I’m hoping this will be a lazy Sunday, but you never know. I’ll put together some thoughts here again in bullet form.
- This weekend in college football was one of the best we’ve had in the last few years. Seeing BCS hopefuls Oklahoma State, Oregon and then Oklahoma go down from Friday through Saturday was an amazing sequence. It was like the baseball pennant races where teams want to play spoiler and that’s exactly what we saw the last two days. And the celebrations by Iowa State and Baylor following their upsets of Oklahoma State and Oklahoma respectively showed why college football is one of the best sports around when we get to focus on action on the field.
- In an offshoot, Joe Tessitore is this year’s Gus Johnson. It seems every game he’s had this season has been a barnburner or a massive upset. And he called both upsets of Oklahoma State and Oklahoma on successive days. He’s done all of the games well, been understated and let the action come to him. And he’s stepped up when the games come to a crescendo. ESPN should just assign him to whatever game it feels will have the potential to be exciting because Tessitore’s track record this season is almost perfect.
- While Sundays are mostly focused on the NFL and rightly so, you may not know that ESPN has a championship Sunday today. At 3 p.m. East, there’s the final NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the Miami Homestead Speedway which will decide this year’s champion. And then at 9 p.m., there’s the MLS Cup between the Houston Dynamo and Los Angeles Galaxy. While both won’t draw well in comparison to the NFL games they’re opposite, NASCAR and MLS will get niche numbers. And they’re nice alternatives if the NFL games become blowouts.
- Why do certain analysts feel the need to yell? I’ve written about this in the past, but watching Michael Irvin yell and pound the table this morning speaking about Tim Tebow on NFL GameDay Morning on NFL Network practically drove me to drink at 9 a.m. There’s no need to yell and there’s no need to pound the table. However, every Sunday, Irvin yells, bullies and screams for four hours. And Kevin Millar on MLB Network’s unwatchable Intentional Talk does this as well. I can’t stand either analyst and it’s made for bad television, yet both men still have jobs. I don’t understand it.
- Count me as someone who’s not in love with an extra Wild Card team for MLB. I don’t mind Houston in the AL West, both leagues should have an equal amount of teams. I’m also against having Interleague play every night. Why not rename the American and National League as American Conference and National Conference? The concept is to see teams you rarely get to see in your market, but starting in 2013, Interleague play will be watered down. Bud Selig continues to ruin baseball.
- I’m interested to see how the next round of NFL bidding goes. For the last three TV contracts, the NFL was able to play networks off each other and cause upheaval. In 1994, it was Fox surprising everyone by taking the NFC from long-time incumbent CBS. Then in 1998, it was CBS coming back to the NFL by grabbing the AFC from long-time incumbent NBC. And in 2005, we saw NBC return to the NFL by signing for Sunday Night Football, ESPN taking over Monday Night Football and ABC going out. This time around, I see the existing packages remaining with their current rightsholders. ESPN has already renewed Monday Night Football into the next decade. The interesting race is for the first half of Thursday Night Football. With NBC, Turner and Fox all interested bidders, someone is going to be disappointed.
And those are the thoughts for your Sunday morning.
