It’s the legal holiday for New Year’s Day on Monday and that means a feast of college football. I’m looking forward to the day like any college football fan, but there’s also no question that this day lacks the significance it once had. In my book The Last New Year’s, I chronicle the period 1976-1993, […]
Monday night’s Fiesta Bowl (8:30 PM ET, ESPN) is the best of the four BCS bowl matchups that lead up to the national championship game a week from tonight, as Oklahoma State meets up with Stanford. For Okie State, it’s a chance to send a message to voters who preferred giving Alabama a second chance […]
The BCS games start today in the late afternoon and it kicks off with Wisconsin-Oregon in the Rose Bowl (5 PM ET, ABC) as Brent Musberger and Kirk Herbstreit will be on hand to get us started on college football’s showcase games. Let’s look back on the path each team took to get here, and […]
There’s six bowl games set for January 2, and while the Rose and Fiesta will be the main showcases starting at 5 PM ET, there’s four games on the early undercard, all featuring Big Ten teams and three of them being Big Ten-SEC showdowns. Here’s the Notebook’s snapshot look at all four games… Penn State-Houston […]
Throughout the season, the Notebook has broken down its NFL Sunday previews by the TV coverage, figuring it made the most sense to give maximum space to the games most people were seeing. Right now though, I’m so beyond annoyed with the NFL that I’m going to junk that format for the final installment. How […]
There’s a good day of college basketball ahead for New Year’s Eve and it tips off with Kentucky-Louisville (Noon ET, CBS). Louisville’s loss to Georgetown this week took a little bit of steam out of this matchup, but it’s still not only for a lot of bragging rights in the Commonwealth State, it’s a good […]
Bowl Week hits its apex on Saturday, with five games. The Notebook offers a look at all five… Texas A&M-Northwestern (Noon ET, ESPN): The Aggies have endured close loss after close loss, turning a season with BCS hopes into a 6-6 campaign that got Mike Sherman fired. The reason was poor pass defense and quarterback […]
The NHL’s Atlantic Division has a hot three-team race right now with the New York Rangers, Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins all within two points of each other going into Friday’s games, and the Flyers-Rangers game on Monday will be this year’s edition of the NHL’s annual Winter Classic, as they play outdoors in Philadelphia’s […]
The NBA season is coming to the end of its first week and the Notebook continues some early previews. Last weekend we took a look at four top contenders in the East and the West. Today we’ll open up a six-pack and look at three teams from each conference… San Antonio: The most prominent contender […]
Friday is wall-to-wall college football with four bowl games on ESPN. Action starts at noon EST with BYU-Tulsa, continues at 3:20 PM with Rutgers-Iowa State, rolls on at 6:40 PM with Mississippi State-Wake Forest and finishes at 10 PM with Oklahoma-Iowa out in Glendale, AZ. Here are The Notebook’s snapshot thoughts on each game… BYU-Tulsa: […]
Cal’s football team may have lost the Holiday Bowl to Texas last night, but the Golden Bear faithful—a group that includes probable NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers, it’s most famous current alum—have plenty to look forward to in basketball season. Mike Montgomery has his team off to a 10-3 start and they look like the best […]
Last year the Big East dominated college basketball conversation all season and put 11 teams in the NCAA Tournament. Ten of them flamed out, but the fact UConn won the national title saved the conference’s reputation and it’s again got one team on top of the polls (Syracuse), another in the top five (Louisville) and […]