Andy

Ball State should be in there. Toledo and NIU are games Ball State should win, get to 7-5 and get the bowl invite.

All I can think of is to have me and PP trade other people's keepers, plus a middle-range draft pick, for our own. That way we get penalized and we'll just go get undrafted players. Any other ideas are fine though.

What's the problem? Every feature we had on the old premium we have on this phpbb3, the only difference is there are a few adds. Tim has already explained why it's taking a little while; cut him some slack. I'm not trying to be a jerk....he can have all the slack he needs...I'm just not a fan of the adds at all, they annoy the crap out of me...I finally figured out how to turn off all the photos/avatars/sigs on phpbb3...which makes viewing a bit easier...all that stuff was auto off for me on the old board and I missed it....in all, its not "bad"...I just don't like change...especially change attached to google adds. :lol: BF Vista has no google ads. Just sayin'

You can't look at it that way. It sucks to say this but, Hendry overpaid Soriano to save his job. And Lilly, and Marquis, and... Luckily for him, the NL Central turned out to be weak enough that overpaying all those guys paid off. Luckily for us, Lilly, at least, turned out to be worth the dollars, at least in year 1.

Notre Dame plays its second exhibition tonight against St. Edward's, having beaten St. Ambrose 109-53 in the first one. Tonight's is especially interesting because Mike Brey said that Luke Harangody, who strained a ligament in his thumb and was expected to be out another week or so at least, will suit up and play tonight. Ball State opens up at home against Butler on Friday. Should be a pretty exciting atmosphere at least - the game Butler came here for two years ago was the most raucuous I've ever seen it for a BSU game. They'll probably kill us but I'm excited to see the young kids play.

If by superstar you mean 30 points etc no he wont be. Deng can and will average 20-25 points 5-7 boards which is pretty damn good. You put Kobe on this team with Deng, and I think the 2 of them would work beautifully together. Dengs ability to slash to the basket would finally be used how it should. right. Kobe would be his "jordan" which would allow Deng to be fantastic in the "pippen" role. but we saw what pippen did with the team when jordan wasn't around (hint: nothing) I was with you up untill the bolded. Pippen led the Bulls to the Eastern Confernce Finals in the 1st year without MJ, and then got bent over on a call that kept him from leading that team to the NBA Finals. Yeah, I can't remember who won the 1994 MVP but I can't imagine anyone deserving it more than Pippen in 1994 - the Bulls didn't have very much around him that year. And yeah, this team blows. When Joe freaking Smith is the only one who shows up for the 2nd half, bad things happen.

Andy graduating college feels weird. Also, I'd lay a lot of money down on the under for Ball State getting 10 wins next year. So would I, since our coach is a moron and will probably coach us out of 2 or 3 wins next year, just as he did this year with Miami (OH). The talent will be there though, just about everyone worth anything on this year's team will return in 2008.

I thought I remembered Dempster saying at some point in 2005 or 2006 that he absolutely loved closing. Not that I'm complaining if it means Marmol or a healthy Wood closes next year, but I'm sort of surprised to see how excited Dempster is about starting considering he is so mediocre/bad at it.

Because he pulled an Edmonds and made routine plays seem spectacular? (He had that barehand catch late in 2006 that needn't have been barehanded and I think he had another such play towards the end of this year.)

I'm privately seething because Ball State's non-con next year is Northeastern and Navy at home, and Western Kentucky and Indiana on the road. Meaning that only IU and Central Michigan would be games in which the Cardinals would likely be underdogs, and a 10-win season - or more - is very possible. And I'm graduating in May so I'll miss it.

God, I love DWard.

I hope Aramis has improved his reputation to the point where he might have a chance at one in 2008. He's as good as anyone at 3B.

Actually, with the new version of the board software, it looks like anyone should be able to block signatures and avatars. Just go to User Control Panel --> Board Preferences --> edit display options. Unless this is something that is going to be going away for non-premium users in the future. Tim said all the non-premium features currently will be staying. Premium users will instead get different features.

I'm totally apathetic to the Air Force game. It'd be nice to win the last 3 just because ND has never had a 9-loss season in its history, but at this point I'd settle for no one suffering any long-lasting injury before the season's over. Bring on the Jimmy/Crist/Sharpley derby in the summer of 2008.

