Must See Indeed

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
Since this has been an incredibly slow sports news week, the peeps at ESPN keep talking about this week’s game between #2 USC and cross-town rival, UCLA. They like to throw out the question, that in the incredibly unlikely scenario of UCLA upsetting USC, “Who deserves to go to The BCS Championship Game to face Ohio State in Glendale on January 8th in USC’s place?” Since USC will more than likely beat UCLA by three touchdowns, these hypothetical discussions are pointless (Michigan should go by the way). What these talks do is remind us that the BCS needs to be completely dismantled, or at least change the system to put in an eight-team playoff. I don’t know the exact details of why this will probably never happen but if I remember correctly, it has to do with the bowls and the big programs wanting to keep the money at the top.

When you think about it, it wouldn’t be that hard to have a playoff system. The schools say that they don’t want the students to miss classes/finals but I believe that the schools in I-AA have a playoff system and play it out in December. They could start the playoffs before New Year’s Day and play into mid-January if it is that much of a problem. They wouldn’t need to add any other bowls - but they could, like The Cotton Bowl for instance - and all they would need to do is have the top eight teams play each other at the four current bowls, then pick two of the bowls to have the second round, and then have The Championship Game at one of the other bowls. Then rotate where the subsequent rounds will be every year. Since it sounds complicated, here’s an example of how it could work out this year:
In this scenario, The Orange Bowl would get The Championship Game the following year because they did not get any higher level rounds. Someone else could figure out which bowls get the second round every year but whoever misses a higher round of playoffs, gets The Championship Game the following year. A simpler way of doing it would just to add three more bowls but I don’t think that the powers that be would let another bowl into the BCS.

TV
Last Night's 30 Rock
I doubt many of you had the chance to check it out last night, but there is a chance that NBC now has the best two-hour block of comedies ever. My Name is Earl at 8/7c, The Office at 8:30/7:30c, Scrubs at 9/8c, and 30 Rock at 9:30/8:30c. When NBC was at it’s mightiest in the late 90s, they had their two great comedies, Friends and Seinfeld, but put crap on after them. I can say without any doubt that these are the four best comedies on TV right now and to have them all in a row is pure bliss to me. NBC really deserves a lot of respect for letting these shows exist together and for taking this chance on TV’s most important night. Because CSI: had a repeat on last night, more people tuned into all of these comedies than they have in a long time - years in the case of Scrubs - and I really hope people continue to watch and tell their friends.

Even though Earl isn’t as consistently funny as it was last year, I have to say that it is a better show this season. The storylines and character development have gone way up in quality and I really like the way that major plot points aren’t being resolved in one episode. For instance, Joy’s (Jaime Pressley) robbery and kidnapping charges from when she stole a cargo truck from a store that wouldn’t let her get a refund. It also looks like Catalina’s (Nadine Velazquez) deportation storyline will last for a while.

After two great episodes in a row, The Office was a bit of letdown especially since the creators of the British Office wrote it. I don’t know why, or how they do it, but Scrubs’ season premieres never seem to stand out from the rest of the season. It's not that they're bad or anything but they usually blend right in. The only way to tell is to look for hair changes (Dr. Cox this year). Last night’s season premiere had a little bit too much of that Scrubs’ seriousness but I expect it to come back to its greatness in the coming weeks. 30 Rock continues to evolve into a truly funny sitcom and with its full season pick-up today, we will see more Tracy Morgan and Alec Baldwin greatness in the coming months.

Last Night’s TV grades
My Name is Earl: B+
Ugly Betty: B+
The Office: B-
Grey’s Anatomy: A
The OC: C+
Scrubs: B+
30 Rock: A-
Men in Trees: B
The Daily Show: B
The Colbert Report: A-

RANDOM THOUGHTS
Hall & Oates, Greatest Duo Ever?
• Can sportswriters please stop changing their opinions of teams every week. According to these writers a month ago, the Bengals were “done” and now after winning last night, they still have a chance. The Cowboys were “done” at one point in the season and the Giants were definitely going to the playoffs. Now look at the situation. Watch, if the Giants beat the Cowboys at the Meadowlands on Sunday, everyone will all of a sudden say what an amazing job Coughlin is doing and Eli should get a contract extension.

• Sir Hall & Sir Oates were the house band for The Rockefeller Christmas Tree Lighting. They were knighted, weren't they? (Name the reference and win a banjo) Why can't NBC get talented and popular people to perform at this thing. I think Lionel Richie performed at it as well

• I didn't hear about The Univeristy of Houston playing in The Conference USA Championship Game until this morning. That shows how much people in Houston care about the non major sports. The Dynamo won the MLS Cup and not many people seemed to care also.

QUOTE OF THE POST
From last night's 30 Rock:
Liz (Tina Fey): "I see that you bought a pager from Dennis. Now take it off"
Jack (Alec Baldwin): "I can't, I'm expecting a call from 1983"