By Paul M. Banks

-We recently conducted a poll asking Who’s the Hottest Big Ten Network reporter? and the final results are as follows:

Melanie Collins (pictured above) 52%

Charissa Thompson (pictured later in this post) 25%

Elizabeth Moreau and Lisa Cornwell 8% a piece,

NCAA record holder (most rushing touchdowns in a single game) Howard Griffith finished with 7%.

Thank you to all who voted. I’m pretty sure, we’re the only publication ever to hold this contest. And since Collins won in a runaway margin, it was obviously NOT a who is the BEST Big Ten Network broadcaster award.

-We just received a shipment of cool Chicago sports keychains from Wholesalekeychain.com to give away to our site visitors. They are officially licensed and heavy duty. One of the keychains even has a built on bottle opener which will come in handy for Bears tailgating and Halloween parties this season!

They have many different styles on their site with prices to fit any budget. Be sure to use the promo code “sportsbank” when ordering and you’ll receive 10% off!

-Erin Andrews link of the week

This comes from our friends at Spread Far the Fame, a Northwestern football blog. It’s a petition to Bring Erin Andrews to Ryan Field on Saturday as it is Purplepalooza. The event, being dubbed the “Biggest Halloween Party of the Year,” begins at 1:30 p.m. with trick or treating in Wildcat Alley with NU student-athletes. Fans, who are being asked to wear purple, will be treated to a fireworks show immediately at the game’s (Northwestern takes on #12 Penn State) conclusion.

A limited number of half-priced tickets are available through Wednesday, Oct. 28, for Chicagoland fans. To receive the discounted tickets, fans can use the promo code NUSEL on NUsports.com. Cash prizes (provided by Harris Bank) for the best purple costumes also will be distributed. Also, if NU goes over the 5,000-fan mark on its Facebook page (Northwestern Athletics) by the end of the week, former All-America running back Darnell Autry will paint himself purple.

-NU is coming off the greatest comeback in school history. The Wildcats pulled out a thrilling 29-28 homecoming victory over Indiana on Saturday after trailing 28-3 midway through the second quarter. A 19-yard field goal from place-kicker Stefan Demos with 21 seconds remaining capped the comeback, which eclipsed 21-point comebacks vs. Minnesota (in both 2000 and 2007)—the previous top turnarounds in school history. For more see our friends at Sippin’ on Purple. And check out his site’s kick ass slogan.

Sipping on Purple also gave me my compliment of the week- Paul Banks, who, unlike me, is, like, an actual journalist and stuff, has some legit posts up. Read more SOP here.

-Best Viral story of the week- the following passage comes from The Big Lead

Steve Phillips, the ESPN baseball analyst, had a brief affair with 22-year-old production assistant Brooke Hundley this summer before she went Fatal Attraction on him, contacting his wife and kids according to police. Phillips, a notorious cad who cheated on his wife – who is now divorcing him – while he was general manager of the New York Mets, has been suspended a week by ESPN because of the scandal.

-You’ll notice I didn’t discuss what Brooke looks like, or the fact that Phillips would risk his marriage for a slumpbuster, or anything about ESPN personalities and their history of sexual malfeasance on a level of epidemic proportions- because I don’t go after easy targets!

-TBL also told us about this absolutely, positively the most important sports-related Political Action Committee in America right now, a PAC looking to institute a playoff in college football. Seriously, the whole bowl bowl system vs. playoff debate is exactly like the health care debate: a few rich and evil douchebags want things to stay exactly the way they are, even though it’s clearly broken, and only a few elites benefit from the current state of affairs. And polls show that 3/4 of the population wants reform in both situations!!!

Over 50 million people don’t have health insurance, and over 50% of the FBS teams reach a postseason game- CHANGE is needed NOW in both dire situations.

-People who don’t want a college football playoff will probably be the #1 seed in my douchebracket this March. Take a look at all the college football polls now, we could easily have 4 undefeated FBS teams, and as many as 6 come playoff time. The Chicago Tribune/Big Ten Network’s Teddy Greenstein comes the closest to making an argument for keeping the status quo (I’ll let you google that one yourselves), but even his ideas are laughably wrong and horribly awful on multiple levels and in multiple instances.

-This week’s personal moment of sports glory:

Last Monday, while covering Bulls practice at the Berto Center in Deerfield, a stray ball made its way to the baseline where I was waiting with the other journos, and I was called upon to throw an inbound pass to Derrick Byars. It was beautiful, and I hope YouTubed somewhere. Now I just hope he makes the team, so I can sound much cooler

-The “Did you know” fact of the week

The Chicago Blackhawks have more followers on twitter than any NHL team. They’re 3rd in Facebook fans behind the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings. And Adam Burish is my Facebook friend, just in case you were dying to know that.

Thanks to Spike.com’s blog, who gave us a list of the Most annoying sports fans, I seriously thought the Boston Red Sox would be number one, but instead it’s the Chicago Cubs…can’t say I disagree! I also support their #2 choice, the Ohio State Buckeyes! So proud to see some Midwest representation at the top.

-The Office and Deron Williams….talk about combining two of my favorite things in this world, how could this not be my favorite advertisement of the week?

From KSL.com

“I got the crap beat out of me in Provo one time.” That was Dwight Schrute driving Deron Williams in a cab.

Better yet, it was actor Rainn Wilson playing a mustached, mullet-ed, 1977 horn-rimmed glasses wearing cabbie in a new NBA promo.The All-NBA Jazz point guard recently flew to Los Angeles for a few hours to shoot the promo with the love-to-hate Wilson as part of the NBA on TNT promotion.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

Possibly Related Posts:

• Northwestern Rebuilds D Line after Loss of Wootton
• Linebacker Quentin Davie leads Northwestern’s strongest Position Group
• Recruiting Philosophies: How Northwestern’s Pat Fitzgerald finds, replenishes his Talent
• Logo for Illinois-Northwestern game at Wrigley Field Unveiled
• Pat Fitzgerald takes Unique Approach to Conflict Resolution at NU Practice

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