I have no problem saying the Chargers and Chiefs would blast either Carolina or Tampa out of the water, though. The NFC South tops everything. At this point, it would be an upset if NO didn't win that division. Tampa and us are both horrible football teams.

- A good idea on the spreads, but I don't think the spreads are usually up yet when I post these threads since I try and get them up as soon as I can after the AP polls are released. Though if I'm wrong I can switch to that. - Weis's recruiting classes are far better than Callahan's, he has had more success than Callahan, and most importantly, he is signed for eight more years after this one and has a rather large buyout so firing him would be cost-ineffective. I'm personally willing to give him through 2009 - his recruiting has been far too good, this year's upperclassmen far too nonexistent, and this year's schedule far too taxing (I believe ND is the only team in the nation that's played a team with a winning 2007 record every game so far) to justify firing him right now. The 2008 schedule is very conducive to turning it around and, provided he's learned how to coach kids in the meantime, over .500 is very achievable.

Panthers suck. David Carr is an embarrassment. Thanks for signing him instead of drafting Quinn at #14 when you had the chance. Better possible suckage than certain suckage. That is all.

mind telling us what crap school they played? North Alabama. (I only know this because of the incessant BTN ads they showed in the press box yesterday during Ball State v. IU.) Ball State handled DIII Anderson in an exhibition today. Butler, on Friday, should pose something of a bigger test.

It's possible that the whole good game-mismatch debate is slightly out of hand. I kept that format because Derwood did it that way. (And I picked Ill-OSU as a good game because, as some pointed out, there's really not much evidence to suggest OSU is some machine of a team and Illinois handled Wisconsin, who hung with Ohio State.)

Games between ranked teams ---------------------------- (18) Auburn at (10) Georgia (3:30 pm, CBS) (12) USC at (24) California (8 pm) Good Top 25 games ------------------- Illinois at (1) Ohio State (3:30 pm, ABC) (5) Kansas at Oklahoma State (8 pm, ABC) Louisville at (6) West Virginia (7:30 pm Thursday, ESPN) Florida State at (11) Virginia Tech (3:30 pm, ABC) (13) Michigan at Wisconsin (12 pm, ESPN) Texas Tech at (15) Texas (3:30 pm, ABC) (16) Connecticut at Cincinnati (3:30 pm, ESPNU) (17) Florida at South Carolina (7:45 pm, ESPN) Wake Forest at (20) Clemson (12 pm, ESPN2) Arkansas at (22) Tennessee (12:30 pm) (23) Virginia at Miami (7 pm) Top 25 mismatches ------------------ Louisiana Tech at (2) LSU (8 pm) Baylor at (4) Oklahoma (6:30 pm) Texas A&M at (7) Missouri (12:30 pm) (8) Boston College at Maryland (8 pm, ABC) (9) Arizona State at UCLA (3:30 pm, ABC) Fresno State at (14) Hawaii (11 pm) (19) Boise State at Utah State (3 pm) (25) Kentucky at Vanderbilt (2 pm) Other games of interest ----------------------- Penn State at Temple (12 pm, ESPNU) Indiana at Northwestern (12 pm, ESPN Classic) South Florida at Syracuse (12 pm) Michigan State at Purdue (12 pm, Big 10) Minnesota at Iowa (12 pm, Big 10) Colorado at Iowa State (12:30 pm) Kansas State at Nebraska (12:30 pm) Air Force at Notre Dame (2:30 pm, NBC) Kent State at N. Illinois (4 pm) Grambling at UL Monroe (5 pm) Lafayette at Holy Cross (12 pm) Illinois State at S. Illinois (2:30 pm) Indiana State at N. Iowa (6 pm)

Wow, Ball State sucks. IU played better against us yesterday than any of our opponents has.

Sunday evenings are bad until 7:30 because I host a radio show from 6-7. I can do prerankings if post-7:30 doesn't work for people though.

Translation for Bulls fans = We are content with making the playoffs and losing in the 2nd round again, so deal with it. The team as constructed is good enough to win the East. That has more to do with the East than the Bulls, but it's true.

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG Make this happen

+1 That minute or so sequence against the Heat in Game 1 I think it was last year was possibly the greatest minute I've ever seen a basketball player play.