Notre Dame Wakes Up the Echoes

Most of my sports fan friends seem to firmly be in the "hate Notre Dame" camp, but I'm among those who believe that the sport of college football - and any sport, for that matter - is enriched when teams like Notre Dame are great.  Notre Dame and (in all likelihood) Alabama in the National Championship game?  Who could possibly have a problem with that?

Right now it's fashionable to say that Notre Dame doesn't deserve to be in the championship game.  While it's true that they won ugly a lot of the time, it's hard to argue with 12-0.  And it's not like they had the softest schedule in the world - six bowl eligible teams (would be seven, had Miami not self-imposed a bowl ban), and two of the country's best teams - Stanford and Oklahoma. 

I see no reason why the Irish can't beat either Alabama or Georgia in the title game.  It reminds me of the 1973 season, when the Irish had a similar team go up against a heavily-favored Alabama squad in the Sugar Bowl.  That one ended up 24-23 in favor of Notre Dame, and we may be looking at a similar score in January.