Larry Brown Sports

Manti Te’o and Notre Dame have both issued statements in response to Deadspin’s story that Te’o's girlfriend is a hoax, and they both say the linebacker was a victim in the situation. You can read our summarized story on it, or go to Deadspin for the original, full story.

Here is the statement from Notre Dame, which came through first.

“On Dec. 26, Notre Dame coaches were informed by Manti Te’o and his parents that Manti had been the victim of what appears to be a hoax in which someone using the fictitious name Lennay Kekua apparently ingratiated herself with Manti and then conspired with others to lead him to believe she had tragically died of leukemia. The University immediately initiated an investigation to assist Manti and his family in discovering the motive for and nature of this hoax. While the proper authorities will continue to investigate this troubling matter, this appears to be, at a minimum, a sad and very cruel deception to entertain its perpetrators.”

Here is Te’o’s statement on the matter:

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Alabama proved that it is the best team in the nation by destroying Notre Dame in the national championship on Monday, but not everyone is prepared to admit that the Fighting Irish are no longer the No. 1 team in the country. Of course, by “not everyone” we mean that not all of the BCS computers were convinced by Alabama’s performance. How shocking.

As Eye on College Football pointed out, the Colley Matrix poll ranked Notre Dame first and Alabama second in its final rankings of the season. Yes, that includes the Crimson Tide’s 42-14 shellacking of Notre Dame.

How did this happen? For starters, the Colley Matrix Method does not take margin of victory into consideration. It adjusts for strength of schedule and “deservedness” to play in the national championship, while ignoring injuries and other factors. That helps explain why it would rank the Irish ahead of Alabama, but it provides further evidence for why the computer system is a joke.

This happens every year. One of the greatest example of BCS computer failure was when Oregon received low rankings from the computers a few years back despite destroying every team that came into its path. Most people agree that Alabama is the best team in the country, while others will tell you that there are a couple of teams that could have beaten them in the national championship game. However, we don’t need a computer to tell us that Alabama is a better team than Notre Dame. The Colley Matrix poll serves as another reminder that the playoff system can’t get here quickly enough.

Alabama blew out Notre Dame to make the National Championship Game pretty boring, but the rout was almost worthwhile solely because of how much it crushed Lou Holtz.

The former Fighting Irish coach was in disbelief after the game. He was defeated. He tried to find the words to explain Notre Dame’s crushing 42-14 defeat, but he couldn’t manage an explanation.

“Alabama was really far superior. How did it happen? I really don’t know,” a lost Holtz said.

“Notre Dame never even tried to run the football consistently. If you’re going to win a championship, you gotta be able to stop the run — which Notre Dame could not — and you have to be able to run the ball, which they did not try.

“Notre Dame did not play their best football game, and that’s probably the most discouraging thing to that university and to the team and the coaches as well.”

Keep searching for the right words, Lou. We’ll get back to you in September, and maybe by then you’ll realize that your Fighting Irish didn’t deserve to be playing in the game.

Jimmy Clausen is already prepared to watch his alma mater Notre Dame take on Alabama in the BCS National Championship Game next month. He has his shirt picked out and everything.

On Monday, Clausen tweeted a photo of the classy shirt you see above, which described the big game as a battle between the “Catholics” and the “Cousins.” If you don’t understand the reference, you’re probably not old enough to be reading even our family-friendly blog. Apparently the shirt offended enough people, because Clausen later pulled the tweet and sent the following apology:

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Lighting up the eight-foot tall “No. 1″ sign above Grace Hall on the Notre Dame campus is one of many traditions at a school that arguably has more than any other in the nation. Anytime a Fighting Irish athletic team is the top-ranked team in the nation, the sign is lit. On Sunday, the light was lit to recognize Notre Dame’s football team for the first time since 1993.

As WNDU (who posted the picture of the sign on Twitter) pointed out, this is the first time Notre Dame has been ranked No. 1 in the BCS era. The sign has not been lit since 2010, when Notre Dame’s women’s soccer team won the national championship.

Notre Dame’s path to the BCS National Championship game became a bit easier on Sunday when USC announced that Matt Barkley has been ruled out of next weekend’s game with a shoulder injury. If the Irish take care of business, they could very well end up facing Alabama in what would be a dream matchup for television ratings.

Chest bump to Dr. Saturday

Notre Dame is one of three undefeated teams remaining in college football at the moment, but that is not enough to allow the Fighting Irish to control their own destiny. The other two undefeated teams, Kansas State and Oregon, are currently ahead of Notre Dame in the BCS standings. Should all three teams win out, the most likely scenario is that Oregon and Kansas State would play in the BCS National Championship Game.

At the moment, Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly insists his team is simply focused on winning and not worrying about the BCS rankings. But if the season comes to a close and the Irish still have no losses, Kelly said he will spring into campaigning mode.

“I’m just not good enough to be able to do both,” Kelly said on SiriusXM College Sports Nation, via CoachingSearch.com. “I’m challenged enough on a day-to-day basis to keep my guys focused on Wake Forest. The rest of the stuff, let’s see how Notre Dame does. Let’s take Wake Forest, see what happens there, and then USC. Then, if we get to the point after USC that we’re undefeated, I’ll go on Oprah if I have to. Maybe I’ll come back on Sirius.

“But for right now, quite honestly, I’m just going to worry about winning football games.”

Notre Dame’s two remaining games are at home against Wake Forest and at USC. Kansas State plays Baylor on the road before hosting Texas, and Oregon faces Stanford at home before closing out the season on the road against Oregon State. Of the three teams, Notre Dame has the easiest remaining schedule. That being said, all three teams have their hands full.

My guess is the BCS standings work themselves out. The three remaining undefeated teams face a total of four nationally-ranked opponents before the conclusion of the regular season. I’d be surprised if an upset didn’t occur in one of those games. If not, Oprah had better open up some air time for Kelly to brag about his No. 3-ranked Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame beat Stanford 20-13 on Saturday after the referees reviewed a 4th and goal play in overtime and ruled that Cardinal running back Stepfan Taylor was short of the goal line.

The Cardinal handed the ball to Taylor, who had 28 carries for 102 yards, on their final play of the game. After initially appearing to be stuffed in the backfield, Taylor kept moving and wiggled his way toward the goal line. He waded his way over the pile of bodies and appeared to reach the ball over the goal line before being down. The referees said he did not score.

Mike Pereira, the former Vice President of Officiating for the National Football League and current rules analyst for FOX Sports, believes Taylor scored on the play.

“We have looked at ND/STA last play from every angle & feel that it is a TD,” he tweeted. “Progress was not ruled & runner was not down. Ball broke plain.

“The fact that the whistle may or may not have been blown is irrelevant. The play is reviewed and when the whistle blew has no bearing,” Pereira added.

Stanford fell to 4-2 after the loss while Notre Dame improved to 6-0.

Was it a bad call or not? I certainly think so. The Cardinal should have been attempting an extra point to tie the game.

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