Andy

Notre Dame with a much-less-than-impressive 65-54 win over Loyola Marymount, who was horrible last season. A road win is a road win, and Luke Harangody had 27 and 17, but playing like that again, even against IU, could spell major trouble. Kyle McAlarney went scoreless for what I'm sure is the first time since at least his freshman year and possibly ever.

I believe he was saying was if Texas/OU/Texas Tech played each other in the National Championship Game against each other that Mizzou being the 3rd Big 12 team would be left out as 3 teams are not allowed in, and the two teams in the NC Game take precident. Oh, gotcha. Misread. But that would require one or both of Florida and Alabama losing to a vastly inferior team prior to the SEC title game. I'm not betting on it.

Does no one get that conference champions get an automatic bid no matter what their rank, SOS, or anything else? Mizzou wins the Big 12 title game, they are in the Fiesta Bowl. Done. Not negotiable. I've heard innumerable people the last few weeks talk about how a big-conference champion could get left out if they fall below a certain rank. It doesn't happen. I don't know where people got this idea.

Yeah, headbanging over ND having an auto-bid in the top 8 is kind of insane. If ND's in the top 8, that means they won probably at least 10 games against a schedule that is usually (not this year, but usually) better than the average big-conference school's. And Stuy, we will certainly be eligible to be picked if we win out. The problem is that many more deserving and attractive teams will also be eligible.

Not sure, but I think this win clinched the MAC conference championship for Ball State. So it's a little bit of a big deal. They haven't clinched yet. They still need to beat Western Michigan next week to win the MAC West outright. If they lose and Central Michigan wins their game next week Ball State, Central Michigan, and Western Michigan will all be tied with one conference loss. And since they's all be 1-1 against each other I'm not sure how the tie would be broken. Here you go: http://www.mac-sports.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9400&KEY=&ATCLID=1148024 Looks like it'll be Central Michigan in the title game. You go all the way to the 4th tiebreaker to determine that. So to try to translate that wording into English, it looks like the deciding factor is which team's opponents from the opposite division had a better record, and CMU would win solely because the schedule-makers had them playing the first-place team in the East (Buffalo) but Ball State didn't play them. Hopefully Ball State makes it a moot point by winning next week. The most surprising part of that is that playing Buffalo could actually positively impact one's SOS. Western Michigan is a pretty good team, but they don't have the same scary threats as CMU does. Add that to home field, and I think BSU gets it done next week, obliterates Buffalo in the MAC title game and let the chips fall where they may from there.

All big-conference champs get in regardless of rank. At-large teams have to be in the top 12 (or in the top 14 if any big-conference champs are outside the top 14).

Essentially no. Utah over BYU, Nevada over Boise, and your boys at UM must all win this weekend for there to be one. Without looking at the standings, wouldn't BYU jump you with the win? Ball St. needs BYU to lose so they'd jump ahead of BYU. but I can't see the BCS taking two non-BCS schools If Ohio State lost to Michigan, they wouldn't have a choice. No one would be eligible from the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big East or ACC. (This also assumes PSU wins Saturday and Oregon State loses again to keep USC from the at-large pool) a lot of assumptions since Oregon St. has 2 winnable games left and OSU is favored by 3 touchdowns I think Oregon State will lose one of their last two. Obviously OSU losing is a big leap. I'm just stating what needs to happen for BSU to get in.

Essentially no. Utah over BYU, Nevada over Boise, and your boys at UM must all win this weekend for there to be one. Without looking at the standings, wouldn't BYU jump you with the win? Ball St. needs BYU to lose so they'd jump ahead of BYU. but I can't see the BCS taking two non-BCS schools If Ohio State lost to Michigan, they wouldn't have a choice. No one would be eligible from the Big Ten, Pac-10, Big East or ACC. (This also assumes PSU wins Saturday and Oregon State loses again to keep USC from the at-large pool)

Essentially no. Utah over BYU, Nevada over Boise, and your boys at UM must all win this weekend for there to be one. Without looking at the standings, wouldn't BYU jump you with the win? Ball St. needs BYU to lose so they'd jump ahead of BYU. Yeah. Our only chance is for BYU and Boise to fall behind us (I think a loss would do the trick in both cases), with Ohio State losing to UM to eliminate any further eligible teams from a big conference. I think three wins over teams with winning records to end the year would be enough to push us past TCU without them losing. In that scenario, we'd be the 2nd best 'outsider', and no one else would be eligible to be picked when the Orange's final selection came up besides us. But as I mentioned, that's way long odds.

Essentially no. Utah over BYU, Nevada over Boise, and your boys at UM must all win this weekend for there to be one.

The exact margin was pretty pointless, but a very underwhelming Ball State team played a close game against a very good Illinois team at their place last year, and now BSU is better and Illinois is worse than 10/27/07. That's all I meant. That said, I think your assessment of our chances in those three hypothetical matchups is fair. Even if we were to be lucky enough to go face a Florida State or Maryland in the Orange and got creamed, it'd be great for the school to get that BCS paycheck. Unfortunately that's not gonna happen.

