The BCS bowl games are coming up after the New Year’s Day NFL games Sunday, with the Rose Bowl and Fiesta Bowl Monday, the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday, the Orange Bowl and on Wednesday and then the BCS National Championship Game the following Monday, January 9th.

Here is a quick preview of the BCS bowl games with picks and current point spreads.

Keep in mind the following:

• All games listed are EST
• Point spreads are of Sunday, January 1st. For updated point spreads and expert advice, here you go: BCS Bowls Odds and Lines

BCS Bowl Games Bettor’s Guide

Point Spreads – Free Picks ATS – Over-Under Odds

TV Schedule – Lock Pick

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Rose Bowl: #10 Wisconsin Badgers vs. #5 Oregon Ducks

• Wisconsin-Oregon Date: Monday, January 2nd at 5:00 PM on ESPN
• Wisconsin-Oregon Point Spread: Ducks -6
• Wisconsin-Oregon Over-Under Odds: 71.5
• Wisconsin-Oregon Spread Pick: Expect a high scoring shootout in what could be the best game of the BCS bowls, as both teams can light up the scoreboard in a hurry. The Badgers rely on the dual passing/rushing threat of QB Russell Wilson  (2,879 yds, 31 TDs, 4 INTs ) and Heisman finalist Montee Ball (1,759 yds, 32TDs).  The Ducks counter with QB Darron Thomas (2,493 yds, 30 TDs, 6 INTs) and Ducks all-time rushing leader LaMichael James (1,646 yds, 17 TDs). Oregon looks to improve on their all-time bowl record of 9-15 and having lost bowl games the past 2 seasons. Wisconsin looks to avenge their Rose Bowl loss last year vs. TCU. Look for the Ducks speed to eventually be too much for the Badgers defense, winning 42-31.
• Pick: Ducks -6

Fiesta Bowl: #4 Stanford Cardinal vs. #3 Oklahoma State Cowboys 

• Stanford-Oklahoma State Date: Monday, January 2nd at 8:30 PM on ESPN
• Stanford-Oklahoma State Point Spread: Cowboys -4
• Stanford-Oklahoma State Over-Under Odds: 73.5
• Stanford-Oklahoma State Spread Pick: Only a devastating 37-31 double overtime loss at Iowa State prevented Oklahoma St. from playing in the BCS Championship Game against LSU. The Cowboys finished their regular season by crushing Oklahoma 44-10. Led by outstanding WR Justin Blackmon (113 rec, 1,336 yds, 15 TDs) and 28-year-old QB Brandon Weeden ( 4,328 yds, 34 TDs), the #3 ranked team in the nation looks to prove it belonged in the BCS title game. Stanford, led by consensus #1 pick in the NFL draft Andrew Luck ( 3,170 yds, 35 TDs) and RB Stepfan Taylor (1,153 yds, 8 TDs), will need to apply the same defensive  pressure on Weeden that has earned them the #6 national ranking with 38 sacks. Look for the Oklahoma St. offense to ultimately take the game over and pull away from Stanford, 45-35.
•  Pick: Cowboys -4  

Sugar Bowl: #13 Michigan vs. #11 Virginia Tech

• Michigan-Virginia Tech Date: Tuesday, January 3rd at 8:30 PM on ESPN
• Michigan-Virginia Tech Point Spread: Wolverines -3
• Michigan-Virginia Tech Over-Under Odds: 50.5
• Michigan-Virginia Tech Spread Pick: Two solid defenses (Virginia Tech-13th nationally, Michigan-18th) and rushing offenses collide in The Superdome in what looks to be a close game. The Wolverines’ star quarterback Denard Robinson (2,056 yds, 18 TDs passing-1,163 yds, 16 TDs rushing) and running back Fitzgerald Toussaint (1,011 yds, 9 TDs) lead a bruising, clock controlling rushing offense. The Hokies are led by ACC player of the year David Wilson (1,627 yds, 9 TDs) and sophomore QB Logan Thomas (2,799 yds, 19 TDs).  Look for the Hokies to rebound from their embarrassing 38-10 loss to Clemson in the ACC title game. Special teams play and a defense keyed on Michigan’s rushing game will pace the Hokies to a 27-19 win.
• Pick: Hokies +3

Orange Bowl: #23 West Virginia vs. #15 Clemson

• West Virginia-Clemson Date: Wednesday, January 4th at 8:30 on ESPN
• West Virginia-Clemson Point Spread: Tigers -3
• West Virginia-Clemson Over-Under Odds: 61.5
• West Virginia-Clemson Spread Pick: In what may be the least attractive BCS bowl game with slow ticket sales in South Florida, the on-field game may turn out to be better than imagined, with two potent offenses both averaging over 33 points per game and 440 yards of offense. West Virginia has the 7th rated passing offense and a 17th rated total offense, led by QB Geno Smith (3,978 yds, 25 TDs, 7 INTs) and WR Stedman Bailey (1,197 yds, 11 TDs). Clemson counters with QB Tajh Boyd (3,578 yds, 31 TDs), RB Andre Ellington (1,062 yds, 10 TDs) and Freshman WR Sammy Watkins (1153 yds, 11 TDs). With more offensive weapons, Clemson eventually pulls away from West Virginia, winning 35-24.
• Pick: Tigers -3

BCS National Championship: #2 Alabama vs. #1 LSU

• Alabama-LSU Date: Monday, January 9th at 8:30 on ESPN
• Alabama-LSU Point Spread: Crimson Tide -1
• Alabama-LSU Over-Under Odds: 40.5
• Alabama-LSU Spread Pick: The rematch between these 2 top defensive squads for the BCS title in New Orleans. No idea why top-ranked LSU is an underdog after winning in OT at Alabama and now playing in what will be a decided home field advantage in The Superdome. Nick Saban’s Crimson Tide ranks first in the country at yards allowed per game (191.3) with LSU #2 allowing 252.1 yards/game. Offensively, LSU ranks #13 in points scored with 38.5 and Alabama ranks #16 with 36 points a game. Crimson Tide is led by Doak Walker award winner Trent Richardson (1,583 yds, 20 TDs) and QB A.J. McCarron (2,400 yds, 16 TDs). Tigers are sparked by dual QBs Jordan Jefferson and Jarrett Lee, who combined for 20 TDs and nearly 2,000 yards and RBs Michael Ford (755 yds, 7 TDs) and Spender Ware (700 yds, 8 TDs). Points will be at a premium for this game, which is where LSU Heisman finalist Tyrann Mathieu comes in to play with his knack making big plays as a punt returner. Look for the Tiger’s to claim the national title in convincing fashion, pulling away from the Crimson Tide in the 2nd half 27-10.
• Pick: Tigers +1

Lock Pick: LSU +1

Cotton Bowl Bonus Lock Pick: Friday, January 6th 8:00 PM on Fox. Arkansas -8 vs. Kansas State. No way Wildcats can hang with Razorbacks in this one. Arkansas 44 Kansas State 23.

Enjoy your 2012 BCS Bowl Games!

Even with all the controversy (I don’t like BCS system either) I still love the experience of hanging out with family and watching teams duke it out for bragging rights. It’s also a great look into how potential high draft picks perform in high pressure/high stakes games.

Are there bowl games that are going to be more entertaining than others? Of course, but I really recommend you to try to watch as many of them as possible.

Enjoy the games and enjoy the holidays.

2011 College Football Bowl Game Schedule

TV Schedule – Kickoff Times – Point Spreads

There is no debate that LSU should be playing in the national championship game because they played an extremely difficult schedule and went undefeated.  The team that LSU is going to play, however, is creating quite a controversy.

Many people (including myself) feel that Alabama should not get another shot at a team that already defeated them for a possible national championship. Oklahoma State has a real argument that they did not get a fair shake from the current BCS system and that they should be the 1-loss team playing for the title.

If college football had a playoff this is how it might look this season.

Here is how I configured my playoff scenario:

The format that I used took from the NCAA tournament in college basketball, and I broke it down into four regions.  In each region there would be 4 teams and each team would be seeded 1 through 4.  The regions would be very simple: north, south, east and west.  There are no automatic bids and only the top 16 teams will be seeded.

The teams that will be eligible for a 1-seed are the best teams that won their conference companionship.  Only conference champions will be the top seeds in their regions because they should be rewarded for their accomplishment.  Unless you win your conference, the highest seed that you will be able to receive is a 2-seed.

The 1-seeds will be assigned to a region based on their geographical location and the rest of teams will be placed so no region has more than two teams from the same conference.

Here are the regions, teams and seeds, and the opening round matchups for a hypothetical 2011 college football playoff.

NORTH REGION 

• #1 Wisconsin vs #4 Michigan
• #2 Stanford vs #3 Kansas State

EAST REGION

• #1 LSU vs #4 Michigan State
• #2 USC vs #3 Clemson

SOUTH REGION

• #1 Oklahoma State vs #4 Georgia
• #2 Alabama vs #3 TCU

WEST REGION

• #1 Oregon vs #4 Boise State
• #2 Arkansas vs #3 Houston

When creating the first round matchups, I tried to avoid teams from the same conference playing for the second or even third time.  I did have Wisconsin against Michigan, two teams from the Big Ten playing in the first round, but since they did not meet in the regular season it wouldn’t diminish from the game.

Another thing that I tried to do when creating the teams for each region was to have matchups that would get sizeable TV ratings.  For example, in the West region I put Boise State against Oregon because every college football fan would watch to see those offenses go against eachother.

The winner of the North region would play winner of the South region for the chance to play in the title game and the same thing would apply for the East and West regions.

This is just one playoff scenario that would create a fair and equal way to decide who the national champions should be.  There are many ways that a playoff could be implemented for college football, and any one of them would be better than the current BCS system that is in place.

College football needs to change their current structure because too many teams that have legit chances at winning a national championships are not getting an opportunity to play for one. Computers should not decide who should play for a title but it should be settled on the field just like every other sport that is played.

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* – BCS photo credit: via Cutler’s Corner 

I, like most – would like to see some sort of playoff system in place. Taking the current four BCS games and making them National Championship quarterfinals (in the end adding two games to the season) to me seems like a logical solution.

To the naked eye, Alabama does appear to be the second-best team in college football, but thanks to one distracted night in Ames, IA a few weeks back, Oklahoma State will never have a chance to prove the case that they were more deserving of the #2 seat.

