Andy

ND 85, Bellarmine 57 in the 2nd exhibition game. Luke Zeller scores 15 and grabs 9 boards, Russell Carter adds 14 and Luke Harangody snags 9 boards as well. Surprisingly, freshman Zach Hillesland started for ND and scored 7 points and 4 rebounds in 23 minutes. ND opens things up for real against IPFW on Friday.

The last time ND wasn't on one of the four major college FB networks was Halloween 1992 against Navy, a game that was only televised in the South Bend area. It will be the first time in 170 games without ABC/NBC/CBS/ESPN. Of course, I'm lucky enough to get CSTV, so I'll get to watch anyway.

That's a big stretch. Florida, probably, Auburn, probably, Arkansas, the way they've played the last month or so, probably, but I can't see LSU or Tennessee really dominating ND. I think either of those would be very good, close matchups. I will say that there's pretty much no way ND deserves to go to the title game.

Bulls off to a really nice start against the Bucks. Gordon's shooting well, Thabo's looking good, and Luol Deng might just be blossoming into a star.

SI's 50th anniversary poll of Illinois:

Just like to point out that Ball State has to play No. 3 Kansas (in Vegas) and No. 7 Georgetown (on the road) in the span of 4 days later this month. That ought to be fun. But then again, last time we played Kansas: http://www.bsufans.com/basketball/history/2001-kansas-headline.gif

ND against Bellarmine tonight in the last of 2 exhibition games before the season opens against Butler next Monday.

Louisville wins by more than 10. Only 3 teams have scored 10 points on the Rutgers D this year I would be funny if Louisville ends up losing to Rutgers or Pitt. Of course it would be funny if Michigan loses to Indiana or OSU loses to Northwestern. I think Ball State and Illinois took care of any chance that IU and NW had this weekend.

Evidently the computers are going to make ND beat USC and be 11-1 to clinch a BCS spot, which should pretty well quiet the "it's too easy for ND to make a BCS game" crowd.

FWIW, a much worse than Version 2006 ND team went to play a much better than Version 2006 Air Force in 2002, and ND creamed them. The score was only 21-14 because ND had two stupid turnovers in their own territory that led to TDs, but the Irish dominated the entire game. Air Force was top-15 coming into the game, unbeaten, and were actually favored for reasons that are completely unknown to me.

I thought it was humorous that the ESPN Bottom Line at one point posted the UC Davis/NDSU game as a 27-27 final. NDSU, by the way, has one loss, a one-pointer in the Metrodome against Minnesota, and also beat Ball State. They're a pretty good I-AA team.

It's safe to say we can assume Central Time for anything without one here on NSBB.

For what it's worth, this will be the first time a Notre Dame game hasn't been aired on ABC, CBS, NBC or ESPN in an extremely long time. I'll try to figure out when the last time was sometime, as right now I can't find that piece of information.

Matchups between Top 25 teams ------------------------------------ (3) Louisville at (15) Rutgers (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) (21) Oregon at (7) USC (10 pm) (13) Tennessee at (11) Arkansas (2 pm) Good Top 25 games ---------------------- Alabama at (12) LSU (8 pm) (16) Wisconsin at Iowa (12 pm, ESPN) Texas Tech at (17) Oklahoma (7 pm) (18) Wake Forest at Florida State (8 pm, ABC) Miami at (23) Maryland (3:30 pm) Nebraska at (24) Texas A&M (3:30 pm, ABC) Wyoming at (25) BYU (8 pm Thursday, CSTV) Top 25 mismatches ---------------------- (1) Ohio State at Northwestern (3:30 pm, ABC)* (2) Michigan at Indiana (3:30 pm, ESPN) (4) Texas at Kansas State (8 pm, ABC) Georgia at (5) Auburn (12:30 pm) S. Carolina at (6) Florida (3:30 pm, CBS) (8) California at Arizona (6 pm, ABC)* (9) Notre Dame at Air Force (4 pm, CSTV) Cincinnati at (10) West Virginia (12 pm) (14) Boise State at San Jose State (6 pm, ESPN2) (19) Georgia Tech at N. Carolina (12 pm, ESPN Plus)* Kent State at (20) Virginia Tech (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Duke at (22) Boston College (7 pm, ESPNU) Other games of interest --------------------------- Toledo at N. Illinois (7:30 pm Tuesday, ESPN2) Minnesota at Michigan State (12 pm, ESPNU) Purdue at Illinois (12 pm, ESPN Plus)* Syracuse at South Florida (12 pm, ESPN Plus)* Vanderbilt at Kentucky (1 pm) Temple at Penn State (3:30 pm, ESPN Plus)* Oregon State at UCLA (6 pm) C. Florida at Memphis (8 pm, CSTV) N. Iowa at S. Illinois (4 pm)

