NOTRE DAME — Brian Kelly was 15 minutes late to his noon press conference, but this Tuesday, he had a good excuse.

“Sorry I was a little late,” Notre Dame’s head football coach said as he approached the podium. “I was exercising my right to vote.”

Though he took part in his civic duty, Kelly avoids college football politics, specifically the fact that Notre Dame is undefeated yet still sits at No. 4 in BCS rankings.

He stays out of BCS talk partially because he wants to keep his players above the noise and partially because he doesn’t thinks his involvement would make a difference.

“It doesn’t help,” he said. “If it helped I’d be — you know me — I can talk all day. If it really helped, I would be on the stump for it but it doesn’t do anything. The only thing that does (help) is winning football games so I try to spend my time and energy on getting another win.”

Three undefeated teams sit ahead of Notre Dame in the BCS rankings — Alabama, Kansas State and Oregon. Kelly can understand why any of those teams might get a national championship bid over the Irish.

“If you told me that Alabama and Oregon are also undefeated, as well as Notre Dame, I’d say there’s a chance,” he said. “Those are teams that have been here and done that. Notre Dame hasn’t done it in awhile, and those teams are undefeated, too. I’d say, well, there’s a chance we might get left out.”

Kelly added that two years from now, when the BCS playoff system kicks in and the national championship picture broadens, he might become a little more involved.

“The way the BCS is set up right now, if you have more than two undefeated teams, you can’t control it,” he said. “Now in two years, when you have four teams that can play? Now you can control things a little bit more. But you can’t now. Maybe in two years you’ll hear me talking more about it.”

NICHOLS LIKELY OUT

Offensive tackle Tate Nichols is likely out for the season after a PCL knee injury. Kelly said Nichols will undergo further evaluation before a final decision is made.