I was talking about this with a friend, and based on rational analysis of results to date, we think this probably will be a 12:30 pm Pacific time start. Both teams sit at 1-3. The schedules for each are below. We concluded, based on results to date, that ND will likely not be better than 6-5 going into the game but that it's hard to see SC being better than 5-6. Take a look and tell me what you think each team will be, and why (our analysis below)

Notre Dame
Syracuse [neutral]
@NC State
Stanford
[bye]
Miami
Navy (neutral)
Army (neutral)
Virginia Tech
@USC

Southern Cal
Arizona State
Colorado
@Arizona
[bye]
California
Oregon
@Washington
@UCLA
Notre Dame

For ND: we see wins the next two and a loss to Stanford leading to 3-4 at the break; wins over the service academies but a split against Miami and Virginia Tech; that leads us to 6-5.

For SC: we see a loss at UW and either to Oregon or UCLA; that's 5 losses; and we see them slipping up against one of the other 4 teams on their schedule; that's 5-6.

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The 2007 ND-UCLA game was a once in a lifetime experience, I hope