But college football is spectacular as it is: only 14 precious Saturdays with an entire menu of games available on television (no Sunday Ticket package needed) and mind-boggling finishes the norm on a weekly basis. Sadly, it is all over except the 35 bowl games, then nearly eight long months before the madness returns.

But there is one injustice in the BCS (besides continuing to give the Big East an automatic bid) that indeed will happen and must be pointed out.

Why are the Michigan Wolverines likely headed for the Sugar Bowl while the Michigan State Spartans are headed for the Outback (literally)?

And to make it even worse, this will mark the second straight year Sparty will get jobbed.

Last year, Michigan State beat Wisconsin in the regular season, but wound up in the dreaded three-way tie with Sconnie and Ohio State, which gave the Badgers the trip to Pasadena due to highest BCS ranking, while the now-tainted 2010 Buckeyes program got the at-large Sugar Bowl bid based on a higher-BCS ranking and name recognition.

And there was not a lot of complaining one year ago.

This year is a bit different.

I said Saturday afternoon, before what turned out to be the epic sequel between Michigan State/Wisconsin in Indianapolis, that both teams deserved BCS bids regardless of the outcome, although a losing Badgers side would have had far less of a case with two conference losses in the regular season, and what would had been two losses at the hand of the Spartans.

Of course it was the Badgers who earned another trip to Pasadena with a thrilling 42-39 win over MSU.

But the Spartans, just as they had back on October 22, did everything possible to beat the Badgers, except this time they suffered the heartbreak of being on the receiving end of a late-game miracle (34-yard Russell Wilson pass to Duckworth on fourth and six) and a game-ending running into the kicker, which wiped out a Sparty punt return inside the Sconnie five-yard line (though Sconnie special teams may had relaxed knowing they were getting the penalty).

With that, we are left with the final results.

• The Spartans won the Legends Division with a 7-1 record, the lone one-loss team in the conference. In a pre-division Big Ten, Sparty would had won the conference outright.

• MSU did not only defeat Wisconsin in the regular season, but defeated Michigan 28-14 on October 15.

• Michigan State’s two losses over all were at conference newcomer Nebraska and also non-conference at Notre Dame, a common opponent that Michigan beat in an epic early-season regular season finish. Beseides losing to MSU, Michigan’s other loss came two weeks later at Iowa (4-4/7-5).

In the final polls by AP and USA Today just released (including MSU’s loss to Sconnie), Michigan State finishes 12th, with Michigan #13 on AP poll, Michigan #12/MSU #13 on USA Today. Of teams ranked ahead of those two, #5 USC does not get in do to probation, #7 Arkansas and #10 South Carolina are out due to only two SEC teams being allowed in BCS, and #8 Boise State is out since they did not win their conference. TCU gets an at-large bid as a non-AQ if they finish top-16 in BCS due to being ranked ahead of West Virginia, and #11 Kansas State is the other at-large possibility.

Remove the brand names from Michigan and Michigan State, and the Spartans are slightly more deserving presenting these facts.

But one Facebook discussion I had Saturday about sums up why Michigan will likely end up seeing Sugar fall from the skies of Ann Arbor Sunday night (credit Charley Shonat)…

‘Michigan has the history, the cache. It isn’t fair, but money and fans will never overcome that…’

Translated, Michigan and Ohio State remain the Kardashians in the eyes of the BCS Bowl games. And Michigan State gets punished for losing a third game in a game that was earned just by participating in the Big Ten title game, which Michigan did not get by losing to MSU. It should be better to play and lose a conference title game than to not be a title game at all.

That rule does not apply to Alabama’s #2 overall bid, as the evidence points to Bama beating able to beat Georgia handily just as LSU did.

But with all respect to Brady Hoke getting the Wolverines back on the right track in 2011, and with all due respect of the 115,000+ that continue to fill up the Big House, is Michigan State THAT much less than a draw?? Sparty’s fan base would fill up Bourbon Street just as much as ‘Michigan Fan’. It’s not like the universal brand recognition of Notre Dame is involved.

Or I’ll just quote the kite Ari Kaufman just sent me…

‘A joke. Michigan doesn’t deserve to be anywhere near BCS. No quality wins. Eight home games.’

But at the end of the day, football wise, Michigan State is to Michigan like Oklahoma State is to Oklahoma, which is why OK State fan went overboard storming the field after beating a OU team they were clearly better than. It’s an inferiority complex.

If Michigan State does manage to squeeze out the final BCS bid Sunday night, it’s much deserved.

If not, Mark Dantonio’s troops still get a chance to prove their true worth against a foe from the much-feared SEC on January 2. And at least it will be another B1G Ten team spreading the bowl income throughout the conference.

And Sparty can talk the next four weeks about being ‘disrespected’ all over again.

Image source: Alternate Crop

While I’m sure there are cases to be made for Stanford, Boise State, and maybe even Oregon, only 2 teams have a realistic chance to finish second: Alabama and Oklahoma State. Voters should put the Cowboys ahead of the Crimson Tide for 2 reasons: quality of wins and strength of schedule.

Much has been made of the quality of Oklahoma State and Alabama’s losses. Alabama’s sole loss came at the hands of #1 LSU, in overtime. Oklahoma State lost to unranked, 6-6 Iowa State (albeit on the road, in double overtime). Less has been made of the two team’s wins.

Consider the following:

• According to Sagarin, Oklahoma State has six wins over top 30 teams, including two top 10 wins. Alabama has only two top 30 wins and one top 10 win.
• Oklahoma State beat seven FBS teams with winning records; Alabama beat three.
• Oklahoma State had to face all nine of the other teams in the Big 12. Alabama avoided playing the 2 best teams in the SEC East, Georgia and South Carolina.
• Alabama played a late-season game against an FCS opponent. Oklahoma State played all 12 of its games against FBS teams.

While Alabama’s win over Arkansas may be more impressive than any of OSU’s wins (although Sagarin has Oklahoma ahead of Arkansas), the Cowboys have three wins—Oklahoma, Kansas State, and Baylor—that are more impressive than Alabama’s second best win (Penn State).

If you follow the old Bilas maxim, “Who’d you play? And who’d you beat?” Oklahoma State gets the edge. The Cowboys played a stronger schedule and have better wins than the tide.

So, here are the details for those of you who live in Indy (or are in town for the game) and want a chance to win free tickets to see (Alabama and LSU in) the BCS National Championship Game.

The Allstate Tailgate Tour, a unique and interactive fan experience visiting college football stadiums across the country, will give away four pairs of tickets to the 2012 Allstate^® BCS National Championship before Michigan State faces Wisconsin in the 2011 Big Ten Championship on Saturday, Dec. 3.

Fans can register for a chance to see the nation’s top two teams battle for the national championship in New Orleans by visiting the Allstate Tailgate Tour, located in the Indiana State Convention Center (Hall K), from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Saturday.

The tour features a variety of family-friendly activities, including the College Football Legacy Museum, a hands-on, retrospective look at the history of college football and the Allstate^® Sugar Bowl.  Fans can also take pictures of themselves with the legendary Allstate Field Goal Net or create special signs in support of the Spartans or Badgers.

The Allstate^® BCS National Championship will be played on Jan. 9, 2012 at the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

There you go. Take advantage if you’re in town. You’ve got nothing to lose and a fun college football experience to gain either way.

Now, speaking of fun college football experiences, here is a totally random animated GIF from the incomparable LSUFreek that features Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron dancing as Chippendales.

Enjoy the games tomorrow CFB fans.

Let’s pretend that the BCS system was created in order to determine the best team in the country.

I know…it’s quite a leap…but try and follow me along on this extended hypothetical.

If the BCS is supposed to pit the two best teams in the nation against each other in the national championship game, then this year, it will have worked if LSU and Alabama end up meeting to decide the BCS National Championship.

Image credit: Icon SMI via Saturday Down South

Why The Alabama-LSU Rematch Should Happen

Of course, this raises the ire of fans around the country who care more about pageantry, tradition, and excitement than they do about crowning a true champion.  After all, “The Game of the Century” was quite boring.

“Alabama already had their chance.  Give it to someone else.”

“How could you have a national champion that didn’t even win their conference championship?”

RiMarcus Reilly* even wrote this “insightful” piece that was completely devoid of fact and logical thought…but at least he did explain to us that there could be more exciting games to watch than LSU/Alabama.

Look, I understand that Alabama/LSU 2.0 might be undesirable.  It may make for a more boring game than say, Oregon vs. Houston.  Those reasons given above may actually make sense in other years too.

But look at this year, 2011, and answer me this question: what college football team (besides LSU) do you HONESTLY think is better than Alabama?

Let’s just go over all the options one by one.

Unfortunately we must throw out any teams with more than one loss, so even though Wisconsin lost two incredibly tough games, and teams like Arkansas, Oregon, and Oklahoma are good, they HAVE to be left out of this conversation.

Boise State

Their schedule is so weak (67th in the nation), they had to run the table in order to get into the final game.  They couldn’t.  If Boise HAD run the table, I would have loved to put them in the national championship game.  They ran all over a very good Georgia team early on, and I think Kellen Moore is one of the best college QBs we have seen in a while.  Unfortunately, they lost to TCU.  They can’t seriously be considered as a better candidate than Alabama.

Houston

The most intriguing team of the bunch.  12-0.  Undefeated.  Fantastic QB.  This is the only team I would actually consider putting into the championship game besides Alabama.  Unfortunately, their strength of schedule is worse than Boise State’s (75th in the nation).  Sorry Case Keenum, not only will you be overlooked for the Heisman, but you also won’t get the chance to show your stuff against a legit SEC defense.

Virginia Tech

They have fewer quality wins than Boise State.  The ACC was so incredibly weak this year that Clemson is playing in their championship game.  Their strength of schedule is barely better than Boise’s (63rd), and their only quality wins were…looking…whoops, I couldn’t even find one.  Unless you call Georgia Tech and Virginia quality wins, in which case you won’t understand most of this article.

Stanford

Stanford had a good season.  They went 11-1 and had some decent wins over Notre Dame and USC. All they had to do was beat a 2-loss Oregon team and they would be playing in the national championship — an Oregon team that got absolutely blown off the field by LSU and their speed in the first game of the year; an Oregon team with a banged up LaMichael James.

Stanford couldn’t follow through.

In fact, Stanford looked BAD.  Oregon was much faster at every single position.  The two teams didn’t even look like they belonged on the same field.  And we are supposed to believe that a team that got dominated by a team that got blown out by LSU should be playing in the national championship OVER Alabama?  Come on.

