The NL Central race was the focus of Monday in daily sports, and so it is again on Tuesday. The second game of the Reds-Cardinals series from St. Louis is the cornerstone of the sports fans’ TV agenda tonight, and will go at 8 PM ET on the MLB Network.
We’re down to anywhere from 35-37 games left in the baseball season, and the issue of the bullpens will loom large, as they always do, in September. What teams are going to suffer the crushing losses that kill playoff hopes? What teams know they’re going to put a game in the win column if they’re up after six innings? TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage focuses in on the American League, to see where this might become a factor.
New York’s arrival back onto the AL playoff race landscape, replacing faltering Kansas City in the wild-card picture is the most significant development of the past week. Here’s a rundown on other notable news in the race…
TheSportsNotebook has been on a boot camp run of college football coverage, having previewed all ten conferences and the major independents. With the season set to start on Thursday night, it’s time to summarize it all and make closing arguments.
The road to Pasadena and the BCS National Championship Game on January 6, begins on Thursday night, with the commencement of college football season. TheSportsNotebook has been busy these past three weeks, with a boot camp run of college football coverage, and now it’s time to tie it all together.
The race for the NL Central title is the only real drama going in the National League playoff race, as we seem to know the five teams that will qualify for the postseason, with three in the Central. But thanks to MLB’s two-year old playoff format, who finishes in first place is of great consequence. And that makes tonight’s Cincinnati-St. Louis game of great consequence.
East Carolina looks to set the pace in the East, but there are viable challengers, led by Marshall and its exciting quarterback Rakeem Cato. The West appears to be a little more stable at the top, with Tulsa and Rice seeming the clear favorites. But the one thing we’ve learned over the years in Conference USA football is that nothing is at it seems.
Conference USA is the kind of league where nothing ever seems to certain, but as our college football coverage focuses on the Western Division it seems pretty safe to believe the winner will be either Tulsa or Rice. There are some interesting new teams coming into the division, courtesy of realignment, but the Golden Hurricane and Owls each finished the 2012 season on a good note and have enough in the cupboard to make a title run in 2013.
In an age where college football has taken over the athletic culture at so many schools, MAC football still seems down-to-earth…you know, like it’s a game, and not the essence of life itself. It’s also hard not to like the fact that this league has been pretty stable. They haven’t lost members to the raids of college football’s Five Families (SEC, Big 12, Pac-12, Big Ten, ACC) and the only addition in recent years has been UMass, who was simply elevating its program to the FBS level.
Conference USA’s Eastern Division is wide open in ways even deeper than the usual meaning when such terminology is applied to a race. Not only is this a balanced division, but the team that’s owned it in recent years—Central Florida—has packed up and left the league. Several teams can make a case to supplant UCF in the Conference USA championship game on December 7, and our college football coverage will run through them all…
TheSportsNotebook’s college football coverage enthusiastically applauded the selection of the Huskies for the BCS, but a repeat is going to be hard to do. This side of the division looks like it’s going to be exciting, but with a stacked race that prevents any one team from racking up a huge win total. Three teams, including NIU have legitimate hopes of making it to Detroit on December 6 for the conference championship game.
In a league where it’s all about the quarterbacks, it’s refreshing to see Bowling Green build their success on defense. They had a solid D a year ago, and while they lose tackle Chris Jones—the MAC Defensive Player of the Year—nine other starters return and this will again be a team conference foes don’t want to get into the usual MAC scoring races with.
