Bob Davie calls it one of the best stories this year in college football. And aside from the traditional haters of the Golden Dome, few would argue.

After all, Davie is a man who is supposed to be surfing the job boards by now. Alumni are supposed to be buying themselves a new coach. And the Notre Dame football team is supposed to be mired in mediocrity, looking to salvage its season by a trip to oh, say the MicronPC.com bowl.

But none of those things have happened.

	Bob Davie and Notre Dame are one win away from a BCS bowl bid.

Instead, Davie is a finalist for national coach of the year. The alumni -- most of them -- are smiling. And provided they defeat USC in the regular season finale Saturday, the football team will be staring at a $11-13 million payday in one of the four BCS bowl games.

"Honestly, this may be one of the first games I've played where I've truly felt pressure to win," said Notre Dame guard Mike Gandy, who has started 24 straight games. "I realize what's at stake with this game.

"It's the prestige. The prestige of having a great season, having all the hard work pay off. We just don't want to let ourselves down."

Win at USC, and it's not a problem. But Notre Dame's past two trips to Los Angeles have spoiled promising postseason aspirations. But the fact that the Irish are even in this position says something.

It says something about their character. About their pride. And about that eerie Irish magic that permeates the Notre Dame campus. This is a team that many thought wouldn't survive a treacherous early-season schedule. It's a team that lost quarterback Arnaz Battle in Week 2. In that same game, defensive end Grant Irons, a senior captain and emotional leader, was lost for the season.

Not to mention the fact that Notre Dame fell to then-No. 1 Nebraska -- in overtime -- that afternoon. A heartbreaker? You bet. But you never heard any whining coming from South Bend, Ind.

"One grenade wasn't going to take this whole thing down, nor was I going to feel sorry for myself and this team," Davie said. "It doesn't work that way. It is a bottom-line deal. I understand that. If you kind of start whining, then the team whines, too, and the coaches whine. That is why you don't want to go that way."

The bottom line is that should Notre Dame win Saturday, Davie feels his team's rags to riches story will put them over the edge for one of two or three at-large spots and a big BCS game payday. Lose, and the Gator Bowl will likely be waiting, $1 million consolation prize in hand. Thus, there will be about $10-12 million on the line against the Trojans.

Competing for those at-large BCS slots will be a number of teams higher than the Irish in the BCS rankings, including at the very least Virginia Tech, Nebraska and Oregon State. Should Oklahoma lose to Kansas State in the Big 12 Championship, they, too, would be in line for an at-large bid. But the Irish believe they have the glitz and fan base to put them over the top.

First off, though, they have to win in Memorial Coliseum, something they haven't done since 1992. In 1998, the 9-1 Irish were looking for a BCS berth, when a 10-0 loss to the Trojans derailed the Notre Dame cause. Two years earlier, a 27-20 loss ended the Irish coaching career of Lou Holtz and left the team 8-3. The team voted against playing in a second-tier bowl.

So this week, amidst the final week of a season that has seen just about everything happen, Davie is taking little for granted.

"At the beginning of the year, people said we had no chance," Davie said. "Then all of the sudden we win a few games and we're suddenly a lock for the BCS. The expectations have gone from unrealistically low to unrealistically high.

"Sure the results of this one are important, but the last six have been just as big in giving us this opportunity. I promise nobody wants to win in the country more than I want to win this game."

With a little twist of luck, the Irish very well could be in the thick of the national championship race -- that's how well they've played this year. In each of their two losses, Notre Dame led late in the game.

Against Nebraska in Week 2, Husker quarterback Eric Crouch dashed to the corner of the endzone for a 27-24 overtime victory, while two weeks later at Michigan State, the Spartans converted a late fourth and 10 by throwing a 68-yard touchdown bomb to win 27-21. It was the lowest of lows.

After that game, one in which Davie could see the pain on the faces of his seniors, he addressed the team, urging them to believe they could still reach the goal of a BCS bowl game.

"I know it's not over until it's over, but we thought we won that game to be completely honest," Davie said of Michigan State. "I was envisioning how good that bus ride home was going to be.

"So on Monday I talked to them. I didn't want to try and create any illusions; I just wanted to talk about what I felt in my heart and what I saw. It was a team with the potential to be real good, to overcome some of these nightmare situations. And I told them, if we can go on a run here, who knows, we might get the chance to play Nebraska or somebody like that again."

The result is a six-game winning streak that includes a 34-31 overtime squeaker against Air Force. In that contest, Notre Dame's Glen Earl blocked a game-winning field goal as time expired. It was the highest of highs and kept alive the dreams Davie conjured after the loss to the Spartans.

"The story of this football team, it's a remarkable story," Davie said. "Losing your quarterback, losing arguably your best defensive player and your captain, the way we have won games with different things, I think we are a pretty attractive team (for the BCS). So you're darn right I think we ought to go."

And, again, with a victory against USC Saturday, few would argue.

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer at ESPN.com. The Associated Press contributed to this story.