There seems to be a general consensus that the Irish don't deserve to go to a BCS bowl due to their drubbings at the hands of Michigan and Southern Cal.  I can accept that argument when other college bloggers say something like that, since they probably know what they're talking about.  Sadly, Peter King got involved in his Monday Morning Quarterback column:

Thanks so much, Peter!  If you're unfamiliar with King's going completely off-NFL and embarrassing himself, please just talk to the gentlemen at Kissing Suzy Kolber or spin by Fire Joe Morgan.  King's also told a detailed story of his colonoscopy and in his perhaps most offensive move, somehow suggested Good Night, and Good Luck was not worthy of a Best Picture nomination (Not only was it worthy, it probably should have won).

Well, let's look at who exactly the Irish are driving out of a BCS spot by their evil ways.  Obviously, the following teams are in:

Ohio State (Big Ten Champ)
Michigan
Boise State (guaranteed at-large bid, undefeated)
Wake Forest/Georgia Tech winner (ACC Champ)
Oklahoma/Nebraska winner (Big XII Champ)
Southern Cal (PAC-10 Champ)
Rutgers or Louisville (Big East champion)

That's seven of the ten spots right there.  Two more will come from the SEC, from some combination of Florida, Arkansas and LSU.  If Florida wins, it'll be Gators in the Sugar, Bayou Bengals in the Rose.  If Arkansas wins?  Most likely Florida, although LSU is pretty damn high at this point in time and might slip in despite losing to the Gators earlier in the season in the typical Florida game: lots of turnovers, stupid mistakes and Reggie Nelson decapitations.

That leaves one shiny spot left.  Right now, every pundit on the internet has Notre Dame taking that spot because A) They're qualified and B) The Irish equal ratings/money/all the good things bowl sponsors want in a year where you could be seeing Rutgers/Wake Forest and Boise State/Nebraska as two of your five BCS bowls.  Does that make it right that they go, or are they just super-totally-overrated? Let's look at who Notre Dame is behind in the BCS that they're taking a spot from.

Wisconsin

They're not really taking a spot from Wisconsin since the regulations that garner the Mythical National Championship System don't allow more than three teams from the same conference.  But if Notre Dame is overrated at ten, how overrated is Wisconsin at seven?  They've beaten nary a team anyone's afraid of, and seemingly went out of their way not to schedule anyone out-of-conference.  You want to reward teams that miss Ohio State in their conference schedule and play Buffalo in November, already after teeing off against San Diego State, Bowling Green and Western Illinois?  They haven't beaten anyone that Notre Dame didn't handle just as easily, although to their credit, they kept it close with Michigan.

Louisville

The only way Louisville doesn't automatically qualify is if Rutgers wins in Morgantown on Saturday, which looked really impossible going into last weekend, but coming out of it, not so much.  If the Scarlet Knights end up taking the Big East's automatic bid, I can understand some outrage over the Cardinals not going to a BCS bowl in lieu of the Irish.  Out-of-conference wins against Miami and Kansas State, which aren't exactly world-beaters, but hey, the U of L tried, a home win over West Virginia and about as quality of a loss as you can have.  Still, this is only a problem if Rutgers wins to be addressed at a later time.

LSU/Florida

If Arkansas wins the SEC title game, it's possible that three SEC teams end up in front of the Irish, unless Florida gets hammered like I'm sure pollsters have been waiting to do all season.  Again, BCS rules state only two teams from each conference, but if Florida gets left out, it goes back to the non-conference schedule.  Western Carolina in November?  Really?  Depending on what you think of the SEC - probably the best conference, but only by default at this point - Florida's win have alternating values.  If Arkansas loses the title game, they'll fall behind Notre Dame - they're one spot ahead now - and have three losses, so I can't imagine much being made of that, since they did lose to Southern Cal by 36 points.  

And really...

That's it.  Those are the teams that are ahead of the Irish in the BCS that would be losing a spot.  When you pay attention to the BCS rules - I know, I don't like to either, but until we burn it to the ground, we must heed them - the only team the Irish could even potentially take a spot from is Louisville, and that's a big WVU "if" at this point.

Since the pollsters properly flattened the Irish for their uninspiring-outside-of-Brady-Quinn effort in the Coliseum, you're going to need someone to blame for the BCS ranking of ten.  I'd take the computers, who have been biased towards the Irish since Knute Rockne took a train to Silicon Valley after the 1924 Rose Bowl and helped the robots free themselves from their human oppressors by implementing the forward pass.  You want to talk about the pollsters and announcers loving Notre Dame?  You're overlooking the true enemy: the computers.

Supporting Notre Dame's quest for a BCS bid with extreme bias.

(It's also possible the computers have Notre Dame where they are because they don't know margin-of-victory, but again, we're just benefiting from the rules, not any sort of bias.)

The teams directly behind Notre Dame who might need a spot?  Oklahoma, who would have three (two?) losses in a weak Big XII if they don't win the championship game, Rutgers, who would have two losses in the Big East and nothing too strong on the non-conference slate; and then Virginia Tech, who I'm not sure even the most avid Irish hater would argue deserves to go to the BCS over Notre Dame.

So while it's fun to complain that Notre Dame doesn't deserve a BCS bid, please inform me of a tenth team more credible for the spot that is allowed by the rules of the system, save for a one-loss Louisville team getting left out.  It's like the rule of not demanding a new coach/president/All-Star representative/Best Picture nominee unless you know who's doing the replacing or whose getting replaced: No Irish-to-the-Sugar bashing unless you've got a credible alternative other than scrapping the BCS.

Which, of course, Rakes would be a hundred percent in favor of.