Andy

Even though I'm frustrated as all hell right now, that sequence was funny. I've never seen a RB do that before in my life.

I'm impressed at how every single ND o-lineman manages to commit a penalty every game. Spreading the wealth.

Rees isn't a good QB. You have to go to Crist. Crist isn't the answer. He's not accurate, and precise accuracy is exactly what ND needs for the kind of offense they run. That's what's so frustrating - when his timing is on and he's hitting receivers, Rees looks like a near-perfect fit, but he keeps making dumb decisions. Crist can't make those throws. That's why I wonder what's going on with Hendrix, who's in his 3rd year on campus at this point.

Man, Tommy Rees really likes turning the ball over. 3 complete games now, and NINE turnovers. I'm starting to wonder how far Andrew Hendrix could possibly be from being ready.

And the Pac-12 decides NOT to expand. One would think this kills the Big 12 migration...for now.

Big East's 7 remaining football members have apparently pledged to stick together (not that most of them have a choice) and be aggressive in courting new members. Just go get Temple and UCF and accept being a further weakened football league (the basketball effect would actually be worse if that happened, obviously).

I have a feeling you'll win more than two games this year. Most likely. Just saying this is one of the two we should win on paper. Brutal schedule for Carolina this year. (Actually, we had 3 games we 'should' win on the schedule but Arizona was one of them.)

Who would it be? Kansas Kansas St Iowa St Baylor Louisville Cincinatti UConn USF Rutgers TCU WVU I'd call it a slightly better Conference-USA. That conference isn't any worse than the Big East as it stands now - it's probably better, actually.

Yay, this is one of two games we should win. I imagine Gabbert will be starting against Newton.

So what are we calling the Big 12/Big East merger conference?

Pitt and Syracuse can't contractually leave the Big East until June '14 and the Big East - unsurprisingly - is holding them to that. I'm guessing a quicker exit will be negotiated somehow, but that's the news for now.

I personally quite enjoy that I can't disagree with the "ND has, has, HAS to join the B1G" groupthink that SSR and most of this and other boards have without being shredded for some sort of grudge against the conference. Yes, the B1G is not my favorite league in the universe, but Mariner's Revenge has echoed most of the reasons I have for preferring the ACC (the biggest being that they'd probably let ND keep the NBC contract). If the B1G was the best thing for Notre Dame, I'd be all for it, but there's very little reason to believe it is outside of regional convenience, and we've seen that that means damn near nothing. One thing that MR hasn't yet said but I suspect is in the works is at least one of the Michigan schools trying to drop ND entirely once the B1G goes to a 9-game schedule. Like he said, UM already wants a break from the series and MSU is taking a break from ND in 14-15 as well. This is not a good thing, but ND could easily replace them with more of the travel games that MR likes with schools that don't have as much history with ND as either of those two but at least still very much on the radar (more games against Texas, for instance, although that would be an absolute best-case scenario).

Yeah, I'd prefer the ACC if it came down to it. But I don't expect the PTB at the school to see it that way.

