Somehow amid the swirling chaos -- singing and dancing and so much more - there was a moment of calm and quiet at midfield. Jack Swarbrick found Brian Kelly. Both men laughed, then embraced.

"This game," Notre Dame's athletic director told his football coach, "defines your year."

Kelly replied: "It's the same game. It's who we are: Find a way."

And he's right. Notre Dame's 22-13 victory over USC, which propelled the Fighting Irish into the BCS championship game, could have been so many other games in a magical season. By now, the formula has become familiar: dominant defense, inconsistent offense, a grinding effort - and another win. But here, finally, is Notre Dame's definition of perfection:

"We're the best team," senior linebacker Manti Te'o said afterward. "We're No. 1."

For now, anyway. Alabama remains to be played. Or Georgia. Whichever, the SEC champion will gun for that league's seventh consecutive national championship, surprising no one. But Notre Dame is playing for its 11th - and first since 1988 - and who saw it coming?

Not Swarbrick. Four years ago, he stood in the same tunnel at the Los Angeles Coliseum, experiencing a far different feeling. "You guys had me pinned up against the wall," he said, referring to reporters. Charlie Weis would last another season as coach, but USC had just whipped the Irish 38-3, illustrating what seemed to be a vast talent disparity.

Could the Irish ever close the gap with college football's elite? That night in the Coliseum, could you have imagined this? "No," Swarbrick said. "No." Notre Dame as a national power was faded history.

"But then you watch this team," said Joe Theismann, the former Notre Dame quarterback. "It has guts, it has determination, it has talent, it has leadership - and it has playmakers."

And now, it has a perfect regular season and a shot at another national title. "It's a great day to be an Irishman!" Theismann said just after the final gun.

A defining moment? In a season like this, there were so many. A narrow escape of Purdue - Purdue! - in the second game. A victory at Michigan State the next weekend that by comparison seemed like utter domination. Sure, the Spartans proved to be mediocre, but at the time they were ranked No. 10, and Notre Dame - well, who really knew what the Irish were, or would become?

Kelly told Swarbrick over the summer: "We're going to be very good." But the athletic director said he believed it when the Irish beat Stanford in overtime Oct. 13, at the season's midpoint. In the previous couple of years, Stanford had been "more physical, bigger and tougher" than the Irish. Not this time, though the question will endure: Did Stepfan Taylor get into the end zone?

But that's part of the equation, too.

"You've got to believe that somebody is shining down on this football team," Theismann said. "You've got to believe that."

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