The 2nd best game of the week is Carolina at Alanta, and it's being broadcast in four states. Sigh.

Shut the hell up you waste of life. So what you're saying is we can bench him, piss him off more, and make it more likely he will leave. Where do I sign?

which Big Ten bottom feeder do you think you'd cream? Whoever your 7th bowl team is since that's who would go. Right now Minnesota and Illinois are tied for 6th. If someone wants to state a case that they'd kill us, be my guest. (Keeping in mind a much better Illinois team beat a much worse Ball State team by 11 last year.)

11-0. Chirp, Chirp, Chirp. The debate of whether we'd beat an ACC champ is a moot point since we're going to cream some C-USA team in Mobile, Alabama or cream some Big Ten bottom feeder in Detroit. I was so sick of CMU. About time that got off our backs. :D

Except for you would probably lose. Sure. Anyone who plays UNC is probably going to lose. But it'd be great to get a shot at them.

The Orange Bowl has the last at-large pick, so if Utah (or any other outsider) is in a BCS bowl it will be that one. Sugar will get the 1st pick because they lose the SEC champ, who will presumably be No. 1. Fiesta gets the 2nd because they lose the Big 12 champ, at No. 2. Then Fiesta goes again because they had the first pick to begin with, then Sugar, then Orange. The Rose isn't in the selection because they have the Big Ten/Pac-10 thing. So what we're looking at is these eligible teams - removing the SEC and Big 12 champs because they'll be in the national title game, and the Big Ten champ and Pac-10 champ because they'll play in the Rose Bowl. I'm also assuming that Missouri won't upset the Big 12 South champ in the Big 12 title game, that PSU will beat MSU, that Ohio State will beat Michigan, that Oregon State will lose one of their remaining two games, and that Utah, Boise, TCU and Ball State all win out. In that scenario, the Rose Bowl would be USC vs. Penn State. As for the rest of the bowls: 2nd place Big 12 South team (Texas Tech/Oklahoma/Texas) Ohio State Utah Boise State TCU Ball State Big East champ (Cincinnati/Pitt winner) ACC champ (obligated to Orange Bowl) Sugar: Will probably pick loser of SEC title game (Alabama/Florida). Fiesta: Has two picks in a row and will probably take Ohio State and whoever finishes 2nd in the Big 12 South. Sugar again: Most likely takes the Big East winner to play Alabama/Florida. Orange: Takes the highest-ranked outsider. According to the BCS, the highest-ranked outsider MUST be taken - there is no discretion for more than one qualifier. In this scenario, it'd be Utah. So we would see: Sugar: Alabama/Florida vs Cincy/Pitt Rose: USC vs Penn State Fiesta: Ohio State vs Texas/Oklahoma/Texas Tech Orange: ACC champ vs Utah If Oregon State does win out and so does USC, USC enters the at-large pool. What is crazy is that, due to auto-bids and the fact that Alabama/Florida and Texas/Oklahoma/Texas Tech could be more favorable due to the region of the bowls they'd be playing in, USC or Ohio State in this scenario would be passed over, unthinkably enough.

We disagree. Can't you let it go? Everyone knows you think we'd get crushed. And Truffle, thanks to TV we play Tuesday or Wednesday all of November.

Barry Bonds. And Howard's probably-undeserved 2006 MVP.

Hoping the Cardinals ever win anything except a game against a team in direct competition with the Cubs for something is too strong.

I really want a piece of Tyler Hansbrough and UNC in the Maui final - I'd love to see Luke Harangody go up against him, and of course there's my loathing of UNC. And the obvious benefit of boosting our SOS. Hopefully we can get through IU and Texas to get there.

For selfish reasons, the only hope I have left for my Cardinals (or will, if we get the job done tomorrow) is that Utah, Nevada and (shudder) Michigan all win this week. If those three do not all win then our hopes are done. Thankfully, I am going to a career fair tomorrow in Indy so I won't have time to think about the BSU game until shortly before it happens - otherwise I'd be a nervous wreck all day.

And I find it rich coming from you to be telling me I'm whining about the refs. I don't usually care, but Saturday was one of the worst-officiated games I've seen in a long time.

the one that was caught with no feet in bounds? the guy's toe landed in bounds, then the heel came down out of bounds. i don't think that should count as a catch, but it was ruled a catch in penn state's 2005 loss to michigan. i have no idea if that's the right call, but i've seen it reviewed and upheld before. i think you might be wrong on the illegal batting penalty too. by the way, you know notre dame is lousy when they need to bitch about the refs (and insinuate that the refs were trying to get a team a win, which is even more mind-boggling) to justify a close win over navy. None of it would've happened if Charlie would quit taking his foot off the gas too early. No one's asking him to be Steve Spurrier, but for chrissake, ten minutes left when you're up by 20, even against a team that can't pass, is NOT appropriate time to be taking the starters out. The refs were abysmal, but it shouldn't have mattered if we didn't have a coach going way too far trying not to embarrass anyone in the few games we're actually in a position to do so.

That was quite a game. Quinn did not play very well, but in the end it goes down as a win and his first (of hopefully many) fourth-quarter comeback win.