Associated Press

The college football notebook ...Notre Dame can't afford to fire Charlie Weis.

No, not just because it might cost the school upward of $10 million to buy out the remaining seven years of the 10-year contract he was (unwisely) given after the Fighting Irish came within a Reggie Bush push of beating Southern California in 2005.

New athletic director Jack Swarbrick can't fire Weis because it would be a bad move. Another coaching change would give Notre Dame three this decade. That type of instability is rarely healthy.

Weis has consistently landed classes rated by the experts among the best in the nation, and he seems to be doing well on the recruiting trail again. Rivals.com currently has Notre Dame's 2009 class rated No. 9 in the country.

Next season, Weis' first two classes will be upperclassmen and his next two will be providing the depth necessary to win at least nine or 10 games.

ON THE RECEIVING END

For years, Steve Spurrier showed little humility and even less mercy as his Florida teams punished the rest of the Southeastern Conference.

It was Spurrier who nicknamed Ben Griffin Hill Stadium the Swamp — only Gators get out alive.

But there he was Saturday, on the sideline at Florida Field with South Carolina, taking the worst beating of his career. Urban Meyer's Gators pounded the Gamecocks 56-6.

This is Spurrier's fourth season in Columbia. The Gamecocks are better now then when he arrived at South Carolina and talked about accomplishing things that have never been done at school with no SEC championships.

But as long as Meyer is at Florida and Mark Richt is coaching Georgia, it's hard to imagine Spurrier ever getting the Gamecocks past those two powers and into an SEC championship game.

QUICK HITS

Northwestern (8-3) could be in line for its first New Year's Day bowl game since the 1996 Citrus Bowl, without or without a victory at home in against Illinois in its finale.

- Tulsa became third ranked team to allow 70 points in a game when it lost 70-30 to Houston. The others were Fresno State, No. 24 when it lost to Northern Illinois 73-18 in 1990, and BYU, which was No. 9 and unbeaten when it lost to Hawaii 72-54 in its 2001 regular-season finale.

LOOKAHEADThe BCS standings were unchanged this week. That won't happen next week.

No. 2 Texas Tech is at No. 5 Oklahoma. If the Red Raiders win, they'll clinch the Big 12 South. A victory against Baylor would make the Big 12 championship the only obstacle to reaching the BCS title game.

If the Sooners win, the Big 12 South race gets confusing with Texas, Oklahoma and Texas Tech tied.

No. 7 Penn State can clinch a Rose Bowl bid by beating No. 17 Michigan State in State College.

SYRACUSESYRACUSE, N.Y. — Greg Robinson's career as Syracuse coach started poorly and never got better. When he was fired with two games left in a fourth straight dismal season, even he figured it was coming.

"I don't think it really comes as a surprise to anyone. It doesn't come as a surprise to me," Robinson said at a news conference Sunday. "I ran out of time."

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