Brian Kelly finally woke up the echoes in South Bend, as Notre Dame football became relevant on the national stage for the first time since the departure of Lou Holtz following the 1996 season. The Irish went 12-0 in the regular season, won a big statement game at Oklahoma and reached the BCS National Championship Game.
At the start of this week, TheSportsNotebook featured the Baltimore Orioles and noted that they were starting an enormous 15-game stretch against good teams that could make or break their playoff chances. Two close losses at home to the Tampa Bay Rays are how that stretch has started out, so the stakes are high tonight in Camden Yards. And the cameras of ESPN2 are on hand, as Buck Showalter hands the ball to rotation ace Wei-Yin Chen to try and stop the bleeding in a 7 PM ET game.
It was back in 2005 that ACC football split into divisions and created its championship game. Remember that when those divisional splits were created, the league did so with the express purpose of setting up Miami and Florida State to play in the title game. Hence, they split the two powers apart, even though it didn’t match up geographically. The history hasn’t played out quite like anyone expected.
Then there’s three solid contenders in Georgia Tech, North Carolina and Virginia Tech, any one of whom can make it to Charlotte for the championship game on December 7. After that we move to the bottom three of Pitt, Duke and Virginia. All of these teams can make a bowl game, and frankly could even make a run at the top, but they would be a significant dark horse shot to pull off the latter.
The ACC Atlantic Division is divided into two very distinct tiers of teams. Clemson and Florida State are the heavyweights, and it would be a shock if the division winner were anyone else. The Tigers and Seminoles are also good enough to be the co-favorites for the conference overall, and to be the conversation as […]
MLB Network will split its coverage on Tuesday night, but whether you get the American League game or the National League option, you’re going to have a big battle in the playoff race. It’s Rays-Orioles from Camden Yards, and Diamondbacks-Reds suiting up on the banks of the Ohio River, starting at 7 PM ET.
The Baltimore Orioles have been lurking in the American League playoff race for several weeks now, sitting just outside either first place in the AL East, or the final wild-card spot. The schedule stretch the Birds have coming up likely means that one way or another, the lurking won’t continue much longer, and TheSportsNotebook’s MLB coverage looks to break down the team’s recent form.
The American League playoff race remains by far the more interesting of the two leagues, although it picked up a little clearer focus this week, thanks mainly to the results of the big five-game weekend series between the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals.
The AL East race is the focus of daily sports on Monday, with consecutive prime-time games on MLB Network and ESPN2 featuring the three teams with a realistic chance at winning the division title.
We’re not far from the day when daily sports on Sunday means a tripleheader of NFL football, but for now, the prime focus is still a day-night doubleheader in baseball, with TBS and ESPN on the call. So it is again today.
The NFC South promises to be one of the most balanced in the NFL. Whether you think any of Atlanta, New Orleans, Carolina or Tampa Bay is a viable Super Bowl team, all of these teams are reasonably well-respected, and the betting odds on this division suggest perhaps the most closely matched four teams in the NFL.
The arrival of new head coach Greg Schiano for the 2012 season put some life back into a Tampa Bay Buccaneers franchise that lived through a disgraceful laydown job by its players to conclude 2011. Now it’s a question of whether that renewed life can translate into wins, and ultimately a playoff berth, in a competitive NFC South.
