But if the Rose Bowl picks Notre Dame, the conference commissioners who run the BCS could invoke a never-used provision overriding the pairing.

“It’s been on the books since the outset, and that’s done after the teams have been selected,” BCS coordinator Mike Slive said during a Wednesday teleconference. “We have the process that we can look at that if we want to. Up to now, there hasn’t been any inclination on the part of the commissioners to make the change … for the good of the game or anything else.”

• COLLEGE FOOTBALL: Rose Bowl pick could be thorny for U-M