On Lou Holtz, Notre Dame and the BCS

Give Lou Holtz credit: On the day the AP Top 25 came out, he dominated college football talk with a simple prediction that Florida would play Notre Dame in the BCS title game.

Half his logic was not half-bad: Notre Dame's schedule is so easy that it could, in theory, cruise to an 11-1 regular-season and enough Coaches/Harris mojo to be BCS No. 2.

Half his logic was absurd, and it has nothing to do with Notre Dame: A 1-loss Notre Dame would have to beat out an unbeaten Texas/Oklahoma winner, USC, Penn State, Ohio State et al.

In other words, if any (BCS-league) team besides Florida goes unbeaten, they will be the clear choice for the 2nd BCS title-game spot, no matter HOW good ND's record might be.

And, chances are (despite recent history) one of those teams -- I think it will be Texas and probably one other (Penn State) -- will go unbeaten and make the BCS title-game pairing easy.

And it won't include Notre Dame.

But kudos to Holtz for figuring out how to take over the late-August college football debate -- even if everyone is saying he is a lunatic. He's not paid to be right -- just provocative.

(Meanwhile, here is my preseason Top 25, predicting a Florida-Texas BCS title game.)

By the way: Florida being the biggest preseason AP poll favorite ever is one more data point for the "Best Team Ever?" debate, if -- IF -- the Gators can win out this season.)

-- D.S.