Top 25 games ------------------------ Missouri at (1) Oklahoma (8 pm, FX) (2) LSU at (16) West Virginia (8 pm, ABC) (14) Arkansas at (3) Alabama (3:30 pm, CBS) Tulsa at (4) Boise State (8 pm, CBS College) South Dakota at (6) Wisconsin (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) (7) Oklahoma State at (8) Texas A&M (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) (9) Nebraska at Wyoming (7:30 pm, Versus) (10) Oregon at Arizona (10:15 pm, ESPN2) (11) Florida State at (21) Clemson (3:30 pm, ESPN) Vanderbilt at (12) South Carolina (7 pm, ESPN2) (13) Virginia Tech at Marshall (3:30 pm, CBS College) (15) Florida at Kentucky (7 pm, ESPN) Rice at (17) Baylor (8 pm, FSN Midwest) UTEP at (18) South Florida (7 pm, ESPN3) Portland State at (20) TCU (2 pm) San Diego State at (22) Michigan (12 pm, BTN – Regional) (23) USC at Arizona State (10:15 pm, ESPN) Western Michigan at (24) Illinois (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) North Carolina at (25) Georgia Tech (12 pm, ESPN) Games of interest ------------------------ Eastern Michigan at Penn State (12 pm, ESPN2) Central Michigan at Michigan State (12 pm, ESPNU) UL Monroe at Iowa (12 pm, BTN - Regional) Georgia at Ole Miss (12 pm, SEC Network) Notre Dame at Pittsburgh (12 pm, ABC) Army at Ball State (2 pm, ESPN3) Colorado at Ohio State (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN2) Kansas State at Miami (3:30 pm, ESPNU) UCLA at Oregon State (3:30 pm, FSN Prime Ticket) Tulane at Duke (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Cal Poly at Northern Illinois (3:30 pm) Florida Atlantic at Auburn (7 pm, ESPN3) North Dakota State at Minnesota (7 pm, BTN) Indiana at North Texas (7 pm, ESPN3) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- NC State at Cincinnati (8 pm Thursday, ESPN) Central Florida at BYU (8 pm Friday, ESPN) SMU at Memphis (12 pm, FSN/CSN) Toledo at Syracuse (12 pm, ESPN3) Temple at Maryland (12:30 pm, ESPN3) Massachusetts at Boston College (1 pm, ESPN3) Bowling Green at Miami (OH) (1 pm, ESPN3) Ohio at Rutgers (2 pm, ESPN3) Southern Miss at Virginia (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Middle Tennessee at Troy (4 pm, ESPN3) New Mexico State at San Jose State (4 pm, ESPN3) Fresno State at Idaho (5 pm, ESPN3) Connecticut at Buffalo (6 pm, ESPN3) UL Lafayette at Florida International (6 pm, ESPN3) Louisiana Tech at Mississippi State (7 pm, ESPNU) Central Arkansas at Arkansas State (8 pm, ESPN3) Colorado State at Utah State (8 pm, ESPN3) Georgia State at Houston (8 pm, ESPN3) UC Davis at Hawaii (12 am Sunday, ESPN3)

If it is, it is. It sure seems like unless the Big East operates everything perfectly (and even if they do) it might fall apart.

I'm usually not one for things like facial expressions and demeanor, but Cam Newton's "damn it, I'm pissed off now" mode on Carolina's last scoring drive was awesome. He didn't even look happy after he went in for the rushing TD. He made some mistakes obviously, but for a kid with absolutely no running game and one NFL-caliber receiver, to throw for 432 against Green Bay is otherworldly. If nothing else, Carolina will be competitive in most games this year, which is much more than you could say last year. Unfortunately, we might have the most murderous schedule in the league, so 5-6 wins might be all that's possible.

USC, Ga Tech and Clemson also in. Mich State, ASU and Auburn also out.

This is not good. The Big East needs to move quickly - if UConn and Rutgers are really following to the ACC, then KU, Mizzou, KSU and somebody else will be musts.

So we've found the antidote for ND's turnover problems - just force as many turnovers as you surrender and we'll be fine. Most impressive ND win since 2006 Penn State - that's not saying much, though. Also, there's this guy, who happens to be a true freshman, named Aaron Lynch who had more QB hurries today than anyone on ND had for the entire 2010 season - against the best O-line ND is likely to face in 2011. So he's probably going to be ok.

This LSU/Miss St game is either a great defensive slugfest or a craptastic exhibition of offensive play depending on one's view.

Indinapolis can't show a FOX game at 1:00 because of the Colts being at home. That's why you see little pockets of green also in Detroit, Nashville, Buffalo and NYC. The Dallas game is the only option for those markets. Yep. It was absolutely maddening going to school at Ball St, not caring about the Colts and not getting any other 1 pm options because of the protected-territory rule.

I was about to say I knew there was a Ram who played 20 seasons then retired because that was a big deal when I was a kid. But I couldn't remember the name.

