Someonesuggested that the Egan v. Giuliani "Holy War" (the wood on today's NYPost) is passe. Probably so. What is really galling is this: Notre Dame is trying to dictate termsto Rutgers over a six-game Big East football matchup. The Knights responded by telling the Fighting Irish (NOT Trojans!) to take a hike. If we can play in a rinky-dink Midwestern town like South Bend, then you can play in an unpronounceable Lenni Lenape Jersey town like Piscataway. But Notre Dame is acting like, well, the pope. Who says Notre Dame isn't Catholic? Harvey Araton of the Times has the story...

For self-importance on the grandest of delusional scales, there is no entity in sports quite like Notre Dame football, winner of three games last season, routinely whacked like a piata in recent bowl games and not a national championship to its name in 20 years, or since the Gipper was about to hand off the presidency of the United States to George H.W. Bush.