I love Andrew Luck.  I think he’s a great player.  But his team, top to bottom, is clearly not on the same level as some other teams in the country.

Oklahoma State

This is the team I feel the worst for.

I love to watch them play.  They have the second best scoring offense in the nation.  They have been great all year – except for one game.  And you know, they actually had an excuse to come out flat against Iowa State.  Their school was dealing with an unbelievably sad tragedy, and it’s not hard to empathize with their poor performance.

Unfortunately, they still lost – to a 6-5 Iowa State team.  The Cowboys controlled their own destiny.  All they had to do was beat a mediocre team on national television – and they couldn’t do it.

Let’s compare them to Alabama, a team that has crushed every team they played this year except for the #1 team in the country.

The Cowboys have a great offense – #2 in scoring…but Alabama’s is not that bad, they rank 17th.  Just because the Tide’s offense may not be exciting doesn’t mean it’s not effective.  Plus, if you put all 22 offensive players from both teams on the field, Trent Richardson would be the best player.

On the flip side, Alabama has one of the most dominant defenses of all time – and this can’t be argued.  Oklahoma State is a laughable 107th.  ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTH!!!!  And this is a team that is supposed to beat LSU?

There is no logical way to argue that Oklahoma State deserves to play in the national championship more than Alabama.

Just compare the two schedules.  One team played THE SECOND HARDEST SCHEDULE in the nation, and it’s only loss was to the #1 team in the country.   The other team played a tough schedule as well (17th), but lost to a team that is barely bowl eligible.

Case closed.

Well it should be.

But most people would never allow facts to get in the way of their opinion.  They will still argue that Oklahoma State’s offense could put up points on LSU and it would at least be a better game.

Might the game be more exciting?  Sure.  But would Oklahoma State be certain to put up points?  Absolutely not.

In 2003, the high scoring Oklahoma Sooners from the Big 12 faced off against the LSU Tigers in the national championship game…and scored 14 points.

In 2009, the high scoring Oklahoma Sooners from the Big 12 faced off against the Florida Gators in the national championship game…and scored 14 points.

In 2010, the high scoring Texas Longhorns from the Big 12 faced off against the Alabama Crimson Tide in the national championship game…and HEY!!!! They broke 20!!!

Should there be a playoff?  Of course.

Is Alabama/LSU 2.0 undesirable?  A little bit.

But if we are supposed to uphold the myth that the NCAA really wants the two best teams in the country to play against each other for the national championship, the ONLY two options come from the Deep South.

Image credit: Streeter Lecka/Getty Images North America via Zimbio

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* – For those who don’t get this “RiMarcus Reilly” reference, like our editor apparently, this is what Jason Whitlock calls Rick Reilly since ESPN spent all that money on him but he’s been a bust…just like JaMarcus Russell.

Anyway, here’s what we learned this weekend:

1. November keeps getting worse.

Last week I wrote that “We will remember November 2011 as one of the worst months in sports history.” Within hours of that post going live, I learned that two runners—21-year-old Jeffrey Lee and 40-year-old G. Chris Gleason—died during last Sunday’s Philadelphia Marathon. Later that morning news broke that Seattle Mariners and Tacoma Rainiers outfielder Greg Halman had been fatally stabbed in the Netherlands.

Things didn’t get any better this weekend.

Last Saturday Florida A&M drum major Robert Champion died following the Rattlers’ game against Bethune-Cookman. Shortly thereafter rumors circulated tying Champion’s death to hazing. On Wednesday Florida A&M president James Ammons fired band director Julian White, citing “alleged misconduct and/or incompetence involving confirmed reports and allegations of hazing.”

Yesterday morning ESPN’s Outside the Lines played an audiotape of a 2002 conversation between Laura Fine, wife of Syracuse assistant head basketball coach Bernie Fine, and Bobby Davis, who has accused Coach Fine of sexually assaulting him when he was a minor. According to the recording, Mrs. Fine was aware that her husband was having sexual relations with underage boys.

A third person also came forward this weekend to accuse Fine of sexual assault. While the third accuser is not related to either of the first two (who are step-brothers), he himself faces sexual assault charges.

Following these new allegations, Syracuse chancellor Nancy Cantor fired Coach Fine (who already had been put on administrative leave). Head coach Jim Beheim said that he supported the school’s decision and that he had “never witnessed any of the activities that have been alleged.” He also backed off remarks he made last week calling Davis a “liar” and suggesting that Fine’s accusers were “using ESPN to get money.”

2. David Stern, Billy Hunter, Derek Fisher, and Adam Silver are giving me the only thing I want for Christmas . . . I think.

Friday, NBA owners and players reached an agreement to end the 149-day lockout and open the 2011-12 season on Christmas. Players will get 50 percent of revenues, give or take 1 percent (depending on whether revenues meet, exceed, or fall short of expectations). The league softened its proposed luxury tax rule (which players had deemed unacceptable) and reinstated sign-and-trade and extend-and-trade provisions.

I really don’t care about the details. I’m just glad the NBA will be back. And while I’ve already missed watching Ernie, Kenny, and Charles on Tuesday nights, I can survive a few more weeks without the NBA as long as I know there will be pro basketball on Christmas.

The proposed 66-game season is certainly an improvement over the 50-games we got during the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. It may even be an improvement over the standard 82-game season (though I would never suggest that the NBA permanently adopt a 66-game schedule).

Free agency will begin on December 9, 16 days before the season starts. Suddenly this year’s otherwise lackluster class of free agents got much more interesting.

Then again, the agreement between players and owners is still “tentative.” Simple majorities of players and owners must ratify the agreement. For this to happen, players will have to drop the antitrust suits they filed against the league and reform the union. Then the sides will have to reach agreements on minor issues such as drug testing, age minimums, and rookie salaries. All of these things will almost certainly happen.

But my Christmas dreams won’t be fully realized until all the papers are signed.

"Billy?" "Yeah, Dave?" "Let's end this thing. Let's do it for Josh." "You're right. We should end this for Josh."

3. 2011 Tim Tebow = x * (2006 Vince Young)

I’m not yet sure what x equals.

In October 2006 rookie Vince Young took over as the Tennessee Titans’ starting quarterback. His play was erratic. His stats were mediocre-to-bad. He had an unconventional throwing motion and often had to rely on his feet. The Titans had to change their offense to cater to Young’s strengths and cover his weaknesses.

But when Young took over as quarterback, the Titans started winning games. He led a team that began the season 0-5 to within a game of the Playoffs. And while 2006 Vince Young was anathema to fantasy owners, he led several game-winning drives in the 4th quarter and overtime.

He did the same thing in 2009. And again last Sunday against the Giants.

Each week, when I put together this list of things we learned over the weekend, I consider including a “2011 Tim Tebow = 2006 Vince Young” item. But I decided Sunday that my equation was not accurate. 2011 Tim Tebow doesn’t equal 2006 Vince Young; he is a caricature of 2006 Vince Young. He is 2006 Vince Young multiplied by a factor I have yet to identify.

2006 Vince Young sometimes made up for poor play with late-game heroics. 2011 Tim Tebow does that every single week.

2006 Vince Young attempted fewer passes than his peers and struggled with accuracy. 2011 Tim Tebow has attempted fewer passes than anyone who has started 6 or more games and has completed only 45.5 percent of them.

2006 Vince Young set a record for rookie quarterbacks by rushing for 552 yards. 2011 Tebow has already run for 455 in 9 games (including 2 early games in which he saw limited action).

2006 Vince Young took a once hopeless team to the brink of the Playoffs. Considering Denver’s remaining opponents (home games against Caleb Hanie’s Bears and Tyler Palko’s Chiefs and road games against the Vikings and Bills to offset a probable Week 15 loss to New England), I expect 2011 Tebow’s once hopeless Broncos to host a Playoff game.

The bad news for Tim Tebow: 2007 Vince Young wasn’t nearly as effective as 2006 Vince Young. Opposing coaches figured him out.

The good news for Tim Tebow: If Young had even half of Tebow’s attitude, he’d still be starting for the Titans. (I’m not sure that it’s possible to have half an attitude, but you know what I mean.)

4. The Texans will make the Playoffs, with or without a quarterback.

The Houston Texans are the only NFL team never to make the Playoffs. The Texans have finished over .500 only once in 9 seasons. (That was 2009. They were 9-7 and in a 4-way tie for the 2 AFC Wild Card spots. The tiebreakers favored the Jets and Ravens.)

At the moment the Texans are 8-3, 2 games ahead of Tennessee. The Texans also have a perfect record against the AFC South, including a 41-7 win over the Titans in Nashville, giving them the advantage should they need a tiebreaker. The problem is that Houston doesn’t have a quarterback. Starter Matt Schaub is out for the season with a fractured foot. Backup Matt Leinart fractured his collarbone during the first half of Sunday’s game against the Jaguars. Leinart will likely have surgery this week and is out indefinitely.

Third-stringer T.J. Yates, a rookie from North Carolina drafted in the 5th round who doesn’t even have a picture to accompany his ESPN.com player card, stepped in and played well enough not to give away the game. (Yates led only a single scoring drive; it resulted in a field goal late in the second quarter.) Yates will start again on Sunday, and the Texans plan to sign another quarterback this week. (Jeff Garcia, Brodie Croyle, Trent Edwards, and Jake Delhomme all have been mentioned as possibilities. I’m not sure any of these players is a significant upgrade over Yates, who at least has the advantages of being in shape and knowing the Texans’ offense.)

Who knows…Houston could end up playing a wide receiver at quarterback before the season is over. It worked for Kentucky.

But the Texans still have Adrian Foster, Ben Tate, and a top-5 defense. And they have that aforementioned 2-game lead over the Titans. The Titans could conceivably go 4-1 down the stretch. (They have games against a reeling Bills team, Jacksonville, Indianapolis, and quarterback-less Houston.) Even so, Houston would need only 2 wins to keep pace. They can get those at home against the Panthers in Week 15 and on the road against the Colts in Week 16.

5. The Packers will finish the regular season undefeated, unless they choose not to.

The Discount Double Check guy won't be disappointed any time soon.

I don’t care that the Packers are ranked 31st in pass defense and 25th in rushing. They’re going undefeated, unless Mike McCarthy decides to rest players after the Packers clinch home field throughout the Playoffs. Green Bay has games remaining against the Giants (away), Raiders (home), Chiefs (away), Bears (home), and Lions (home). None of those teams is bad, but none of them is going to beat the Packers.