98.7%, inconceivable Denard should thank his lucky stars that none of the ESPN types have pointed out in their slobbering that he pretty much spent the whole game throwing up dead ducks into double coverage and ND DBs were polite enough to run themselves out of easy INTs repeatedly.

Appreciate the support EJ, but Michigan State is much better than either Michigan or USF. It won't take us turning the ball over 5 times for them to beat us.

Alright, so far as I can tell, the Texas/UCLA and Washington/Nebraska games will be ABC/ESPN reverse mirror style coverage. Feel free to tell me if I have erred there. Top 25 games ------------------------ (1) Oklahoma at (5) Florida State (8 pm, ABC) North Texas at (2) Alabama (7:30 pm, ESPN3) (3) LSU at (25) Mississippi State (7 pm Thursday, ESPN) (4) Boise State at Toledo (8 pm Friday, ESPN) (6) Stanford at Arizona (10:45 pm, ESPN) (7) Wisconsin vs Northern Illinois – in Chicago (3:30 pm, ESPN3) (8) Oklahoma State at Tulsa (10 pm, FSN/CSN) Idaho at (9) Texas A&M (7 pm) Washington at (10) Nebraska (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN) Navy at (11) South Carolina (6 pm, ESPN2) Missouri State at (12) Oregon (3:30 pm) Arkansas State at (13) Virginia Tech (4 pm, ESPN3) Troy at (14) Arkansas (7:30 pm, ESPN3) (15) Michigan State at Notre Dame (3:30 pm, NBC) Tennessee at (16) Florida (3:30 pm, CBS) (17) Ohio State at Miami (7:30 pm, ESPN) (18) West Virginia at Maryland (12 pm, ESPNU) Stephen F. Austin at (19) Baylor (7 pm) Florida A&M at (20) South Florida (7 pm, ESPN3) (21) Auburn at Clemson (12 pm, ABC) (22) Arizona State at Illinois (7 pm, BTN) UL Monroe at (23) TCU (2 pm, The Mountain) (24) Texas at UCLA (3:30 pm, ABC/ESPN) Games of interest ------------------------ Iowa State at Connecticut (8 pm Friday, ESPN2) Penn State at Temple (12 pm, ESPN) Pittsburgh at Iowa (12 pm, ESPN2) SE Missouri State at Purdue (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Eastern Michigan at Michigan (12 pm, BTN – Regional) Ole Miss at Vanderbilt (12 pm, SEC Network) Kansas at Georgia Tech (12:30 pm, ESPN3) Duke at Boston College (12:30 pm, ESPN3) Northwestern at Army (3:30 pm, CBS College) Miami (OH) at Minnesota (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) South Carolina State at Indiana (3:30 pm, BTN – Regional) Louisville at Kentucky (7 pm, ESPNU) Buffalo at Ball State (7 pm) Western Illinois at Missouri (7 pm) Kent State at Kansas State (7 pm, FCS Central) Syracuse at USC (8 pm, FX) Other nationally available games --------------------------------------- Central Michigan at Western Michigan (12 pm, ESPN3) Wyoming at Bowling Green (12 pm, ESPN3) Coastal Carolina at Georgia (12 pm, ESPN3) Colorado vs Colorado State – in Denver (1:30 pm, FSN/CSN) Akron at Cincinnati (3:30 pm, ESPN3) Texas Tech at New Mexico (3:30 pm, Versus) Virginia at North Carolina (3:30 pm, ESPNU) Nevada at San Jose State (4 pm, ESPN3) Central Florida at Florida International (6 pm, ESPN3) South Alabama at NC State (6 pm, ESPN3) Houston at Louisiana Tech (7 pm, ESPN3) Indiana State at Western Kentucky (7 pm, ESPN3) Marshall at Ohio (7 pm, ESPN3) UTEP at New Mexico State (8 pm, ESPN3) Utah at BYU (9:15 pm, ESPN2) North Dakota at Fresno State (10 pm, ESPN3)