The Crimson Tide are on a crash course to the SEC Title game if they continue their winning ways, but lately they’ve been losing style points with voters for some ugly wins. Still, they control their destiny if they run the table. It won’t be easy. Standing in their way this week are the LSU Tigers, their second top 10 foe of the season (the Tide beat up Va. Tech in the opening week). Can they do it? With a loss to LSU, the Tide not only will be eliminated from national championship contention, they’ll lose control of the SEC West.

So Tim Brown who ya got in this crucial SEC West showdown? The envelope please!

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TCU has an outside shot at the national championship (emphasis on outside shot).  BYU say their chances mutilated at Lavell Edwards Field against the Seminoles.  But Mountain West supremacy is at stake, and for TCU, a shot to climb closer to Boise State, which only has Oregon to thank for it’s lofty standing.  Here now is Tim Brown’s take on this crucial inter-conference showdown. (What’s his pick: hint hint, defense wins championships)…

Take it away Tim Brown.

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Without further adeu here we go!

Rod Woodson on Michael Crabtree

Three more videos after the jump.

Rod Woodson on the Jets versus Dolphins

Rod Woodson on this week’s game of the week: Falcons versus 49ers

Tim Brown on a key Big 10 showdown this weekend: Michigan versus Iowa

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The Yankees are back after a one year hiatus.  The Twins are flying high after an incredible romp through the last 21 games of the season.  The Angels have failed (miserably) in the last three post-seasons, getting slugged out by the Red Sox.  Those two teams get to tango again.

In the National League, the champs are back… to defend their crown.  Philadelphia comes into the playoffs playing mediocre baseball lately, but maybe that’s because they went virtually unchallenged within the division most of the year.  Colorado is back after a one year hiatus.  All the Rockies do, is win Wild Cards.  But hey, it worked well for the Marlins. The Cardinals have cooled off a bit lately but they have a great 1-2 punch, and a pair of sluggers as good as any in the game.  The Dodgers raced out ahead of everyone to start the year, but came back to reality.  Still, the NL playoffs will go through Chavez Revine, so long as the Dodgers can stay in the mix.

So that’s the field for you for the 2009 playoffs.

Now that we’ve got our elite eight, here’s our picks.Twins OVER Yankees in four
I know crazy right?  I’m telling you, Minnesota has destiny on it’s side, and the Yankees have been playing meaningless games for a while now.  While the Yankees have tons more talent, and the homefield advantage on their side, the Twins have that “it” factor going right now.  And the best team doesn’t always win in the playoffs.  The hotter team usually does.  Minnesota’s won 17 out of 21.  The Metrodome lives to see another series.

Angels OVER Red Sox in five
Fourth times a charm?  For the Angels, yes.  Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!  You can only be dominated by a team for so many years before you finally break through.  The Angels don’t have the best record, but they have a great rotation, and a chip on their shoulder as they play for Nick Adenhart.  There will be an angel in the outfield for Los Angeles of Anaheim.  They move on.

Phillies OVER Rockies in three
Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and J.A. Happ form the best trifecta in the N.L.  The no name Rockies can’t match up.  Two years ago the Rockies came out of nowhere to win the N.L.  There will be no repeat in 2009 as the Phils march on in a rather uneventful three game sweep.

Cardinals OVER Dodgers in five
The best matchup in the first round also gives us the most intriguing managerial matchup, as Tony LaRussa squares off round for round with Joe Torre. The Dodgers have been totally mediocre the second half of the season, while the Cards have found their mojo and their chess mate with Pujols and Matt Holliday.  The Cardinals have a great 1-2 punch in Carpenter and Wainwright.  Pitching wins you championships.  The Cards win in a thrilling five game set.

Beyond the Divisional round:

AL Champion:  Twins
NL Champion: Cardinals

World Series Champion: Twins

It makes no sense I know, but Minnesota is about to shock the world, and when they open up Target Field next year, they’ll be the ones everyone will be targeting as they raise a champinship banner no one saw coming.

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The playoffs start tomorrow, but tonight MLB got it’s cinderella story.

Cinderella wears red and blue.

Cinderella is missing one of it’s biggest stars, Justin Morneau, who’s been out for the season for weeks.

Cinderella was down three games in the division with just four to play.

And Cinderella just won the AL Central.

