Notre Dame was the team I most disliked, in my youth. They won too often, their fans were smug, their sense of entitlement was off the charts. The Knute Rockne stuff, and the “win one for the Gipper” fiction, and their being good every year … all of it bugged me, especially as a SoCal kid who was a partisan of both UCLA and USC.

One of the most satisfying football outcomes I can recall, as a child, was the 1964 edition of the classic USC-Notre Dame rivalry, when the Trojans trailed 17-0 at half but won 20-17. I remember listening to the game on a radio on the kitchen counter at the family home, and being so antsy in the final minutes that I stood and paced next to the radio for the whole of the second half. I was barely 11 years old. I was giddy when Rod Sherman caught the winning touchdown pass.

The second-most-memorable Trojans-Irish outcome of my youth occurred 10 years later. USC and Notre Dame, again at the Coliseum, the Irish taking a 24-0 lead. USC scored just before the half to make it 24-7, but I could see where this was going and my brothers and I decided to go play basketball in the church gym. When we came out of that media black hole (it was 1974), and heard that the game ended 55-24, I at first was glad I had not stayed around to watch the Trojans lose by 31 … but the game had, in fact, been won by USC, who put up a double-nickel after conceding the first 24.

What I missed seeing live I watched via replay many times in subsequent years. Pat Haden to J.K. McKay always made me smile.

So, what does this have to do with Notre Dame about half a century later?

After a decade of limited relevance, Notre Dame is back: 12-0, ranked No. 1 and headed for the BCS championship game after defeating USC 22-13 today.

All those years of wishing ill on Notre Dame … this year I found myself actually pleased that the Irish program had revived. Even way back when, when they won too much, they were not known for being a dirty program. Ever. No major scandals. Their players seemed like good citizens. I had to concede that. Always.

Notre Dame’s decline in the past two decades seemed a lot about refusing to lower their standards, and paying a price on the football field. They were becoming the Stanford of the Midwest — a good school that wouldn’t recruit just anybody, leaving the Irish at a disadvantage and, like the Cardinal (until the past few years), perhaps doomed to one good-ish season out of every three or four.

Having “seen” this season from across the Atlantic, I cannot speak with any authority about the current Notre Dame team, but my sense is that they are a group of guys unlikely to end up on police blotters. I also sense that the whole is greater than the sum of their individual parts. And I admire that — especially when this particular “whole” is a program that hasn’t really been dangerous since Lou Holtz was the coach.

They played a good schedule but not a great one. Just enough to make sure they were No. 1 if they got through unbeaten.

Defeating Stanford in overtime, a nice win. Beating both Michigans, even if neither is what they once were … tidy. BYU is never a day at the beach, and beating Oklahoma in Norman still means something. USC has some players.

Still, their 12 victories are not overwhelmingly impressive. Not like Alabama’s 11-1 after wading through the SEC. The Irish needed triple overtime to beat Pitt, were only a field goal better than a 7-5 BYU and let a USC team without Matt Barkley hang around. I am not convinced this Notre Dame team is a great one.

I am among the majority, I’m sure, in forecasting doom for Notre Dame in the BCS title game, January 7 in Miami, especially if Alabama is the opponent. The joyless Nick Saban and the Tide represent the pinnacle of modern SEC football machinery, an ethically challenged collection of way stations for NFL players.

Two years from now, how many of these Notre Dame guys will be playing on Sundays? And how many Alabama guys will be?

The allure of Notre Dame Revived vs. Alabama at high tide will make for compelling pregame debates, but I fear the game will be ugly and lopsided: 31-7 seems a reasonable outcome.

All these years later, however, I hope Notre Dame stays close. It is fun to believe that a school can (apparently) assemble a team the “right” way and be good. Even Notre Dame.

It’s also good for college football to see one of the old greats rise up again. And none of the old greats are greater than Notre Dame was.

Those guys going one-on-one with Alabama’s future pros? Hard to imagine it turning out well.

Though, and I can hardly believe it, given my former antipathy for All Things Irish, I would like to see them win.

Returning to my natural state of loathing Notre Dame … it will be a lot easier if they somehow finish as champions.