'Tis the Season

Folks, it's on.

There are plenty of arguments about what time of year is the best in regard to sports, and quite frankly I can't begin to name my personal favorite, but in the spirit of "right here, right now" I'm gonna go ahead and say the best time of year is among us.

The post Thanksgiving hangover has been lifted, which means ESPN's Feast Week is through, but don't worry college hoops fans, there are plenty more parties on tap.

Last night No. 6 Oklahoma hosted USC in a poor-man's Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Other conferences are catching on, and this was the Pac 10/Big XII Hardwood Series. (We need a Big East/SEC Tussle.) On second thought though, I may have to call the Big/Ten ACC Challenge the poor-man's Pac 10/Big XII Hardwood Classic due to the quality of games. I realize the Big Ten and ACC have been doing it longer, but in what was supposed to be the best game of the series, UNC-Michigan State, it was a rout by the Tar Heels. ESPN even compared the points that UNC scored at Ford Field with how much the Lions have scored there all season. Laughable.

But back to the hoops at hand. Oklahoma barely got by the Trojans, 73-72. It came down to fouling, and USC's Daniel Hackett tried to miss a free throw but accidentally made it. Oops. Sooners star Blake Griffin had a quiet 25 points, and who is gonna try to take down a team in Norman right now? Their woman's team is ranked sixth, and if their football team can beat Missouri Saturday in the Big XII title game, they'll be playing the winner of Florida and Alabama in the BCS championship game.

After Oklahoma beat USC, No. 9 UCLA was at No. 8 Texas in a rematch from last year that Texas won. At the time UCLA was No. 1 and Texas was eighth, so make that lucky number 8 for the Longhorns as they beat the Bruins 68-64 to make it back-to-back thrillers on the deuce.

As I was watching the games I couldn't have been happier to be enjoying quality college hoops so early in the season. Buffalo almost toppled No. 2 UConn, and this weekend there's no let-up as No. 4 Duke is at Michigan, No. 22 Miami (FL) is at Kentucky, No. 22 Wisconsin is at Marquette, and North Carolina State is at No. 24 Davidson.

OK, so those may not be the best possible games, but they're solid tickets. Personally, I'm pretty excited to flip back and forth between them and the ACC, Conference USA, Big XII, and SEC Championship games. See what I'm sayin? This is a pretty good time of year.

Oh, and there's only four NFL games left to play. My Steelers host the Cowboys Sunday, which is a throwback rivalry, but it got ESPN to do a Top 10 moments in the storied history between the two teams so it's legit. This Monday night features Tampa Bay and Carolina battling for sole possession of first place in the NFC South. Should be a lot better than last week when Houston played Jacksonville in what could have been the worst Monday Night Football game of all time, at least on paper. I didn't watch it, so if it was entertaining I apologize but it was the first time in several years that both teams were a certain amount of games below .500. Trust me, there's a reason the Texans' Bryan Pittman was the only one of six players to not appeal his four-game suspension issued by the NFL for substance abuse. I can't imagine listening to Tony Kornheiser try to make it sound interesting.