(who is a long-time friend of mine), while this is very, very good news for Notre Dame, I'd argue that it is far from "surreal."

Now, if Notre Dame's football program had a fortnight like this, given its performance over the past 25 years, that might be "surreal."

I guess I can't really fault Lou for having his perspective warped by all the time he's spent watching and reporting on that underachieving football program.

But this isn't "surreal" -- this is very much the reality for the Notre Dame women's basketball program.

Definition per Merrill-Webster: marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream; also : unbelievable, fantastic (eg surreal sums of money)

I really don’t see a usage problem.

if you persist in considering what the program has accomplished and is accomplishing as "irrational" and "unbelievable," Marina is going to have you making sandwiches in the kitchen before long.

it does seem a bit surreal that the year we win title #2 is the same year that our All American post was out from the get go, then we lose 3 other key players including our starting PG to ACL injuries during the year. If someone told me all of those things at the beginning of the season, but don't worry we're still winning the NC, I'd assume they were drunk and want to know what they were drunk on so I could get into a similar state.