Orange Bowl, picking second, could then nab Big Ten champion Penn State, and the Fiesta would have a choice between 10-1 Oregon or 9-2 Ohio State.

Oregon Coach Mike Bellotti and Athletic Director Bill Moos had lunch with Junker in the Phoenix area Tuesday, but if you’re a betting man in this scenario, take the Buckeyes.

Oregon’s best chance is to have Notre Dame lose to Stanford.

Then, the Fiesta could have Penn State-Oregon in a rematch of that decade-ago Rose Bowl.

What happens to Notre Dame will affect bowls from here to Jacksonville.

Because of the Irish, according to associate commissioner Jim Muldoon, the Pacific 10 Conference bowl picture is “clear as mud.”

Muldoon is a Notre Dame graduate, but his Irish are complicating things.

Notre Dame will affect the bowl pecking order of the Pac-10, the Big Ten, the Gator Bowl, which affects the Big East selection process, and the Fiesta and Orange bowls.

The power of Notre Dame is an elixir.

Having the Irish in your game, even with two losses, even when Oregon has a better record, is a bowl chairman’s muscle relaxant.

More than 30 million people watched all or part of USC’s 34-31 victory against Notre Dame in South Bend. This year the Irish’s return to prominence led to NBC’s highest game ratings since 1995.

The Irish sell like soap -- and that’s why bowls belly up to their bar.

This year, unlike some, the Irish have an exciting product to promote and a buzz-creator coach in Charlie Weis.

“They do turn on TV sets,” Muldoon said. “It’s hard to explain, but when they go on the road, it’s kind of like the circus coming to town.”

If Notre Dame wins Saturday, look for Ringling Brothers to end up in Tempe, Oregon asking what went wrong, and UCLA to wonder why it bothered taking up the sport.

Wily Wildcat

This space has been tough in the past on Bill Snyder, who coached his last game at Kansas State on Saturday.

Snyder was not soft and fuzzy. He did not particularly like the national media, and he ran his program in almost Iron Curtain isolation.

On a visit to Manhattan, before Kansas State’s epic win over Nebraska in 1998, a reporter could not help but be taken aback by the barbed-wire fence that protected the practice field.

Snyder, too, might have cost quarterback Michael Bishop the Heisman Trophy that year because he shielded him from the media.

But it was never about that with Snyder, who was a great coach, a man who took the worst football program in college history and guided it to 11 consecutive bowl games.

The problem the national media had with Snyder was Kansas State’s schedule, particularly in 1998, when the Wildcats came within a whisker of playing for the national title with a nonconference slate that included Indiana State, Northern Illinois and Louisiana Monroe.

Kansas State was beyond being a sad-sack loser at that point, and some of us thought it needed to upgrade the competition to be considered as a legitimate title contender.

Snyder ultimately got the message, and that secured his legacy with most.

Kansas State played USC in consecutive years, 2001 and 2002, and won both games, and Snyder is the only college coach who can boast a 2-0 record against Pete Carroll.

Snyder was intensely private but not as ruthless as he sometimes seemed to outsiders.

Southern Methodist Coach Phil Bennett, a former Kansas State assistant, recently related this story:

In August 1999, Bennett’s wife, Nancy, was killed by lightning while jogging.

A distraught Bennett walked into Snyder’s office to resign.

“My kids, they were 8 and 11,” Bennett said. “They had lost their mother. We buried her the week before we opened the season. “Everyone talks about [Snyder] being a slave driver. There is nothing further from the truth. I told him ‘I’m going to quit. I’m going to try and go back to Texas, find a job.’ He never looked up. He said ‘No, you’re not. We’re going to take care of you, and we’re going to get it done.’ ”

Bennett coached three more years at Kansas State before landing the SMU job in December 2001.

Hurry-Up Offense

UCLA is among several teams designated for consideration by the BCS for one of two at-large bids, yet it’s hard to find a scenario in which the 9-1 Bruins get a major bowl bid.

UCLA’s only shot, it seems, is Stanford upsetting Notre Dame, the Bruins beating USC on Dec. 3, and then hoping USC still qualifies for the national title game with a No. 1 or No. 2 BCS ranking.

With Notre Dame out of the at-large mix, UCLA probably would trump at-large candidate Oregon and go to the Fiesta Bowl. But other than that ...

The dark day for UCLA was Monday, when it fell from 11th to 12th in the BCS standings during an off week. Had the Bruins moved up a few spots, they might have been able to parlay a victory over USC to a No. 4 BCS ranking, which would cinch an automatic BCS berth.

* The Pac-10 is probably not going to have enough eligible schools to fill its bowl slots. Technically, the conference can get there if Stanford beats Notre Dame and Arizona State beats Arizona, but a Notre Dame defeat then probably bumps Oregon to a BCS game.

