We've certainly had our share of fun in these parts with the idea that Notre Dame might be a serious BCS contender, but for pundits taking the Irish's bid for a big-money bowl more seriously, Sports Illustrated's Cory McCartney offers a convenient (and familiar) argument in their favor -- the schedule:

Someone, whether Touchdown Jesus or the scheduling gods, has blessed the Irish with a slate tailor-made for a coach trying to regain a school's confidence and a program desperate to show the nation it still matters. The Trojans are the only forgivable loss on the schedule; that leaves 10-11 completely winnable games, more than enough to get the Irish into the mix for a BCS at-large berth. Weis' job could very well depend on such success.
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If this is truly Weis' make-or-break season, he couldn't have asked for better timing. But on the off chance '09 ends with another Christmas trip to Hawaii, he might want to purchase a one-way ticket.

For a pundit, this is a good way to cover your bases, proffering some hope for the beleaguered Domers while simultaneously offering an equally convenient opening for the haters if the Irish actually pull off the job-saving turnaround ("Yeah, anybody coulda done that against Navy ..."). A nice turn.

Make no mistake: Notre Dame will have to be vastly improved to come anywhere near a BCS bowl. When ND made the Series in 2005 and 2006, it was a two-loss (9-2 in '05, 10-2 in '06), top-12 team (No. 6 in the final BCS standings in '05, No. 11 in 2006) in both seasons. And where this year's slate may not be the murderer's row (nine bowl teams, five nine-game winners) that mowed down the overmatched 2007 outfit, it's not exactly Boise-esque, either. The Irish still get seven games against teams that were in bowl games last year, not including trips to sure-to-be-improved Michigan and rapidly improving Stanford. Like McCartney, I'd guess ND enters the favorite in up to 10 games, with Michigan State and Pittsburgh falling obviously into the "toss-up" category and only Southern Cal out of reach.

But to hit the necessary 10 wins, the Irish are going to have to break a very nasty skid against winners, now at 16 losses in the last 17 games against teams that finished above .500 dating back to 2006 (the one win was last year's 27-21 edge over Navy). No number is more unforgiving to ND's decline over the last two years than that one, and no number is more foreboding to its BCS ambitions. In all likelihood, there will be nine winning teams on this year's slate, the vast majority from the "Big Six" conferences. If they can't win seven of those -- which means turning recent losses against the likes of North Carolina, Boston College and Michigan State, to say nothing avoiding another stumble against Syracuse -- there won't be any whiff of the BCS. But if the Irish are able to turn turn those borderline games into a 10-2 regular season, given that they've at least been able to avoid the outright cupcakery that's invaded most of the schedules around the country, they'll probably deserve whatever comes from it.