The law probably won’t allow such a thing, but, if it did, an enterprising person could have opened a lemonade stand on the corner of Ninth and P streets Thursday afternoon.

A big one, too. Big enough to hold the fans who remained in some rows of Memorial Stadium at the end of Southern Cal’s romp over Nebraska last weekend.

The empty corner looked a lot different than it did last Thursday afternoon, when men stood a foam-finger’s length from each other begging for tickets. Out-of-towners pointed to the bar they’d read about in Sports Illustrated.

On Monday of USC-NU Week, there was a buzz. By Thursday, it was a crescendo. And on Saturday, if you weren’t humming Southern Cal’s “Fight On” or Nebraska’s “Hail Varsity,” there was something wrong with you.

So far, Ball State Week hasn’t reached above a whisper.

“A 180-degree difference,” said Troy Terwilliger of Lincoln’s Holiday Inn Downtown. “This week is a huge letdown. We went from the pinnacle of college football to something of an afterthought. Who’s Ball State?”

Where is Ball State is the question that might get you a ticket to the game.

Andrew Earnest, the man behind the counter at Husker Headquarters, didn’t know. (It’s  Muncie, Ind.)

Last week, Earnest said, T-shirts with John David Booty references couldn’t stay on the shelves. At the middle of this week, Ball State shirts were still in a box, and you might have gotten one free if you could name the Cardinals’ quarterback (It’s Nate Davis).

Things weren’t very festive over on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus, either. No Kirk Herbstreit groupies. No Will Ferrell photo opportunities.

Even “The Pride of All Nebraska” wasn’t so convincing. Drummer Nick Winter of Eagle said members of the Cornhusker Marching Band had been talking about USC since band camp. The first he heard of Ball State was Wednesday.

Last week’s three-day party may give way to what seems more like a church social, especially given Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. kick-off.

Rooms at the Holiday Inn are going for half the price of last week, and there were plenty still for the taking late in the week. Only a handful of rooms were to be filled by Ball State fans, and if David Letterman (a Ball State alum) has booked one, he used an alias.

Oh sure, the game will be a sellout. A mom will dress her daughter up in a cheerleader’s outfit. A Ball State fan will write a letter to the editor thanking Husker fans for being the best in the country.

And Bill Callahan gets paid handsomely to say there is no such thing as a letdown game. Ball State puts their pants on the same way we do.

But the consensus is that this week is a real downer.

A self-described college football junkie — he even knew where Ball State is — Terwilliger has been offered tickets to the game several times.

“No thanks.”

Reach Brent C. Wagner at 473-7435 or bwagner@journalstar.com.