The bowl at the bottom of the Pac-10 chain is the Emerald, which is already looking at an ACC school, perhaps Virginia, to match against Utah.

If Arizona State defeats Arizona on Friday and USC beats UCLA next week, and the two BCS at-large schools are Notre Dame and Ohio State, the Pac-10 bowl lineup probably will be: Rose (USC), Holiday (Oregon), Sun (UCLA), Las Vegas (California), Insight (Arizona State).

* It was a show of respect that Fresno State (8-2) stayed at No. 16 in all three major polls. .

You could argue, though, that the Bulldogs deserved to move up considering their two loses have come against Oregon and USC, schools with a combined record of 21-1.

A look at the two-loss schools ranked higher in the BCS standings than Fresno State:

No. 6 Ohio State lost to Texas and Penn State, a combined 20-1.

No. 8 Notre Dame lost to USC and Michigan State (16-6).

No. 9 Miami lost to Florida State and Georgia Tech (14-6).

No. 10 Auburn lost to Georgia Tech and Louisiana State (16-4).

No. 14 Alabama lost to Louisiana State and Auburn (18-3).

No. 15 Georgia lost to Florida and Auburn (16-5).

Playing in the Western Athletic Conference, Fresno State is always going to have a tough time winning public opinion wars. Yet, that Pat Hill’s team played USC almost even should help the Bulldogs in next year’s preseason polls.

“We have a tough team,” Hill said after the 50-42 loss to USC. “We have 18 underclassmen starters, and we have a chance to build a bridge [to next year].”

With the addition of two more at-large spots in the BCS next year, a school from a non-BCS conference will be guaranteed a major bowl berth with a top-12 finish, instead of a top six.

“I want to see the Trojans win another championship and be in a position to play them again,” Hill said.

*--* DATE, TIME BOWL SITE CONFERENCES Dec. 20, 5 p.m. NEW ORLEANS Lafayette, La. Sun Belt champion vs. Conference USA Dec. 21, 5 p.m. GMAC Mobile, Ala. Conference USA vs. Mid-Americ an or WAC Dec. 22, 5 p.m. LAS VEGAS Las Vegas Brigham Young vs. Pac-10 Dec. 22, 7:30 p.m. POINSETTIA San Diego Colorado State vs. Navy Dec. 23, 5 p.m. FORT WORTH Fort Worth Conference USA vs. Big 12 No. 8 Dec. 24, 5:30 p.m. HAWAII Honolulu Conference USA vs. Western Athletic Dec. 26, 1 p.m. MOTOR CITY Detroit Mid-Americ an vs. Big Ten Dec. 27, 2 p.m. CHAMPS SPORTS Orlando, Fla. Atlantic Coast vs. Big 12 Dec. 27, 5:30 p.m. INSIGHT Phoenix Pac-10 No. 4 vs. Big East No. 3 or Notre Dame Dec. 28, 1:30 p.m. MPC COMPUTERS Boise, Idaho Western Athletic vs. Atlantic Coast Dec. 28, 5 p.m. ALAMO San Antonio Big Ten vs. Big 12 Dec. 29, 1:30 p.m. EMERALD San Francisco Utah vs. Pac-10 No. 6 Dec. 29, 5 p.m. HOLIDAY San Diego Pac-10 No. 2 vs. Big 12 No. 3 Dec. 30, 9 a.m. MUSIC CITY Nashville ACC vs. Big Ten Dec. 30, 11 a.m. SUN El Paso Big Ten No. 5 vs. Pac-10 No. 3 Dec. 30, 12:30 p.m. INDEPENDENCE Shreveport, La. Big 12 vs. Southeaste rn Dec. 30, 4:30 p.m. PEACH Atlanta Atlantic Coast vs. Southeaste rn Dec. 31, 8 a.m. MEINEKE CAR CARE Charlotte, N.C. Atlantic Coast vs. Big East Dec. 31, 10 a.m. LIBERTY Memphis, Tenn. Fresno State vs. Conference USA champion Dec. 31, 11:30 a.m. HOUSTON Houston Texas Christian vs. Big 12 Jan. 2, 8 a.m. COTTON Dallas Big 12 vs. Southeaste rn Jan. 2, 8 a.m. OUTBACK Tampa, Fla. Big Ten vs. Southeaste rn Jan. 2, 9:30 a.m. GATOR Jacksonville, Fla. ACC No. 2 vs. Big East No. 2 or Notre Dame Jan. 2, 10 a.m. CAPITAL ONE Orlando, Fla. Big Ten vs. Southeaste rn Jan. 2, 1:30 p.m. FIESTA Tempe, Ariz. BCS vs. BCS Jan. 2, 5:30 p.m. SUGAR Atlanta BCS vs. BCS Jan. 3, 5 p.m. ORANGE Miami BCS vs. BCS Jan. 4, 5 p.m. ROSE Pasadena BCS No. 1 vs. BCS No. 2

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