The Lions on Thursday had the best chance of anyone to put a blemish on the Packers’ record. They were a division rival playing at home in a game with Playoff implications. But after halftime that game was never really in doubt.

The Giants, and their 3-game losing streak, will be playing on short rest when they host Green Bay next week. Caleb Hanie’s Bears aren’t going into Lambeau and upsetting the Packers. And I don’t expect either of the AFC West teams to put up much of a fight. Maybe the Lions, perhaps needing a win to secure a Wild Card spot, will surprise the Pack in a Week 17 revenge game. But don’t count on it.

6. Conference championship games might not be a good idea.

Thanks to Utah’s inexplicable home loss to Colorado and USC’s postseason ineligibility, 6-6 UCLA will be playing in the inaugural Pac-12 Championship Game. If the Bruins win, they will go to the Rose Bowl. If they lose, they will be ineligible for any bowl. Pac-12 teams play 9 conference games: 5 against teams in their division, 4 against teams in the other division. After a 9-game season, Oregon and Stanford are both 8-1. Yet 5-4 UCLA is one fluke win away from being the conference’s representative in one of college football’s premier bowl games.

Meanwhile in the SEC, even if Georgia were to beat #1 LSU in the conference championship game, LSU could remain #1 in the BCS. At worst the Tigers (because of their strength of schedule and a lack of undefeated teams from leagues stronger than Conference USA) would be #2. Depending on how Oklahoma State fares against Oklahoma, #2 Alabama could remain at #2, behind LSU, or rise to #1. We could end up with a situation where Georgia wins the SEC but LSU and Alabama play for a BCS National Championship. And Alabama could actually benefit from not having to play this weekend. The Tide doesn’t have to worry about picking up a second loss, losing key players to injury, etc.

At 7-1 Michigan State is a game better than any other team in the Big Ten, including Wisconsin, whom the Spartans beat on October 22. Yet, Michigan State has to face the Badgers a second time for the Big Ten title. The winner goes to the Rose Bowl. The loser could be passed over for a BCS Bowl spot in favor of Michigan, who didn’t qualify for the Big Ten Championship Game. (More on that later.)

Conference championship games aren’t going away. They make too much money for conferences and member schools. But they don’t make a lot of sense.

7. Michigan Wolverines fans shouldn’t plan on going to a BCS bowl game.

During Saturday’s broadcast of the Michigan-Ohio State game, broadcasters Dave Pasch and Chris Spielman (and not Urban Meyer) intimated that a BCS bowl bid was on the line for Michigan. Conventional wisdom says that, if the Wolverines—with their tradition and ginormous fan base that travels well—are eligible, a BCS bowl will take them as one of 4 at-large teams.

The question is: Will Michigan be eligible?

Ten teams play in BCS bowl games. Six are the winners of the automatic-qualifying conferences. One of the 4 remaining at-large spots will go to #4 Stanford. A team from a BCS conference that doesn’t win its conference but is ranked 3rd or 4th is guaranteed a BCS bid (provided that its conference hasn’t already earned 2 automatic bids). If Houston wins the Conference USA title next week, the Cougars will clinch another of the 4 spots. A third of the 4 slots will go to either LSU or Alabama, depending on whether LSU wins the SEC Championship game. If Georgia wins but LSU and Alabama remain as the #1 and #2 teams, the SEC will get 3 bids, including 2 at-large bids, and there will be no spots left for Michigan.

Michigan also has to finish in the top 14 of the BCS Standings to be eligible. Right now they’re #16. The Wolverines will probably jump the loser of the Big Ten title game; and they’ll probably jump Georgia if the Bulldogs lose to LSU. Otherwise, they’ll have to hope that Oklahoma State beats Oklahoma by a wide margin or that Kansas State loses to Iowa State.

Even then Michigan likely won’t rise above #14 in the BCS Standings. And who knows? Maybe the people at the Sugar Bowl will say, “How could we take #14 Michigan before #7 Boise State? That wouldn’t be fair!” (I’m just kidding. They’d never say that.)

8. Vanderbilt is bowl eligible.

For only the 2nd time since 1982 and only the 5th time ever, the Vanderbilt Commodores are going bowling. Sure, it helps that more than 63 percent of Division I-FBS teams get bowl invites, but after consecutive 2-10 seasons in Nashville, going 6-6 and nabbing a bowl bid is a big deal for Vandy and first-year coach James Franklin.

The Commodores reached the magical number 6 despite plenty of same-old-Vandy moments along the way. On their way into the end zone to clinch an upset of then #10 Arkansas on October 19, Vanderbilt fumbled the ball on the Arkansas 4-yard line; the Razorbacks returned the fumble 96 yards for a touchdown. Against Tennessee, Vandy quarterback Jordan Rodgers (Aaron’s little brother) threw an interception on the game’s final drive and another one in the first overtime. The first interception denied the Commodores a chance to attempt a game-winning field goal. Tennessee returned the second for a game-winning touchdown.

Vanderbilt came within a play of winning 4 of the 6 games they lost. And the future is bright for the Commodores. Next year they welcome the highest-rated recruiting class in school history, and 5-star quarterback prospect (and Indiana de-commit) Gunner Kiel reportedly made an unofficial visit last weekend and has an official visit scheduled this weekend.

9. Indiana is back.

Here I switch from football to basketball.

The Indiana football team, which failed to win a single game against an FBS opponent and could lose Gunner Kiel to Vanderbilt, is anything but back.

The Indiana basketball Hoosiers, however, got their biggest win of the young season Sunday, beating Butler 75-59 at Assembly Hall. (I could argue that Indiana’s victory against Evansville was a bigger deal, since it was on the road and since Evansville beat Butler. But Evansville hasn’t played in consecutive Final Fours.)

Indiana is 6-0 going into Wednesday’s game against NC State. And while the NCAA Selection Committee won’t care about IU’s wins over Chattanooga or Gardner-Webb, the Hoosiers have been impressive thus far in games against inferior competition. Indiana has won its 6 games by an average of 24 points; freshman Cody Zeller has exceeded lofty expectations, leading the Hoosiers in points and rebounds and shooting .725 from the field; and while depth could be a problem for Indiana, sophomore Will Sheehey is contributing 13 points per game off the bench.

If you want real Indiana Basketball analysis, check out Jerod and Andy’s IU Postgame Show, The Assembly Call.

And in case you missed it on Sunday:

10. So is Rick Majerus.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Rick Majerus, who learned under Al McGuire at Marquette, was one of the great coaches in college basketball. His 1988-89 Ball State Cardinals went 29-3 and nearly upset eventual champion UNLV in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. Nine years later, he led Utah to the NCAA Championship Game. The Utes surrendered a double-digit lead and lost to Kentucky 78-69.

In 2004 Majerus retired due to health concerns. He returned to college basketball in 2007 as the coach of the St. Louis Billikens, but he has yet to earn an NCAA Tournament bid at SLU. His 2009 team went to the CBI final, but last year’s squad went 12-19.

Last night the Billikens beat Oklahoma 83-63 to win the 76 Classic. St. Louis is 6-0 with four double-digit wins against teams from major conferences (Oklahoma, Villanova, Boston College, and Washington). The Atlantic 10 is as good as it has ever been, but don’t be surprised to see St. Louis next to a single-digit number on your NCAA Tournament bracket.

Rick Majerus, with a Billiken (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

11. Expect a Horizon League team to make a deep run in March.

I’m not one to doubt Brad Stevens, but from what I’ve seen so far from Butler I can’t see the Bulldogs making a third consecutive run to the Final Four. But I expect another Horizon League team to be alive deep into the NCAA Tournament.

I’m talking, of course, about the Green Bay Lady Phoenix.

Following wins this weekend over Illinois and #25 Georgia Tech, the Phoenix are 5-0, #23 in the AP Poll, and #18 in the coaches’ poll. Seniors Julie Wojta (the team’s leading scorer) and Hannah Quilling (the team leader in assists) have advanced to the NCAA Tournament in each of their three seasons in Green Bay. As freshmen, they lost in the first round. As sophomores, they lost in the second round. Last year, they made it to the Sweet 16.

So when you print out your Women’s NCAA Tournament bracket in a few months, pencil in the Green Bay Phoenix for the Elite Eight.

Keep an eye on Francis Creek, Wisconsin's own Julie Wojta and the Green Bay Phoenix. (Photo from GreenBayPhoenix.com)

12. You need to see The Muppets if you haven’t already.

The Muppets didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but my expectations were impossibly high. It is a great movie, true to the spirit of the Muppets, and there are gags, musical numbers, and celebrity cameos for moviegoers of every demographic. Jason Segel and Amy Adams give great performances, as do Fozzie, Beaker, and Rowlf.

Most importantly, my kids haven’t stopped talking about it.

See it if you haven’t already.

Last week, I was critical of the Disney Channel Original Movie Geek Charming. A few hours after the article posted, I got an e-mail notification that someone named Robin Palmer was following me on Twitter. It turns out that Robin Palmer wrote the novel, Geek Charming, on which the movie was based.

So now I feel bad. For what it’s worth, my wife, Ashlee, enjoyed Geek Charming and was upset that I panned it.

Anyway. Here’s what we learned this weekend.

1. We will remember November 2011 as one of the worst months in sports history.

Between the situation at Penn State and the death of Joe Frazier, November was already a bad month. But things got considerably worse this weekend.

Late last week, two former Syracuse ball boys accused long-time assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine of sexually abusing them when they were minors. (More on that later.)

Friday morning news broke that Oklahoma State head women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant Miranda Serna died in a plane crash while on a recruiting trip. The pilot and his wife also died. Budke took over the Cowgirls in 2005 and in his second season led them to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1996. He was only 50. Serna was 36.

Saturday an accident involving a U-Haul van killed a fan tailgating before the Harvard-Yale game. Two others were injured.

Yesterday friends of Arkansas redshirt-freshman tight end Garrett Uekman found the 19-year-old dead in his dorm room. The cause of death is unknown, but authorities say there are no “suspicious circumstances.”

A week ago I was devastated to learn that negotiations between NBA owners and players had broken down, that the National Basketball Players Association head dissolved, that players were filing anti-trust suits against the NBA, and that we could lose an entire season. Now all of that seems trivial.

