BC played its way out of this one

After all, I say, was not his daughter lured to South Bend on the false premise that Notre Dame was a football school?

Bada-bing.

So here we are, on the doorstep of yet another Notre Dame-Boston College football game, the 19th in a series that began in 1975 with a surprisingly sticky 17-3 ND victory and will end with next year’s game. What? You didn’t know? Notre Dame doesn’t want to play anymore.

“We’ve talked about playing longer,’’ says BC director of athletics Gene DeFilippo. “But Notre Dame isn’t interested. Scheduling happens when things are mutually beneficial.’’

“I think we’ll play BC again,’’ says Notre Dame director of athletics Jack Swarbrick. “It just may not be continuous.’’

In terms of benefits, this has been a one-sided affair from the start. Boston College has profited enormously from this association with Notre Dame. But Notre Dame never really needed it, and the Irish have come to need it a lot less now that BC has won the last six games and seven of the last eight, evening the all-time ledger at 9-9.

Notre Dame is Notre Dame, and BC owes that institution a debt of gratitude for playing in the first place, let alone 18 times. BC is, after all, the only other Catholic school playing seriously big-time football. Notre Dame has never had anything to gain from the BC series, which cannot even be called a rivalry. For that to happen, Notre Dame would have to concede that BC has, in fact, become a true rival, and it is not about to do that.

It seems to me that the average Notre Dame fan’s reaction to the state of affairs with BC is to pretend it doesn’t exist. It’s as if the nine BC victories have never happened. As it is, you know very well that if anyone at Notre Dame had ever believed for one second that BC would stand 9-9 after 18 games, this series would never have been allowed to take place.

That the game ever came about at all is a testament to old-school values. Notre Dame AD Ed “Moose’’ Krause and Boston College AD Bill Flynn were friends; that’s all. There had to be pressures on Krause to ignore BC, but he graciously agreed to a game.

The first game took place on Sept. 15, 1975, before 61,561 at Schaefer Stadium in Foxborough. It was a 3-3 game at the half before Notre Dame asserted itself after intermission, winning, 17-3. ND coach Dan Devine heaped praise on Joe Yukica’s boys. “They could have beaten all but five teams in the country tonight,’’ he gushed.

But that was it, a one-off, as the Brits would say. The two did meet in the 1983 Liberty Bowl (ND, 19-18, over a Doug Flutie team), but the next scheduled game wasn’t until 1987 (ND 32, BC 25).

The series as we have come to know it began in 1992, and it did so in some controversy. Notre Dame annihilated a pretty good BC team (7-0-1 at game time), 54-7, and in so doing Lou Holtz ruffled many an Eagle feather by ordering a third-quarter fake punt with Notre Dame ahead, 37-0.

Imagine, therefore, the immeasurable satisfaction level among BC people a year later when David Gordon’s 41-yard field goal served the dual purpose of defeating Notre Dame for the first time and knocking the then-undefeated Irish out of a possible national championship.

Things have never quite been the same, with BC dominating the series for the last decade and a half, toppling both so-so Notre Dame squads and ranked ones alike.

Just having Notre Dame on the schedule has been a sensational boost for BC. When there is a home game, BC knows it will sell out for the season, with people willing to buy tickets for a game with Ball State they would never go to in order to have the thrill - dare I say honor - of attending that year’s Notre Dame game.

“Having Notre Dame on our schedule has really helped build our program,’’ acknowledges DeFilippo, who has been at BC since 1997. “It’s helped ticket sales, marketing, television coverage, and recruiting.’’

And the W count. Let’s not forget that.

Now there’s a new dynamic. Notre Dame is a wild-and-wacky 4-2 (which could be 1-5, 5-1, or even 6-0 with a little tweaking), and is coming off another one of Charlie Weis’s “good’’ losses to USC. He needs to make a BCS bowl, and if his team were to run the table, it would be 10-2 and that’s exactly what would happen.

But the circumstance is still fragile, and if BC, a substantial underdog, beats Notre Dame again, and if the Irish then start going the other way, would the Golden Domers who influence Notre Dame football decide that five years is enough of Charlie Weis?

Sooner or later, some of these people are going to say, “Wait a minute. We get the recruits who won’t even talk to BC. Why do they keep handing us our lunch?’’

Anyway, whoever is coaching Notre Dame in 2011 won’t have to worry about pesky BC. He’ll have Eastern foes UConn, Navy, and Pitt to prepare for, but not the only other Catholic school in America playing with the Big Boys.

What BC fans need is a little patience. DeFilippo and Swarbrick actually are kicking around the idea of resuming the series.

“Maybe by ’18 or ’19,’’ DeFilippo says. “That’s not definite, but we’re talking.’’

“I think he and I are committed to some future games,’’ Swarbrick insists.

Now if BC lets Notre Dame win one, who knows? The talks might heat up.

Bob Ryan is a Globe columnist and host of Globe 10.0 on Boston.com. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.