The win wasnt pretty but they most definetly didnt struggle. The had over 500 of total yards on offense. Ball State made 3 really big plays and thats it, take those plays away and Michigan dominated the game. The 2 late scores were with many 2nd and 3rd stringers on the field. This doesnt excuse Texas moving in front of Louisville, im suprised about that. The coaches comments you are referring too pisses me off too. Troy Smith threw for like 100 yards against Illini and they only outgained Illini by like 20 yards. I could argue they struggled more this week than UM. You're right. But I can't help but think that we'd be looking at a much different story if it was a Big East team, Notre Dame, or some other much-maligned team that had escaped Ball State by 8 points.

Number 1 was so good, I can't wait for 2 :D ND sucks. Their fans are more whiny than Sanoma and they don't deserve to be in any BCS bowl game ever, no matter what their record because they don't play in a conference. I have nothing to say. I just wanted this statement made as public as possible.

Eye roll time?? Ive seen a picture on the internet with Steve Breaston in the end zone at ND this year and ND fan in the front row is right in his face flipping him the bird. I guess as they get older they dont get wiser in South Bend. Because that never happens to an opposing wideout in other stadiums. :roll: The point is that it's ridiculous that little kids were telling us we sucked. We're 3-7 on a MAC schedule, of course we f&@&^ing suck. I don't need jackass 7 year olds telling me that. Especially when their own team was one questionable no-call away from possibly being tied with Ball Freaking State at home.

Just for fun, I hope the pollsters use some ridiculously convoluted logic to keep Tennessee ahead of ND. Go UCLA!

Stay far away from baseball, Sammy, and please stay the hell away from anything that might link you to steroids because I want to believe you didn't do it and that's easier to do when there's nothing but circumstantial evidence pointing at you.

Watching on TV, I've got to say that would've been a pretty ticky-tack call if they had thrown a flag. The fact that it was a very poor(maybe even uncatchable?) throw probably sealed the deal. Too bad they didn't pull it off though. Seeing a replay, you might be right. Not that I trust for a second that the Big 10 refs would have thrown the flag even if the ball was right there.

Oh, and 45-26 over a crappy team? What's Notre Dame trying to be, Purdue?

You're not taking this away from me...2nd-best game I've been to in person, other than ND-USC. First 3 quarters, all the UM fans were kidding around with us. "You're Ball State, we don't really care, we'll kid around." In the 4th quarter, they didn't say a word to us. Not one. We had 109,000-some people scared out of their freaking minds. BS Michigan stuff report I: A little kid behind us kept saying "Ball State sucks". I guess they train them while they're young. BS Michigan stuff report II: On 4th and goal from the 7 down 34-26, Dante Love was blatantly interfered with. No call. If the refs don't openly screw us, we probably make it 34-32 and send it right down to the 2-point conversion. BS Michigan stuff report III: After that blatantly bad no-call, I was bitching about it, and the UM fan in front of me said something like, "Get over it!" I couldn't resist saying back, "Would YOU get over it?" Idiot fans behind us were blaming the refs for the whole comeback...it was probably the first time in history that the Wolverines were called for more penalties than a visiting opponent, so obviously they must be getting screwed right? BS Michigan stuff report IV: The refs were screwing us on spots all day. But that's no big shock. Seriously...this is the best moment I've ever had and probably ever will have as a Ball State fan. Amazing. Nate Davis, our true-freshman QB, has nuts the size of Saturn.

For some unknown reason, Ball State decided to give Brady Hoke (13-30 career record as coach) a three-year extension through 2010.

Uhh, is it too late to trade some of the points we didn't need in Miami for the last two games?

I'd just like to note that since neither Sportsline or ESPN.com had a gamecast up at eight-forty that I gave up and popped in my Ultimate Jordan DVDs to get my Bulls fix for the evening.