Fisher's inequality for block designs ($b\ge t$)

For a balanced incomplete block design with $r>\lambda$, $N{N}^T$ has eigenvalues $r-\lambda >0$ on the zero-sum subspace and $r+(t-1)\lambda >0$ on the constant vector. Thus its rank is $t$. As $N$ is $t\times b$, $t=\mathrm{rank}(N{N}^T)\le \mathrm{rank}(N)\le b$.