In my mind, our loss to USC doesn't sting as much

[bartshan-83]

Amidst all the "what if" talk among the 1-loss teams, I was thinking about Notre Dame's what if scenario as well. Some of you may dismiss this as being biased, but hear me out:

 

If Notre Dame had beaten USC, they would most likely be #2 in both polls and left out of the Rose Bowl.

 

My explanation:

 

At the time of that game, we were ranked #9 in both polls. The rankings (and I'll just use AP to save time) looked like this:

 

1. USC 5-0

2. UT 5-0

3. VT 6-0

4. FSU 5-0

5. Georgia 5-0

6. Bams 5-0

7. Miami 4-1

8. PSU 6-0

9. ND 4-1

10. LSU 3-1

 

Seeing how Miami jumped over Alabama by beating VT, I have no doubt that we would have gone to at least 4th, behind UT, VT and FSU. They would obviously have put USC behind us somewhere.

 

Now since then, VT and FSU have lost. That puts us at #2 behind Texas and above Alabama. It might look something like this:

 

1. UT 9-0

2. ND 7-1

3. Bama 9-0

4. USC 8-1

5. Miami 7-1

6. LSU 7-1

7. PSU 9-1

8. VT 8-1

9. Georgia 7-1

10. OSU 7-2

 

Here's the sad part. Since the BCS has been released, we have been ranked at least 4 spots behind our AP ranking: (Week 1: 12/16 Week 2: 10/15 Week 3: 9/14 Week 4: 7/11)

 

So I have little doubt that we would be right in the 4-6 range in the BCS right now. So we would probably be counting on a loss by one or more of: USC, Bama, Miami, PSU or Texas. We would probably need at least 2 of them to lose...which while possible, is unlikely.

 

So thats my "what if" story. And while losing that terrible game to USC was gut-wrenching, it pales in comparison to being left out of the big game. Not saying that I wouldn't still have rather beaten USC. I would have loved to smash them all over the field...for many reasons. Just saying the loss doesn't hurt as bad right now.