2. Syracuse is not Penn State, but …

The situation at Syracuse and the situation at Penn State both involve allegations of child sexual abuse against high-profile assistant coaches. Both cases involve nationally prominent programs run by coaches who are Hall-of-Famers in their respective sports. But the similarities end there.

When we learned about the allegations against former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, a district attorney’s investigation had identified 8 victims, and witnesses had testified before a grand jury. Right now, all we have against Syracuse assistant head basketball Bernie Fine is allegations. Two former Syracuse ball boys, who are also step-brothers, have claimed that Fine assaulted them between the late 1970s and early 1990s. A police investigation is underway.

According to Kevin Quinn, Syracuse senior vice president for public affairs, an adult male contacted the university in 2005 and alleged that Fine had touched him inappropriately many years earlier. Quinn told ESPN’s Outside the Lines.

On hearing of the allegations in 2005, the University immediately launched its own comprehensive investigation through its legal counsel. That nearly four-month long investigation included a number of interviews with people the complainant said would support his claims. All of those identified by the complainant denied any knowledge of wrongful conduct by the associate coach. The associate coach also vehemently denied the allegations.

That said, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim is wrong to dismiss the accusations and to say of the accusers, “I believe they saw what happened at Penn State and they are using ESPN to get money.” Victims of child abuse are often reluctant to come forward. If Fine’s accusers are telling the truth, it isn’t at all surprising that it took the mess at Penn State for them to have the courage to speak up.

For the time being, it’s best to let the investigation run its course and not to draw any conclusions about Bernie Fine, the alleged victims, or the situation at Syracuse. But I will add this: Children and youth should never share a hotel room (or tent) with an adult who isn’t one of their parents. (And “like a father” doesn’t count as a parent.) This rule protects kids from abuse; it also protects adults from false accusations.

3. Nine teams are still alive for the BCS Championship Game.

No matter how much I don’t think it shouldn’t happen, LSU and Alabama appear to be on track to meet in the BCS National Championship Game. But if one or both of those teams loses next weekend, all sorts of interesting things could happen.

If LSU beats #3 Arkansas and Alabama loses to Auburn, Oklahoma State, who is still ranked #2 by most of the computers, will regain its #2 ranking. But OSU plays Oklahoma the following week. If the Cowboys were to lose the Bedlam game, Virginia Tech—despite the Hokies’ lack of quality voids—could be next in line. I say “could” because Virginia Tech plays rival Virginia in Charlottesville this weekend with the ACC Coastal title on the line. If the Hokies survive that game, they face Clemson in the ACC Championship Game. Clemson beat Virginia Tech 23-3 in October.

If Virginia Tech slips up, Stanford could get a shot. But the Cardinal, who barely escaped Cal, have a difficult game against Notre Dame this Saturday. Even if Stanford beats the Irish, the Cardinal have a couple strikes against them: 1) Unless Oregon State upsets Oregon in the Civil War game (and they won’t), Stanford won’t even win its division, let alone its conference. Voters don’t like to put teams that don’t win their conference into national title games. (See Michigan, 2006.) 2) The computers hate Stanford. Five of the 6 BCS computers rank the Cardinal 8th or lower.

Immediately below Stanford is Boise State, the only team in the top 8 unlikely to lose any of its remaining games (but don’t sleep on 7-3 Wyoming). The computers give Boise a slight edge over Stanford, but the Broncos also won’t be winning their conference. (And I can’t imagine Harris Poll voters sending the #2 team in the Mountain West to the BCS Title game.) So if Boise State is in position to ascend to #2, don’t be surprised if undefeated, #8 Houston jumps them.

Then again, Houston plays at Tulsa on Friday. All 3 of Tulsa’s losses have come to teams currently ranked in the Top 10 (#4 Oklahoma State, #7 Boise State, and #9 Oklahoma). If Houston loses to Tulsa, or in the C-USA Championship Game, 2-loss Oklahoma (whom the computers love) might get a chance. In this scenario, I’m assuming that Oklahoma will be ahead of 2-loss Alabama and 2-loss Arkansas in the computers and that voters will give the Sooners an edge to avoid a title-game rematch.

If Alabama beats Auburn and LSU loses to Arkansas things get really messy. The Tigers, Tide, and Hogs would be in a three-way tie in the SEC West that would be settled by the 8th tiebreaker:

The tied team with the highest ranking in the Bowl Championship Series Standings following the last weekend of regular-season games shall be the divisional representative in the SEC Championship Game, unless the second of the tied teams is ranked within five-or-fewer places of the highest ranked tied team. In this case, the head-to-head results of the top two ranked tied teams shall determine the representative in the SEC Championship Game.

In short, it would come down to the head-to-head result of the two teams with the highest BCS ranking. That would be determined by the voters. In that situation, either of the two one-loss SEC West teams that don’t qualify for the conference championship game could end up playing for a national championship.

4. The NFL’s definition of a catch is nonsensical.

With less than 6 minutes remaining in Sunday’s Cincinnati-Baltimore game Bengals QB Andy Dalton (who looks eerily like disgraced Penn State QB coach Mike McQueary) found tight end Jermaine Gresham for what appeared to be a 9-yard touchdown strike. After batting the ball around, Gresham established possession, got his right foot down (in bounds), got his left foot down (in bounds) and clearly crossed the plane of the end zone with the ball in his possession. Touchdown?

Jermaine Gresham, after establishing possession, gets his second foot down. (Cincinnait Enquirer/Jeff Swinger)

No. Gresham was unable to maintain possession as he went to the ground. The impact caused the ball to come loose, and even though the “ground can’t cause a fumble,” the ground can cause a receiver not to have possession. It doesn’t matter that Gresham had already crossed the plane. It’s the old “Calvin Johnson rule.” The refs made the correct call. They were just enforcing a bad rule.

Bengals fans shouldn’t be too upset. Even if the catch had counted, Cincinnati still would have needed that last-minute touchdown that they were unable to score.

5. NASCAR found its equivalent to overtime in Game 7.

While this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup wasn’t the first to come down to the final race, it was easily the most dramatic. Going into Sunday’s race at Homestead-Miami Speedway, 3 points separated #1 Carl Edwards and #2 Tony Stewart.

Edwards took an early lead on Sunday and led 119 of the race’s 267 laps. Early on, Stewart’s crew discovered a hole in his grill. After repairs Stewart was stuck in 40th place. In a race that stopped twice for rain delays, Stewart passed a total of 118 cars before taking the lead on the final restart. Edwards worked his way up to second place, and the two contenders ran first and second for the last several dozen laps. Stewart held of Edwards to force a tie in the standings (2403 points each). The tie-breaker went to Stewart, who won 5 of the 10 Chase races.

I seldom watch NASCAR, but I couldn’t turn away from it Sunday night.

6. Major League Soccer has marketing problems.

I think the MLS Cup Final is tonight. But I haven’t heard a word about it all week. Maybe I got the date wrong. Maybe it’s next Sunday. I should check on that.
—Me, yesterday afternoon

Major League Soccer crowned its champion last night, in prime time on ESPN. The game involved the league’s most marketable franchise—the LA Galaxy—and, by extension, its two most marketable stars—Landon Donovan and David Beckham.

But I honestly didn’t hear a word about this game all week.

I don’t know whether to blame MLS or ESPN. Probably both. ESPN actually had two major championships yesterday: the MLS Cup Final and the aforementioned Sprint Cup final. It should have been a huge deal. But, for whatever reason, it wasn’t.

For those of you who were watching Eagles-Giants, it was a great match. The Galaxy were clearly the better team, but the Houston Dynamo (supported by a few thousand orange-clad fans who made the trip to southern California) kept it interesting. Donovan scored the winning goal in the 72nd minute on an assist from Robbie Keane.

ESPN’s Scott French wrote that this year’s Galaxy side could be the best team that Major League Soccer has ever seen. It’s too bad more people didn’t get to see them play.

7. The Muppets currently has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Eleven reviews are in. All positive. Wednesday can’t come soon enough.

This week, I explain how a 1- or 2-loss team from a non-AQ league could realistically clinch a BCS bowl bid, why Oregon is more deserving than Alabama of a rematch with LSU, and why Major League Soccer needs to shift its schedule or risk losing casual fans.

But first things first.

1. Fear the Purple.

My Evansville Purple Aces opened the new Ford Center in downtown Evansville Saturday with a 80-77 overtime win against the two-time NCAA runners-up Butler Bulldogs. The Aces trailed by 13 points well into the second half, but came back to briefly take the lead with 4:00 remaining. With 0.9 on the clock Colt Ryan went to the line with Evansville down one. He hit one of two to tie the game.

On the ensuing in-bounds play Butler threw the ball the length of the floor to center Andrew Smith who hit what may or may not have been a buzzer-beating layup. After much deliberation the officials decided that Smith had been fouled before the shot with 0.2 left on the clock. Smith missed both free-throws, sending the game into overtime.

Evansville never trailed in the extra period, but they also never led by more than 3. Butler had plenty of chances, but the Aces prevailed.

My view from the very top row of Evansville's new Ford Center during Saturday's Evansville-Butler game.

Playing their first game in their new building certainly gave the Aces an emotional boost, Butler was missing a few players, and there were plenty of strange calls that might have turned the game one way or other. But this was no fluke.

This is the most talented Evansville squad since the team that earned an at-large bid to the 1999 NCAA Tournament. Ryan, who had 7 rebounds and 5 steals to go with 23 points (on what was, by his standards, a poor shooting night), could be a Missouri Valley Player of the Year candidate. He no longer spends most of the game behind the three-point arc; he gets to the basket. He’s also the Aces’ best defender and is capable of guarding any position.

Evansville’s weakness is size. For much of Saturday’s game the tallest player on the floor for Evansville was 6-6. It will be interesting to see how the Aces fare against Cody Zeller and Indiana, who visit the Ford Center on Wednesday.

2. Butler will have its hands full in the Horizon League.

Butler fans shouldn’t worry too much about losing to Evansville. The Bulldogs lost a November overtime game to Evansville last year and ended the season in the national championship game. Butler fans should be concerned about the competition they’ll face in their league.

Andy Katz has already pinned Detroit Mercy, with its returning back-court tandem of Chase Simon and Ray McCallum, Jr., as a Horizon League contender. Another team to watch is Cleveland State who went to Nashville on Sunday and beat #7 Vanderbilt 71-58.

