On Tap (Thanksgiving Edition)

Helping you get your weekend viewing priorities straight since 2007

Wednesday

7:00/9:00 (ESPN2) Texas A&M v. Washington/Syracuse v. Ohio State. NIT semifinals from Madison Square Garden in New York. Key Fact: These are basketball games.

Thursday

8:00 (ESPN) USC @ Arizona State. A win in this game most likely secures a birth in the Rose Bowl (for USC this is assuming an Oregon team led by Brady Leaf drops one more game). But for Arizona State a win keeps them on the very edge of the BCS national title game talk. It would take a complete catastrophe in front of them, but this has been a strange year of college football so don’t count them out. Key Fact: There will be far too much maroon and yellow for my liking.

Friday

2:30 (CBS) Arkansas @ LSU. This may not be LSU’s toughest remaining game, but it should be the most interesting. Arkansas will line up and run the ball, then they will run it again, and when they are done they will run it again for good measure. The LSU defense has been a little bend but don’t break here late in the season, the nature of the Arkansas offense should be able to take advantage late in the game when the LSU defense is good and tired. Key Fact: Les Miles will be more caught up in the Michigan coaching situation than his players will be. How will this affect the game? Who knows Miles is already a little bit of a loose cannon as a coach.

3:30 (ABC) Texas @ Texas A&M. With a win here coupled with and Oklahoma loss Texas will make the Big 12 South champion. Key Fact: Texas A&M could pay $1200 for a special scouting report from Texas’s head coach and it still would not help.

7:00 (ESPN) NIT Championship game. Teams TBA.

8:00 (ESPN2) Boise State @ Hawaii. Winner has an outside shot at sneaking into a BCS game assuming the ACC or Big East Champion finish worse than 16^th in the final BCS standings. Key Fact: Ssssh, the best quarterback in the WAC might not play for Hawaii.

Saturday

12:00 (ESPN2) VT @ Virginia. Winner plays BC in the ACC championship. A little bit of a surprise that Virginia is here (lost first game to Wyoming of all teams). Key Fact: Virginia is not a State it is a Commonwealth.

1:30 (CBS) Tennessee @ Kentucky. A Tennessee win clinches the SEC East, a loss and Georgia wins the East. Key Fact: Kentucky still has one of the best quarterbacks in the country (Andre Woodson) but it seems everyone has forgotten about him after a couple of losses.

3:30 (ESPN2) Notre Dame @ Stanford. A battle of prestigious academic institutions trying to lay a foundation for next years football seasons. ND is also looking to avoid a dreaded 10 loss season. Key Fact: There will be no actual football played during the third quarter, instead an advanced calculus test will be taken by both teams, highest average scores gets 10 points on the scoreboard; this is bound to be the deciding factor in an otherwise low scoring game.

3:30 (ABC/ESPN) UConn @ WVU. West Virginia has serious title game aspirations. All they need to do is win out, have the winner of the Kansas/Mizzou game lose the Big 12 championship game, and hope the voters don’t do something crazy and they will be playing for the whole enchilada. Key Fact: UConn is not as good as advertised, WVU by 21 minimum.

3:30 (FSN) Oklahoma @ Oklahoma State. Suddenly this game means a little something. An Oklahoma State win along with a Texas loss will mean a three way tie at the top of the Big 12 south. The tie-breaker is highest BCS standing which all but eliminates OK State, but will be awfully interesting between Oklahoma and Texas. Key Fact: Oklahoma State is the kind of team that could win this game by 20 or lose by 37.

5:00 (CBC) Florida State @ Florida. Only thing about this game that matters is Tim Tebow padding his already impressive stats in an attempt to win the Heisman Trophy. Key Fact: Take away one loss or add one year experience to Tebow and he wins the Heisman going away. Seriously 20+ rushing and 20+ passing TDs, come on people.

8:00 (ESPN) Alabama @ Auburn. Alabama better win this game or the 4 million bucks that Alabama gave to Nick Satan Saban is going to look like and awfully bad idea (not that it already doesn’t). Key Fact: This might be the only year that Tommy Tuberville and Saban face off in this rivalry, no not cause Saban will be fired, but cause Tuberville could be the next head coach at Texas A&M.

8:00 (ABC) Missouri vs. Kansas from Kansas City. Holy crap the Big 12 North title and possible national championship appearance are on the line. If at the beginning of the year anyone told you this game would have major BCS implications they are a big fat liar. Key Fact: If you stacked the two starting quarterbacks on top of each other they would just barely be able to get on the rides at Disney World.

Sunday

1:00 (CBS) Houston @ Cleveland. Currently the Browns are tied for the last playoff spot in the AFC. It looks good for them to get to at worst 10-6 this year with the schedule they have left (Houston, @ Arizona, @ NY Jets, Buffalo, @ Cincinnati, San Fran), but they need to beat the teams they are supposed to beat (all of these) to avoid an epic second half collapse. Key Fact: Yes, the Browns should make the playoffs, but as any good Cleveland fan knows, shit can happen.

* there is very little respect for the word fact around here.

all times eastern