The Links: Leap into late July

Not much here to offer today. I sent an e-mail (read: Facebook wall message) to Briggs Orsbon to ask him what his thoughts were about making an appearance on the NCAA Football video game as a true freshman, so we'll have that posted later.

Speaking of Orsbon, a columnist from his hometown paper played a game on NCAA Football 09 where he piloted Orsbon and Ball State while an intern took the reigns of another area player. Hilarity ensues. (Times Bulletin)

Carter Shaw (pretty cool name) is one of the new assistant's on the women's basketball team. (The Star Press)

Here's a story about Pike's Cameron Lowry and Robert Martin, who will be playing in Friday's North/South All-Star Game. Both were supposed to come to Ball State, but Martin will be playing elsewhere. (The Indianapolis Star)

Tennis player Bret Berryman is transferring to Missouri-Kansas City. (Independence Examiner)

Former women's basketball player (and one of our favorite BSU athletes ever) Lisa Rusche joins Ball State's athletic communications department. (Ball State Daily News)

NCAA Football 09 already brings heartbreak

If you read this blog, you are probably a fan of college football. And if you like video games, you know that NCAA Football 09 came out on Tuesday, which should be a national holiday as far as I'm concerned.

The biggest addition to this year's game is the online dynasty, and thank the Lord for whoever put this on here. I haven't even played a game yet and I'm all excited about it. I'm in two online dynasties and spent the better portion of the night getting them set up. I'm in a 11-team ACC Dynasty with 10 complete strangers, so that should be interesting. I'm piloting Virginia in that one.

I'm also in a three-team dynasty with my buddies James and Brady. James is USF, Brady's Purdue and I am Oregon. Brady and I square off in an early-season matchup at Ross-Ade, so that will be exhillarating!

Of course, I'm doing an offline Ball State dynasty, and I did not get off to a good start. I re-did the non-confernce schedule to play the best teams I possibly could and started the season with No. 1 Georgia. Well, Nate Davis threw five interceptions (three in the red zone) and I lost, 31-21. Pretty depressing, I thought about resetting the game, but I think I'm over that stage because all five interceptions, I threw terrible passes into traffic so I can't really blame the Xbox like I would like.

As I stated in an earlier post, I would still like to do a MAC Online Dynasty, if there were enough people interested in it, but I don't think that's going to happen.

If you'd like to re-read my stunning story on my Ball State national championship in year three of last year's game, please go here. Good day.

Aaron Mershman commits to BSU, causes rift

The No. 2 quarterback in the state of Ohio, Aaron Mershman from Bowling Green, committed to Ball State yesterday. This is a huge pick-up, as the 6-2, 190-pounder was being courted by Central Michigan, Western Michigan, Eastern Michigan, Akron and hometown Bowling Green. So why'd he choose Muncie?

According to an article in his hometown paper, it was because of the intensity of the practices.

“What set Ball State apart is there was a sense of urgency and a sense of intensity in their day-to-day activities,” Mershman said. “Their activities are intense. The lifting is intense, the 7-on-7s are intense and the practices are intense. Everything is 100 percent every single day.”

Good times right there. I also enjoyed this quote.

He didn’t choose BGSU because he “needed to get out of town. I have a lot of respect for Bowling Green. If I lived in Muncie, Ind., I’d be coming to Bowling Green.”

Take that, Bowling Green. Because the living conditions in Muncie are unbelievably awesome! Wait..

So where does the rift come from? The Western Michigan boards are not happy with Mershman's decision and wonder what Muncie has to offer these recruits. I forgot that Kalamazoo was such a sexy destination for recruits. They do have a strip club, but we have Joker's Wild, the classiest gentleman's club of all-time.

I was hoping Murshman (sic) would commit to CMU. I guess you win some and you lose some. There are other QB's out there. BSU has yet to win a dang thing and they are pulling in some solid talent. I dont know how they do it but as long as they keep pulling in the tallent and leave the game day coaching the same it wont matter much.