3. This could easily be the year when a team from a non-AQ conference clinches a BCS bowl bid without going undefeated.

So far in BCS history every team from a non-automatic qualifying conference to earn an automatic bid to a BCS bowl game—Utah and TCU twice each, Boise and Hawaii once each—has gone undefeated. (The 2009 Boise State team, also undefeated, was invited as an at-large team. Only one non-AQ school per year can clinch a BCS bid; that year the bid went to TCU.)

That could all change this year.

Here is the rule on teams from non-AQ leagues earning an automatic bid:

The highest-ranked champion of a non-BCS conference will receive an automatic berth if:

• It is ranked in the top 12, or
• Ranked in the top 16 and higher than at least one BCS conference champion.

If Houston wins out, the Cougars will clinch a BCS bid. But if Houston slips up and doesn’t win Conference USA, there’s a good chance that a 2-loss TCU team or a 1-loss Southern Mississippi team steals a slot in one of the BCS bowls.

TCU is currently #19 in the BCS standings behind a quartet of Big Ten teams, two of whom are guaranteed to lose another game before the season is over. The Frogs could easily jump two Big Ten teams and (in this hypothetical situation where Houston loses a game) Houston to finish the season at #16. TCU would be the Mountain West champion, would be ranked ahead of the Big East champion (no Big East teams are in the BCS Top 25), and would clinch a BCS bid.

Unless the Frogs get jumped. TCU finishes with home games against Colorado State and UNLV. #20 Southern Mississippi, after two cupcake games of their own, will play either Houston or Tulsa in the Conference USA title game. If the Golden Eagles win that game, the computers could bump them above TCU and (depending on what the voters do) into the #16 spot.

Don't be shocked if the TCU Horned Frogs end up playing in the Sugar Bowl.

4. Oregon has at least as good a case for a spot in the BCS title game as Alabama.

The Oregon Ducks went into Palo Alto Saturday night and put a 53-30 whooping on then #4 Stanford. The Ducks are now 9-1 and alone atop the Pac-12 North. Plenty of analysts have raised the possibility of an Alabama-LSU rematch in the title game. But what about an Oregon-LSU rematch? (Oregon lost 40-27 to LSU in week 1.) If both teams win out (and if Oklahoma State slips up), which is more deserving?

Alabama has exactly two notable wins: Penn State on the road and Arkansas at home. If Oregon wins next week against USC, the Ducks will have two wins that are at least as impressive as Alabama’s, and probably more so. While the SEC is stronger than the Pac-12 overall, if Oregon wins out it will have played 10 conference games to Alabama’s 8 and only 2 non-conference cupcake games to Alabama’s 3. (And that’s only if you count Oregon’s game against 6-3, WAC-leading Nevada as a cupcake game.)

The Tide and the Ducks have one common opponent: #1 LSU. Alabama played LSU closer, losing by a field goal in overtime. But Oregon (who, unlike Alabama, didn’t have the benefit of playing the Tigers at home) did something against LSU that Alabama couldn’t: score points. Oregon scored 27 against Les Miles and company; no one else has scored more than 21.

If both teams win out and it comes down to Oregon and Alabama for one slot in the national championship game (and I don’t think that it will), who goes: a 12-1 team that won its conference and has 1 huge win (Stanford), 2 big wins (USC and the Pac-12 title game), and 2 cupcake wins (1 if you don’t count Nevada) or an 11-1 team that didn’t win its conference and has 1 really big win (Arkansas), 1 big win (Penn State), and 3 cupcake wins?

5. Chris Johnson is back?

The Titans’ maligned, $55-million running back Chris Johnson returned to 2009 (or at least 2008 or 2010) form yesterday, rushing for 130 yards (at an average of 4.8 yards per carry) and one touchdown and gaining another 44 yards receiving.

Lest Titans fans and fantasy owners get too excited, keep in mind that Johnson gained all these yards against Carolina, who is among the NFL’s worst when it comes to defending the run. More than half of CJ’s rushing yards came in the fourth quarter when the Titans’ only objective was to run out the clock against an exhausted Panthers defense. Still, 174 total yards is 174 total yards.

6. Tim Tebow is neither as good nor as bad as people make him out to be.

On the one hand: Tebow makes big plays in big moments; he runs the ball effectively; he doesn’t turn the ball over; he plays hard and has a great attitude; and the Broncos are 3-1 since he took over as the starter.

On the other hand: Tebow went 2-for-8 yesterday; he still has accuracy issues and has completed only 44.8 percent of his passes this season; he was ineffective against the only good defense he has faced (the Lions); and his three wins came against Miami, Oakland (without Jason Campbell), and Kansas City.

In short: Don’t mark “Tim Tebow” on your Pro Bowl ballot, but don’t write him off, either. He could be all right.

7. One of the great championship streaks in sports history is about to end.

Five-time Sprint Cup champion Jimmie Johnson finished 14th in the Phoenix on Sunday, mathematically eliminating him from contention for a 6th consecutive Cup. With one race remaining, next Sunday at Miami, Carl Edwards leads the chase by a mere 3 points over Tony Stewart.

8. Pity the Tulsa Shock.

You didn’t pay any attention to the WNBA Draft Lottery, did you? That’s all right, I did it for you.

The Tulsa Shock finished the 2011 season 3-31, earning them the distinction of having the worst record of any team in a league owned and operated by the NBA. (To be able to say that, I had to review the standings from every D-League season ever played. You’re welcome.)

The hapless Shock, best known for having a roster that includes disgraced track star Marion Jones and 40-year-old un-retired Sheryl Swoopes, went into the lottery with the most ping-pong balls. But, as is common with the Shock, the balls didn’t bounce in their favor. They’ll be picking fourth in next year’s draft.

The top pick, and the rights to presumptive number one selection Nnemkadi Ogwumike from Stanford, goes to the 15-19 Los Angeles Sparks, who are a healthy Candace Parker away from being a contender.

Things can't get much worse for the Tulsa Shock. (AP photo)

9. Two weeks off before the final works in the NFL. It doesn’t work for Major League Soccer.

Last weekend the Houston Dynamo beat Sporting Kansas City and the L.A. Galaxy beat Real Salt Lake to advance to the MLS Cup Final. (In both cases the team with the North American-style “[name of city/state] [nickname]” name beat the team with the European-style name. For what that’s worth.)

The problem is that the MLS Cup Final isn’t until November 20. The first three rounds of the MLS Playoffs took place in a span of 12 days, from October 26 through November 6. Now there are 14 days of nothing before next weekend’s final.

Major League Soccer didn’t say, “Let’s take a two-week break between the semi-finals and the final to kill any momentum we might have going in our favor.” The league has to honor a FIFA-imposed November break for international matches. Many European players are playing games to earn their countries a spot in the European Championship; several American players were involved in Friday’s friendly against France and will be involved in tomorrow’s friendly against Slovenia.

Regardless of the reasoning for the fortnight-without-MLS, it isn’t doing the league any good. The NFL can take a two-week break before its championship without anyone losing interest. Major League Soccer cannot.

Full-time soccer fans might not care about this 14-day gap. But if Major League Soccer wants to rival the popularity of other major pro sports leagues, it needs to sell itself to idiots like me. After not hearing any soccer scores for 7 days, I just assumed that I’d missed the MLS Cup Final—that it had gotten lost amid the Penn State coverage. Surely I’m not the only one.

I would advise Major League Soccer to shift its schedule so that this doesn’t happen in the future. (Apparently, ESPN’s Leander Schaerlaeckens agress with me.)

10. Disney Channel whiffed on its latest Original Movie.

Disney, which in the past 18 months has given us great films like Den Brother and Lemonade Mouth, took a big step backwards with its latest Original Movie.

Geek Charming, which debuted this weekend, was just one teen movie cliché after another.

The popular girl (played by the older daughter from Modern Family) openly obsesses about maintaining her popularity and is always flanked by two slightly less popular henchwomen; the titular geek is at least as good looking as his more popular rivals, even if every other character is oblivious to this fact; the geek, upon getting a taste of popularity, forgets about his geek friends and has to win back their favor. In the end, the popular girl realizes that being popular isn’t really important and gives her heart to the geek, shaking the foundations of the entire high school caste system.

It was ridiculous. But I watched every single minute.

**********

Josh Tinley is the author of Kneeling in the End Zone: Spiritual Lessons From the World of Sports. Follow him at twitter.com/joshtinley or send him an e-mail.

(And as usual, I find a way to bring up the Evansville Purple Aces.)

Click play on the players below to listen:

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Music notes:

• The opening song is “Smooth Disturbance” by my old band, the National Biscuit Company.
• The closing song is “Numbers” by another of my old bands, Three Hit Combo.
• (I use my own music so that I don’t have to worry about rights and such.)

Neither article endorses the idea of a championship rematch, but both articles (along with several others) serve to legitimize the debate. Clay Travis, of Outkick the Coverage and 104.5 in Nashville, has been an outspoken advocate of a title-game rematch on his radio show and on Twitter. (He’s certain that Oklahoma State will lose to Oklahoma, clearing a path for Saturday’s loser.)

Exhausted as I am by the hype surrounding the LSU-Alabama game, I understand where rematch proponents are coming from, even if I don’t agree.

The Argument For an LSU-Alabama Rematch

If we are convinced that the Tigers and Tide are the two best teams in the nation (and if I had a vote in a poll of any significance, I’d probably rank them #1 and #2), then one shouldn’t be penalized for losing to the other. Unless one team wins by a large margin Saturday evening, it shouldn’t be too hard to make a convincing case that LSU and Alabama are still the two best teams.

And, in theory, the two best teams (as determined by coaches, panelists selected by the conferences, and the computers) should play in the BCS National Championship Game.

"I could be the Jimmy Chitwood of college football, if only you'd give me a chance."

My Argument Against an LSU-Alabama Rematch

Here’s the problem: Division I-FBS college football is a sport with 120 teams, each of which plays a 12- or 13-game season, that decides its champion with a 2-team playoff. It is the only major sport in which a team can be eliminated from championship contention without ever being defeated. Most of the best teams never meet.

Perhaps the most common defense of the current system is the idea that, in college football, every week is a playoff. During the average season, there is at least one game each week that has direct championship implications. (Granted, there are about 57 that don’t, but whatever.) A game in October has the potential to eliminate a team from championship contention.

While there are obvious flaws to a system in which a team’s title hopes can die before Labor Day, a sport that only invites two teams to play for a championship needs regular season de facto elimination games. It needs to be able to say, “You’ve had your title shot. Let’s give someone else a chance.”

