Should a 4-1 Notre Dame team be ranked?

Should Notre Dame be ranked now?

I was watching some of my favorite sports shows on ESPN when I listened to a story about how Charlie Weis, the head coach for Notre Dame, apparently feels that the Fighting Irish ought to be ranked.

Agree or disagree?

Should Weis keep his mouth shut or does he have a point?

Let’s review.

At this moment, if the AP poll had a top 35 list, Notre Dame would NOT be on it, with only 9 votes. If the USA Today poll had a top 30, Notre Dame would NOT be on that either, getting only 57 votes. But the great and mighty Notre Dame is 4-1, isn’t that worth a top 25 ranking?

I personally felt at the beginning of the season that Notre Dame is a lot of hype, and is a sad expression of how college football tries to force people to believe that a team is good only by name only. Granted I am not a fan of Notre Dame, and lost a heck of a lot of respect when they ran Tyrone Willingham out, and how they apparently give Charlie Weis far more credit for doing at BEST the same thing Willingham did.

Bit we do have a credible argument here. Why is a 4-1 team not even close to being recognized as a top 25 team. I mean, didn’t these same voters place Notre Dame in the top 25 at the beginning of the season, based off a paltry 7-6 record?

You guys remember last year, right? Where Lou Holtz on ESPN sat there with a bold-faced lie and said that Notre Dame would win the National Championship… mainly because the school made him an idol during the Michigan/Notre Dame game…

(hmm…idol…religious school….something not right there…)

You remember how the mighty Fighting Irish beat San Diego State, then Michigan to cement themselves in the BCS National Championship, right?

Right?

Oh wait, I forgot…they lost to Michigan State the next week. But they did beat Purdue and Stanford…oh that’s right, then they lost to UNC. And beating a hapless Washington team last year didn’t really mean anything, then they lost to Pittsburgh and Boston College back to back.

So much for that BCS Championship.

Notre Dame split the last 4 games, beating Navy, losing to Syracuse and Southern Cal before beating Hawaii. And yet, based on that performance, the voters felt that this was a top 25 team in the nation coming into 2009.

So let’s review what has happened so far.

Notre Dame beats Nevada at home 35-0, and everybody is blowing sunshine about how great Nevada is…remind me again how many bowls Nevada has won, or the last time they were RANKED?

We all saw how Michigan beat Notre Dame 38-34, so the Fighting Irish has a problem on the road. They get a home game vs. the Spartans and beat them 33-30... Reminds me of the movie, “The 300”…lots of threes….

And then Notre Dame goes on the road to beat Purdue 24-21 before winning last week against Washington at home, 37-30 in overtime.

And Charlie Weis is upset that this 4-1 team isn’t ranked.

Last year my argument against ND was that for all the talk about how good they were supposed to be, their schedule was suspect. Navy was perhaps the best team they beat last year, with all the others being cupcakes. Is it any different this year?

Consider the teams they played and beat so far, Nevada, currently 1-3. Michigan State, currently 2-3. Purdue, currently 1-4. Washington, currently 2-3. Collectively the teams Notre Dame has beaten are 6-13.…and yet this same team is BARELY beating them.

Charlie Weis whines about how they could have beaten Michigan and now be 5-0, but with the other close games, they could just as easily have been 1-4.

So now Notre Dame has Southern Cal coming to visit, and to be honest, this COULD be a game they might get, if ever they need one. A win here validates a top 25 ranking and could give them an inside track to a BCS bowl, possibly a national championship game.

But IF they lose, look at the rest of the schedule: A tough game vs. a 4-1 Boston College, although it is at home. A road game vs. 1-4 Washington State. A tough game vs. a 3-2 Navy squad. Two games vs. Big East contenders Pittsburgh at 4-1 and UCONN at 3-1. Then the season finale vs. a currently 4-1 Stanford.

We can’t be sure which 4-1 team is legit at this point, but at this moment Notre Dame has to face 6 out of 7 teams with a winning record. Last I checked, the Irish had a problem playing up to the challenge.

If Notre Dame sweeps all of this, then nobody will be laughing at the Irish. But how many close games can you win before a few fall against you? Do I think Notre Dame should be on the top 25? Based on the performance they have given, it is hard to believe they are one of the top 25 teams in the nation, but on grace I might give them #25.

If they win this game vs. Southern Cal, then they are squarely in, no doubt about it. But if they lose…looks like they might be in for a bumpy ride the next 6 or 7 games. With this in mind, perhaps it is better for Charlie Weis to be quiet and make his point on the field, rather than trying to get political about votes. Politics is how Notre Dame got rid of Tyrone Willingham, and that didn’t work out too well for them, did it?