Thank you for taking a shot at our coaching staff. Hopefully that opinion changes this year. Another poster claims BSU can't win the MAC with Nate Davis at QB, which might be the dumbest thing I've ever read on a message board.

NC State was going after Mershman hard after his impressive performance at the Nike camp. Last year, Mershman threw for 1,461 yards and 13 touchdowns.

Watching his highlight reel, nothing too much stood out. There were no deep balls on it, so I have no idea if he can wing the ball. He looked OK on the short passes, they definitely had some zip on them and he's not very mobile. So basically he's similar to Nate except we don't know about his deep ball. Time will tell.

Welcome to Muncie, Aaron!

The Links: The two-week disappearance

Sorry for the nearly two-week disappearance. As I've said before, this is partially why I was reluctant to start this in the first place, because I tend to be lazy. So I will continue to make excuses for why I haven't posted anything. But today's a new day, and I really want to try to make daily posts. Hopefully, I actually do this. Alright, onto the links!

The dude over at VanDelaySports.com, who is supposed to the MAC authority, predicts Ball State to be the MAC champion, a 10-game winner and peaking at the Top 25 by season's end. (Fantasy College Blitz)

Congratulations to Nate Davis, who is on the Maxwell Award Watch List. (Ball State Daily News)

Here's a story about the three athletes Ball State has already got verbals from for next year's recruiting class. (The Star Press)

As I mentioned before, Ball State is No. 41 on Sporting News' top 50, and here's the brief writeup. (Sporting News)

Here's ESPN's Ball State team preview for this fall. (ESPN.com)

The New York Times does a pretty thorough breakdown of the Mighty Card. (New York Times)

The Ball State women's basketball team will play Indiana in the Preseason NIT on Nov. 14 at Assembly Hall.

Pretty interesting story on Ian Nielsen, who will be a member of the baseball team next year. (South Bend Tribune)

Former men's basketball player Skip Mills will be playing in Poland's top division next year. (Indy Star)

Former men's volleyball player Robert Pulliza is now the head coach of Arkansas' women's volleyball team. (Baxter Bulletin)

Mitch Rodrigue, who was supposed to be on Ball State's staff this year, has now landed at the University of South Alabama. (Al.com)

Good story here about women's basketball coach Kelly Packard. (The Star Press)

If you were looking for a breakdown of responsibilities in the athletic communications department, here you go. (Ball State Daily News)

Breaking down Papa Lou BSU's EDSBS analysis

For those who frequent BSUFans.com, you are well-versed to the comments (and there are many) placed on the message board by commenter Papa Lou BSU. He's one of my favorite son there because he usually tells it like it is, whether it is good or bad for the University. Friday was no exception when Papa Lou wrote a detailed season preview for the best college football Web site anyway, Every Day Should Be Saturday.

For the most part, I agreed with what Papa Lou had to say. In the beginning, he kind of mocked the fact us fans have this unbridled optimism about a team that went 7-5 last year. He's right, and I'm just as guilty as anyone else is. Since we've sucked for so long, the first glimmer of hope and we're jumping all over it like a tiger on a wildebeest. My brother tells me every chance he gets we're going to go 6-6. I wish he was kidding, and he's even a BSU football supporter.

I also love the comparison to Luxemborg, with us being surrounded by IU, PU and Notre Dame. And of course the drinking references, which is what we're known far, even if it's untrue or not. The house party scene is much more calm now though than it was when I matriculated there in the late 90s. As long as you paid your $3 for a cup of beer, you could go to any house that was hosting a party and stay and drink as much as you wanted, no questions asked. And then after the shootings on back-to-back weekends, it really died down for a long time. (Note: the trigger-pullers were not BSU students). And I still don't think it's picked up at all. But it's been awhile since I've been to a house party.

Papa Lou predicts a 9-3 or 8-4 season because of our ability to lose two or three games a year that we shouldn't. Last year, it was Miami and Nebraska (?). We'll always hope for the 11-1 or 12-0 season.