Thanks to a lucrative deal with the BCS, Notre Dame is looking forward to yet another BCS bowl game.
“We figure that after the beating we got from USC, it should be smooth sailing from here on out,” Notre Dame coach Charile Weis told reporters gathered after yesterday’s loss. “Although we know that we don’t really stand much of a chance against Navy, with Air Force, Duke and Stanford, that should give us an opportunity to really move up in the polls.”
According to BCS Rules, if Notre Dame finishes better than 8th in the BCS Poll, they are guaranteed a BCS bowl game and they receive payments for participating in the BCS even if they don’t actually play in a bowl game. Weis told reporters that with the number of upsets in the top ten this year, Notre Dame had a pretty good shot.
“When I talked to Kevin (White) last week, he was pretty sure he could convince the conference commissioners that it just won’t be a BCS season without Notre Dame in a BCS game,” Weis said.
Weis continued, “We’re thinking Fiesta Bowl would be nice. We really enjoyed getting beat by Ohio State in the ‘05 Fiesta. Sure, there were better teams that should have gone that year but we always bring in the ratings and that’s what this is really about isn’t it, ratings?”
Weis then expressed regret that Army was not on the schedule this year making it even harder to win the Commander in Chief Trophy, given annually to the academy team with the best performance against the other academies.
“We’ve been really proud to take home the Commander in Chief’s trophy for the last few years. This year, due to a mistake in the scheduling, we were forced to play much better teams than we would like. This made our push for a the Commander’s Trophy all that much more difficult, but we are confident that the president will make an exception for us this year, what with it being a scheduling mistake and all,” Weis said.
Weis also said that he liked the fact that with a 10 year coaching contract and guaranteed payment from the BCS, even if he didn’t win any games, it would be a successful season.
“That’s the beauty of coaching at Notre Dame. As a white guy with a lucrative contract, I’m pretty much set. There will always be Notre Dame fans, our Athletic Director sits on the management board of the BCS (which is always a plus in years like this) and we’ve got guaranteed national television coverage with NBC through 2010. The way I see it, we really don’t need to win again until at least November of 09,” Weis told reporters.