This is especially true in the case of LSU and Alabama, who not only meet during the regular season but who also have 6 common opponents (the other 4 SEC West teams and Tennessee and Florida).

An LSU-Alabama rematch in January would be like having two American League teams play for the World Series.

There’s a big college football world out there. Even if we think that LSU and Alabama are the sport’s two best teams, another squad (whether Stanford or Boise or even a one-loss Big 12 team) deserves an opportunity to prove itself. We won’t know how any of these teams would fare against the LSU-Alabama winner if none of these teams doesn’t get a chance to play Saturday’s winner.

A system that already relies too heavily on assumptions needs as many match-ups between top teams as possible to test these assumptions.

"You come after me! I'm a man! I'm #1 in 6 of the 7 computer polls!"

Of course, all of this talk is premature.

It assumes that both LSU and Alabama will win all of their remaining games. It’s entirely possible (however unlikely) that LSU could lose to Arkansas or that Alabama could lose the Iron Bowl or that Georgia or South Carolina could pull an upset in the SEC Championship Game. It also assumes that Oklahoma State, currently #1 in 6 of the 7 computer polls, will not finish the season undefeated. If the Cowboys win out and beat Oklahoma, they will—for all intents and purposes—clinch a spot in the Championship Game.

But considering the limitations of the BCS system, tomorrow’s contest needs to function as an elimination game.

**********

Follow Josh at twitter.com/joshtinley.

———-

Last night’s BCS Championship Game (since they evidently won’t let the winner play TCU) crystallized why it is that we all watch so much sports: because you never know when you are going to see something great or memorable. Either a team or an individual performs at such a high and unexpected level that it makes what you are witnessing remarkable.  And you never forget it, or where you were when you saw it. This is the modern day version of what my parents told me about things like Kennedy being shot, putting a man on the moon, or the Beatles first going on the Ed Sullivan Show (yes, the same Beatles who my 10-year old insists are not as talented or as famous as Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga).

Don’t get me wrong.  Last night’s game was not great in the usual sense.  It was sloppy.  Both teams made lots of mistakes and showed the rust of what seemed like a 17-week layoff.  But in the end, those last five minutes…what an exciting ending.

It all started with few points, interceptions, turnovers on downs (two of which happened on the 1-yard line), and Chip Kelly’s usual shenanigans (as Bill Raftery would say, “ONIONS”).  If you were watching the game but not paying attention to the score, you would have thought Auburn had salted this baby away.  They were bigger, stronger, dominated both lines of scrimmage, and were fast enough to neutralize the speed that some thought would be Oregon’s big advantage.  But the Ducks scratched and clawed and seemingly kept it a one score game through sheer grit.

With about 5 minutes remaining, Oregon is forced to punt down by 8 points, and it just was obvious that Auburn was going to pound Oregon into submission and kill the clock.  After a run and timeout on first down, it started.  Casey Matthews, son of Clay and brother of, er, Clay, came from behind Cam Newton and poked the ball free.  My big takeaways from this play were that 1) the entire Matthews family really, really believes in the story of  Samson, and 2) Auburn had not met Cecil Newton’s demands for taking care of the ball on a National Championship clinching drive.  Oregon again quickly gets to 4^th down by showing they have no ability to do anything on offense against the 8^th or 9^th ranked defense in the SEC.  And then with their last chance, they complete a short pass, use a pick play from the umpire who has clearly bet on Oregon, and run it all the way into the red zone. After banging their heads against the Auburn wall a couple more times, and sitting just outside the end zone, they waste a timeout, leaving them with only one. I am thinking at this point this game is over because there is no way they can possibly score against this defense on consecutive plays, which, being down 8, is what they need to do to tie the game.  Of course, they immediately score on two consecutive plays, the second of which was on a terrible shotgun snap follow by the QB blindly throwing the ball across his body, of course for a completion.

But what is the old adage….don’t leave too much time on the clock.  Which they did.

Auburn then ran it right down their throats, with the freshman running back Dyer (who broke Bo Jackson’s Freshman rushing record; Bo may know, but Dyer does) running through, over and around the defense.  Of course the memorable play happened when he was tackled, rolled around on the defender for a while, got up, stopped, and then ran another 30+ yards into field goal range. (By the way, what if he would have thought he would have thought he was down, and put the ball down…GREATEST. STORYLINE. EVER).  The refs reviewed, and lots of tweets claimed his arm or wrist was down, but I think the refs got it right. No way you can overturn that call on the evidence that I saw (on another unrelated note, the replay system in college is horrendous; they need to revamp it or scrap it, unless I truly don’t understand what indisputable visual evidence means).  Anyway, the game was essentially over there.  If I were Chip Kelly, I let Auburn score immediately and get the ball back with just over a minute left and one timeout.  Hell, that is the average scoring drive for Oregon this year.  But he chose to play it straight, we had another review, and Auburn won on an anticlimactic field goal on the last play.

Like I said, this wasn’t the greatest played game in history, there was not a performance so spectacular that he single-handedly carried him team to victory, and in the end won’t go down as one of the great games of all-time. But it was exciting.  And it got me thinking.  What are some of the most memorable events that I have been fortunate enough to witness.  So I put together a list of my Elite 8.  Feel free to add your favorites in the comments section.  This is a work in progress (disclaimer: I follow Philadelphia teams most closely, and I am one of the evil people who is a Duke fan (an alum, so I can’t help it!), so my list will be slanted that way….)

#8. Los Angeles Dodgers 5, Oakland A’s 4. October 15, 1988, Game 1, World Series. The swing that changed history.  Look, I freely admit, I don’t remember a thing about this game before the 9^th inning.  It is a safe assumption, as a senior in college, there were drinking games of some sort involved.  My friends and I watched in the 9^th inning as Dennis Eckersley, the unhittable closer for the A’s, faced NL MVP Kirk Gibson.  Gibson was so banged up (2 bad legs) and sick with the flu as well, that this was to be his only plate appearance of the entire series.  With the A’s ahead 4-3, and a man on first, Gibson one handed a 3-2 slider over the fence for an improbable, almost impossible ending.  The image of him gimping around the bases, fist pumping, is one of baseball’s lasting images over my lifetime.

#7 Philadelphia Eagles v. New York Giants. Multiple Events. This is just the gift that keeps on giving.  It is groundhog’s day in football.  It all started in 1978 with the Miracle at the Meadowlands, when Herm Edwards, Eagles cornerback, picked up a fumble between Joe Pisarcik and Larry Csonka (when all the G-Men had to do was kneel on the ball but chose not to), and rumbled into the End Zone for an impossible win.  Well, this was beyond a miracle, but it kept on happening, always at the Giants’ house.  I guess we can call this the curse of Jimmy Hoffa.  In 1989, the teams went to OT.  When Luis Zendejas (later famous as protagonist in Buddy Ryan’s Bounty Bowl) had his field goal blocked by Lawrence Taylor, Eagles Defensive End Clyde Simmons picked up the ball and ran it into the end zone (I have never seen this happen before or since!).  In 2003, the Eagles were off to a terrible start with a 2-3 record.  They were awful the entire game, were trailing 10-7 with under 2 minutes left, and the Giants had to punt.  Did they kick out of bounds?  Noooooo.  They kicked to Brian Westbrook, and he ran it back for a TD.  And we all remember this year.  7 minutes, 30 seconds.  4 touchdowns.  Capped off by a punt return by DeSean Jackson with no time left on the clock when they could have watched the 2003 game tape and kicked it out of bounds.  The Giants are the gift that keeps on giving!!!  But at least their fans still have the Mets.

#6 Buster Douglas v. Mike Tyson. February 11, 1990. This was notable in that it is the one event on this list that I did not see live.  In fact, I did not even know about it until the following day.  Mike Tyson was a beast.  He burst on the scene at age 18, won the title at age 20.  He didn’t just beat people, he destroyed them.  He knocked out Joe Frazier’s kid in 30 seconds.  He dismantled Michael Spinks in half a round.  He was completely indestructible and unbeatable.  And he was a 42:1 favorite against a journeyman with 4 losses, a draw and a no contest.  The fight was in Japan, and nobody watched.  This was 21 years ago before the Internet and Twitter and so information wasn’t quite as pervasive. So the next morning I went to a Diner for breakfast in DC where I lived at the time, and saw it on the front page.  I was floored.  Well, not Mike Tyson floored, but blown away.  That was all I could think about the entire morning.  Needless to say, I soon watched that fight. And Mike Tyson never really bounced back, until he appeared in The Hangover.

#5 Phillies v. Reds. October 6, 2010. Game 1, NLDS. The Phillies got Roy Halladay for Games like this.  Opening Game in the playoffs, they wanted a horse they can give the ball to and know they will get a good outing.  Roy Halladay had never pitched a postseason game during his entire career.  His answer of whether he would be able to stand up to the pressure of a playoff atmosphere was delivered quickly and emphatically.  I raced home for this day game so that I could watch this game with my 7-year old son, a sports fanatic!  I thought it would be cool to watch the opening playoff game together.  Well, after about 4 innings, we moticed that Mr. Halladay had yet to give up a hit.  Our excitement grew each inning, and I tried to explain to Zack that a no hitter had happened in the playoffs a grand total of once, and that was 54 years ago.  When Carlos Ruiz deftly fielded the swinging bunt to preserve history, it was pretty cool.  I don’t know if Zack will remember this forever, but I know his dad will remember watching it with him.

#4 Masters, April 10-13, 1986. Jack Nicklaus. I was a Freshman in college in Spring of 1986 (yes, I am old).  I was still mourning the loss of my beloved Blue Devils a couple weeks earlier to Louisville (one of the few times, in my opinion, that Coach K was outcoached in a game) in the NCAA Championship Game (this was back when Duke was the most popular team in America, not the most hated; I know this is hard to believe now, but this was true until 1992 I think, when thee tide turned, but alas, I digress).  This was a 46 –year old guy in an era when people were not as workout or diet conscious as they are today (i.e., by today’s standards, he was an OLD 46).  Anyway, what casual golf fans or young people don’t remember is that Nicklaus was 6 shots back at the turn, trailing Seve Ballesteros and a host of others.  And then the golden but ancient bear surrounded an eagle at 15 with birdies on 10, 11, 13, 16 and 17.  Just insane.  As crazy as it was to watch that one, the appreciation for how incredible it was has grown for me with each year I get closer to 46, and creak a little bit more than the year before….

