Sports

En-chant-ing night for Irish

LOS ANGELES — The cheer began in the upper decks of the L.A. Coliseum and rumbled down toward the field.

“BCS! BCS!”

Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o raised both arms skyward and screamed. Fighting Irish players raced off their sideline.

“BCS! BCS!”

Never before have Notre Dame fans been able to let loose with that cheer because the Fighting Irish have never been to the BCS National Championship Game or the Bowl Alliance Championship Game, or any major bowl since the end of the 2006 season, when they got drilled, 41-14 by LSU.

This cheer went on well into the cool California night. How poetic that a day that began blotted by a cottony fog ended on a clear night with a crystal statement:

Notre Dame (12-0) is the No. 1 team in the nation.

Of the 124 schools that play big-time college football, only two — Notre Dame and Ohio State — made it through the regular season unscathed. And the Irish, along with only UCLA and USC, do not play any FCS opponents.

“BCS! BCS!”

Te’o emerged from the Notre Dame locker room a good 30 minutes after the final play — a sack, fitting for a team that has leaned on its defense — to do television interviews. When he came through the tunnel and back onto the field, the three-quarters-empty Coliseum sounded like a launching pad.

“I got a great email the other day from a friend from New York that said he had watched last week’s game with this mother, who’s in her 90s,’’ Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick told The Post. “When he left her he said, ‘Get some rest.’ She said, ‘Oh no, I’m going to stay up and watch the Stanford-Oregon game.’

“That’s the quintessential story — that a 90-year-old woman was so, so jazzed about this she had to stay up and watch a game that didn’t involve Notre Dame but it had consequences for Notre Dame.’’

If Alabama beats Georgia in Saturday’s SEC Championship, college football will have its quintessential national championship game — the Fighting Irish versus the Crimson Tide. It doesn’t get any better.

There will be plenty of time to hype that game. Saturday night and into Sunday, when the Irish returned to South Bend, they found a campus in euphoric chaos. The chant of “BCS!” was picked up there, as if it had been FedExed overnight.

They never expected to have this party, this soon. Brian Kelly just completed his third season as head coach.

On the day he was hired, Kelly’s response to the question, “How long?” — the one fans like the 90-year-old woman in New York have been asking — was that the days of the five-year plan are over.

Over the summer, Kelly told Swarbrick he thought this team would be “really good.” But Notre Dame fans have hoped this before. Bob Davie is now coaching in New Mexico. Tyrone Willingham was the coach of the year in 2002. Charlie Weis went 10-3 in 2006.

Kelly’s first two seasons resulted in 8-5 records and staggering criticism. Some called for Kelly’s firing after Declan Sullivan, a student manager, was killed when the tower from which he was filming practice was blown down in heavy winds.

Others questioned if Kelly were the right man for this job after he was caught on camera using language so foul, Touchdown Jesus lowered his hands and covered his ears.

Swarbrick believed he had the right man — a program builder for a program that has tremendously high athletic, academic and moral standards. Did he ever think of making a change?

“No,’’ he said. “Someone asked me about that before this year started and I said, ‘He’s on the coolest seat in America.’ That’s why we picked up the option last year. We could see the progress all around us.’’

That patience, that belief, that resolve led to Saturday’s scene in the Coliseum and might lead to Notre Dame’s first national title since 1988.

“I always thought it was next year, for me,’’ Swarbrick said across the hall from the Irish locker room. “From day one I thought it was next year. But it’s cool, it’s cool to be ahead of schedule.’’

It’s cool to hear a cheer that has never been cheered before. Very cool.