Notre Dame, Polished on Field, Regains Golden Touch Jeff Haynes/Reuters Linebacker Manti Te'o is a Heisman Trophy contender for the Irish, who are 11-0 this season. Now that Notre Dame's football team is good again, like national-championship-caliber good again, the subject of relevance and how it relates to the Fighting Irish is invoked as often as Touchdown Jesus and golden helmets and the university's grand religiosity. This says something about Notre Dame and its place in college football. But what exactly? Those who study such things, who break down ratings and merchandise sales and opine on the landscape of college sports, believe it says a great deal. About the power of a brand. About the role of religion. About tradition and revenue, loyalty and interest, myth and fact. Whether Notre Dame is relevant again, or more relevant again, or not as relevant as before - the subject of much debate - the numbers indicate that it matters, that millions of dollars are at stake, and for more entities than the university and its broadcast partner, NBC. "There's a romance with Notre Dame," said Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports. It's like all is right with the world when Notre Dame is winning football games. Major sports franchises are like beachfront properties; they're not making any more of them. You can't just say, "All right, everybody, let's get excited about Louisville." If Notre Dame drew millions of eyeballs to television sets before, if it sold hats and T-shirts by the truckload, this season proved that when the Fighting Irish win - and win and win - more casual fans watch, more interested parties buy and more companies sponsor. The numbers - in ratings and dollars - speak clearly to that uptick. Notre Dame's stature as an iconic sports franchise, on par with the Yankees and the Dallas Cowboys and the Los Angeles Lakers, held strong even in the leaner years, which stretched for most of two decades, from 1993 to now. The Fighting Irish maintained a stubborn independent streak until this season, amid the tumult of conference realignment. Notre Dame even extended its landmark television deal after a losing season, which spoke to the power of its brand. Still, on-field relevance lagged behind off-field significance, as Charlie Weis replaced Tyrone Willingham, who replaced Bob Davie, who replaced Lou Holtz, the last coach who cemented Notre Dame's elite reputation. The university hired George O'Leary during that stretch, too, but dismissed him for an inaccurate résumé. The Fighting Irish claim 11 national titles but none since 1988. They boast seven Heisman Trophy winners but none since Tim Brown in 1987. Notre Dame, then, was relevant for all the wrong reasons and irrelevant where it mattered most. Then came this season, golden as it has been. Linebacker Manti Te'o emerged as a Heisman candidate. Coach Brian Kelly garnered consideration for national honors. And Notre Dame, ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1993, needs only to defeat Southern California on Saturday to secure its spot in the national title game, a streak-snapper that once seemed more like a birthright. Kelly, on a recent conference call, said he never studied the history of Notre Dame football before he took over in 2010. He said he wanted to prove that a program like his could compete for championships and graduate its players despite strict academic standards, that those concepts were not mutually exclusive. This season, thus far, has provided something of a referendum. "If there has ever been a year that validated everything, it's this," said Jack Swarbrick, Notre Dame's athletic director. For the Irish and everyone associated with the program, the events of this season coalesced at a most critical time. Some thought, for the very issue Kelly mentioned, that Notre Dame would never again reach college football's summit. Tim Rohan contributed reporting.