#3 Duke v. Maryland. January 27, 2001. Look, you knew there was going to be a Duke game on my list, so stop rolling your eyes.  I considered Duke beating undefeated UNLV in the Final 4 for this spot, as well as the obvious choice, Laettner beating Kentucky in 1992 to get to the Final 4, but I chose this one because it was just miraculous.  The UNLV game was a great overall performance, and the Kentucky game was an incredible shot (similar to the one he hit against UConn to advance to the Final 4 in 1990), but the Maryland game was probably the most exciting and improbably minute of basketball I have ever seen.  Down by 10 points at Cole Field House with 54 seconds remaining, Jayson (now Jay) Williams scored 8 points in 13.1 seconds to cut the lead to 2.  Duke went on to tie the game in regulation and win it in overtime.  It was even better than the Reggie Miller performance against Spike Lee and the Knicks! I give credit to Maryland cause they bounced back a month later and beat Duke in Cameron. However, Duke beat them by a bucket in the ACC finals, and then made another ridiculous comeback against the Terps in the Final 4, coming back from 22 down to beat them, and later go onto win their 3^rd National Championship.  And you wonder why Maryland fans hate Duke so much…

#2 Philadelphia 4, Tampa Bay 3. Game 5, 2008 World Series. There were two amazing things about this game.  First, it took two days to complete. On the night when the city of Philadelphia had a chance to win its first championship in 25 long, long, long years, it rained, forcing the game to be suspended.  It was as if the baseball Gods were saying that if Tampa Bay could keep this drought alive, they would go with the opposite strategy and flood the title away.  But finally, the rain stopped, Pat Burrell got his only hit of the series to know in the winning run, and Brad Lidge completed the greatest season ever by a relief pitcher.  You can throw all the stats you want at me about a better relief season, but Lidge was 48-for-48 in save opportunities including 7 in the postseason, with zero losses for the year as well. Most importantly, he threw the final pitch of the World Series, and unlike Mitch Williams in 1993, nobody hit it.  100 times Philadelphia teams played seasons between championships. 100 times they failed, despite making the playoffs in almost half of them.  This was a magical moment.  For some perspective on what this meant to the people of Philly, click this link: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2008/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3672202. Hang in there Cleveland and Buffalo, your time will come, and it will be memorable!

#1 USA 4, USSR 3. February 22, 1980. It is pretty much impossible that I would have a hockey game at the top of my list.  But I don’t know how you put anything else in this spot.  The team from the Soviet Union was a bunch of professionals, led by the best goalie in the world Tretiak.  They had completely dominated the USA in the exhibitions they had played, and even had a winning record against NHL teams and NHL all stars (6-3-1).  This team was simply invincible, and certainly not going to lose to a team that consisted of college stars who were mostly marginal professional prospects at best.  I was 13 years old.  I had a sleepover at Brad Silver’s house.  And we kicked their ass!  Just amazing.  I will never forget Al Michael screaming “Do You Believe in Miracles? YES” at the end of the game.  And I will never forget two days later after dispatching Finland, Mike Eruzione calling the entire team to the medal stand.  This goes down as the greatest sporting event/moment of my life…SO FAR! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRALJyv86eY&feature=related

So that is my list of great sports moments.  There are hundreds of others that missed the cut but will stay with me forever.  And that is what makes sports so amazing.

The Razorbacks are in the midst of an 8-game win streak with their only losses this season coming to SEC top dogs Alabama and Auburn. Besides a night game loss in Madison, Ohio State plowed through the Big Ten once again to gain a share of their sixth straight Big Ten title.

So what is going to happen when these two programs collide in what is sure to be an exciting game? Let’s look at the game data:

Ohio State-Arkansas Sugar Bowl Game Info

• Ohio State- Arkansas location: The Superdome – New Orleans, LA
• Ohio State- Arkansas Kickoff Time: Tuesday January 4th, 8:30pm EST
• Ohio State- Arkansas TV: ESPN
• Ohio State- Arkansas Announcers:
• Ohio State-Arkansas Line: Ohio State -3.5, Over/under 58.5 (via Betus.com)

Ohio State-Arkansas Sugar Bowl Preview

#8 ARKANSAS (10-2, 6-2 in the SEC):

• Last Game: 31-23 win vs. LSU
• Coach: Bobby Petrino (63-23 career, 22-14 at Arkansas, 3rd year)

photo by ANTHONY REYES

Arkansas is going BCS bowling for the first time since the BCS’ 1998 inception. Coach Petrino is in his second BCS Bowl Game of his career, the first being with Louisville when they won over Wake Forest (24-13) in the 2007 Orange Bowl. Petrino is 3-2 in Bowl games as a head coach, and he just got a huge extension from the University in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

It cannot be overstated that Arkansas’ two losses came in close games to #1-ranked teams in the nation at their respective times. Besides the normal SEC gauntlet, that easily makes them one of the most impressive 10-2 teams this year.

QB Ryan Mallett was absolutely absurd passing the ball in Petrino’s offense this year with a 170.5 pass efficiency rating (3^rd in the nation overall), which was right behind Heisman quarterback invitees Cam Newton and Kellen Moore. Two key things might be an Ohio State advantage on defense though. They are 4^th in the nation in pass defense efficiency (96.9 rating) and the coaching staff has seen Mallett once before when he started for Michigan. Though take it from them, they saw talent in Mallett’s abilities in 2007 and were glad he transferred to Arkansas at the time (until now).

Arkansas’ defense has not been that bad and they have many athletes to compete, but the unit really struggled at times this year. Granted, my perspective is somewhat clouded by the Auburn game when they somehow gave up 28 unanswered points in the fourth quarter with a six point lead. If you want to compare Big Ten and SEC quarterbacks/offenses, Terrelle Pryor and Cam Newton and their offensive schemes could be the most comparable. Point being: Arkansas has experience defending a QB with Pryor’s tendancies, but at some point fourth quarter clutch and athleticism may rule in this game.

#6 OHIO STATE (11-1, 7-1 in the Big Ten):

• Jim Tressel (240-79-2 career, 105-22 at Ohio State, 10th year)
• Last Game: 37-7 win vs. Michigan

The Buckeyes are entering their 8^th BCS Bowl game, the most out of any team in the BCS’s history. They are 4-3 in BCS games, most recently coming off of a Rose Bowl win over Oregon just last year. A red flag for Ohio State this year has been their performance away from Ohio Stadium. Away from Columbus they were 3-1 with a 28-18 avergage score. Meanwhile at home they were 8-0 winning by a 45-11 average score. The Sugar Bowl in New Orleans is not literally a road game, but Arkansas is eating up tickets and will travel well, while Ohio State obviously doesn’t dominate outside of Columbus (and Minnesota when they won 52-10). The last time the Buckeyes were in the Sugar Bowl it was the 2008 NCG versus LSU that resulted in a 38-24 loss.

Sounds like bad news for the Buckeyes right? Except this is a new team, a new year (it will be 2011 when they play), and a new group of seniors who should be ready to prove themselves. This is a team that was about two quarters of bad football against Rose Bowl-bound Wisconsin from being in the National Championship Game. And they are playing a former Michigan man quarterbacking the other team. Sounds like Tressel’s dream motivational pre-game speech…or any good Ohio State head coach’s dream for that matter.

Now, let’s set all of the intangibles aside and look at the key team stats below from 2010 that may decide this big BCS football tilt.

OHIO STATE-ARKANSAS KEY STATS (National ranking):

Ohio State Turnover Margin: +1.17 (3^rd overall)

Arkansas Turnover Margin: +0.17 (43^rd overall)

===

Ohio State 3^rd Down Conversions: 71-155, 45.8% (23^rd overall)

Arkansas 3^rd Down Conversions: 63-149, 42.3% (46^th overall)

===

Ohio State Defense vs. 3^rd Down: 46-153, 30.1% (5^th overall)

Arkansas Defense vs. 3^rd Down: 54-169, 32.0% (6^th overall)

===

Ohio State Overall Offense: 448.5 ypg (18^th overall)

Arkansas Over Offense: 489.3 ypg (10^th overall)

===

Ohio State Overall Defense: 250.6 ypg (2^nd overall)

Arkansas Over Defense: 339.8 ypg (34^th overalll)

===

Ohio State Penalty YPG: 47.1 (43^rd overall)

Arkansas Penalty YPG: 65.3 ypg (109^th overall)

===

Ohio State 5^th year Senior Starting Qbs: 0

Arkansas 5^th year Senior Starting Qbs: 1

===

OHIO STATE-ARKANSAS SUGAR BOWL PREDICTION:

I think Ohio State will sneak out the victory with more clutch defense and QB play in a close one. A big play or two on special teams may decide this one, and statistically Ohio State has the advantage in those areas (and Arkansas has THIS GUY coaching their special teams now). But then again, I would not suggest betting on a team with an enormous “0-9 SEC Bowl Game Monkey” on their back.

Ohio State 26 Arkansas 24.

KVB is 10-1 straight up and 5-6 against the spread on Ohio State this year.

College Football:

• Video: Colt McCoy injured during BCS National Championship Game — (SEC Football Blogger)
• Nick Saban did not like his Gatorade shower last night — (Zoner Sports)
• Texas Longhorns steal a play from The Waterboy — (Guyism)

NFL:

• A gynecologist’s take on Eagles v Cowboys — (The Global Sports Fraternity)
• Corporate Magician Brian Jeff Analyzes Chiefs Hiring Charlie Weis — (Style Points Blog)
• The Broncos’ Need for Change — (Predominantly Orange)
• Just Sin Baby: JaMarcus Does Las Vegas — (Just Blog Baby)

NBA:

• Why Chris Bosh should choose the Bulls — (Not Qualified to Comment)
• Movie Time with Ronnie Turiaf — (That NBA Lottery Pick)
• The card game Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenden were playing sounds like a lethal way to lose money — (Steady Burn)

Golf:

• A Tiger Woods movie in the works? — (Detroit 4 Lyfe)

Misc:

• Stop the TicketMaster Merger Monopoly — (Intentional Foul)
• Great Moments in Unlicensed Pittsburgh Sports Merchandize: City of Champyinz — (PSAMP)
• 10 Not-so-crazy predictions for the next decade in sports — (Randall Simon’s Sausages)
• How to Choose a Domain Name & Choosing a Blog Name — (How-to-Blog.tv)