In front of a raucous Metrodome crowd, dying to see some more playoff baseball before Target Field opens up, the Twins faithful got their wish as Minnesota outlasted a game Tigers team 6-5, pulling out a back and forth thriller in the 12th inning.  Walking off to a wild celebration, courteousy of Alexi Casilla.

What a game.  What an incredible run it’s been for Minnesota, which clawed back from a 7 game deficit in August to come all the way back, and shock the Motor City.

The Tigers had their chances, but they couldn’t seal the deal.  And so shortly into the 12th, almost five hours into a wild see-saw battle, the Twins sealed Detroit’s fate.

The Twins have now won 17 of their last 21 games, and have “Colorado Rockies 2007″ written all over them.  Unfortunately, their road to the World Series begins in the Bronx, with a Yankees team that has owned them.  But that’s neither here nor there.  Tigers fans will probably bring up the SI Cover Jinx, and who can blame them: two weeks ago the magazine was talking playoffs, now the Tigers and their fans can only think what if.

Look at it how you will.  The Twins resillience was something of beauty.  Detroit’s collapse, something for the Guiness books.

Can we just have one of these play in games every year?  Unlike the NCAA tournament every one of the past three of these have been great.

The playoffs have yet to start, but wow, I can’t wait for the post-season to begin now.

Minnesota suck this in.  Your magic carpet ride still has at least three games left!

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He claimed there were butterflies, but there sure didn’t appear to be any.

He stressed this was another great win for his new team, but it sure felt like more.

The Vikings won the game 30-23.

But it was Brett Favre who proved something tonight.  He’s not just along for the ride.  The Vikings are officially on his back.  Dynamite running back or not, feared defense or not, Favre was brought in to elevate the Vikings to another level, and at 4-0 they look like a completely different team.  The man has still got it.  His accuracy is still pinpoint, and let it be known once again, that he sure doesn’t look like an old man.

The Vikings laid all their eggs on his arrival.  They took the gamble that he was what they needed.  So far they look brilliant.

Divided locker-room?  Ha!  Sage who?  Tavaris what’s his face?

I hate to say it but the Vikings look brilliant.  I hate to admit it but Favre looks great.  Minnesota hosts a play in game tomorrow in the Metrodome when the Twins and Tigers clash, but tonight felt like a playoff game.  The atmosphere was electric and the game lived up to the hype.

Favre zinged the ball all over the field, displaying precision and the same elegant touch that has made him so great.  He’s got receivers now, and everyone is joining in on the fun.  Adrian Peterson gets the headlines, but that kid Rice has got wheels and appears to be a heck of a talent. Percy Harvin is young, and that line, man, he had all day to throw!

The Vikings have a veteran team, but not an old team.  Minnesota has a smart coach, but not a delusional one.  The season is young, but those Super Bowl pipe dreams in Minnesota are anything but. The Vikes are 4-0, Favre’s jersey is the number one seller in the league, and Minnesota is making all kinds of national headlines.  They brought Favre in to win a Super Bowl, something which will ultimately be decided later on.  But for now, the magic carpet ride in Minnesota shows no signs of slowing down, so long as number four stays healthy.

Brett Favre, we were wrong about you.

You still gots it.  And I don’t know how.

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This is a new Juiced Sports feature, to appear weekly on the site.  Enjoy.

The Titans are finished.  At 0-3 and down 27-3 at halftime to what we initially believed were the lowly Jaguars, Tennessee can officially pan those Super Bowl hopes, and any dreams of claiming the AFC South for the second straight year.  It’s a remarkable fall for the Titans who were 10-0 last year after thrashing the Lions on Thanksgiving Day.  Many people said the Titans were the best 0-3 team in the league.  Well, I guess after today they’ll be the best 0-4 team in the league.  As they offensively stated in a memorable quote from the movie Waiting, “that’s like being the smartest kid with down syndrome.”

The Marlins are looking for a new manager?  Word from John Heyman of SI is that Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria is disappointed, yes, disappointed that his $36 million dollar payroll failed to make the playoffs.  Let me get this straight:  you fork out the lowest payroll in the sport, your team way overachieves to nearly 90 wins, and you want to fire one of the NL candidates for Manager of the Year?  Are you *&#$%#@ kidding me?  Then again, the Marlins who always seem to do things that few other franchises would do, have fired a Manager of the Year winner days after he won the award.  That guy, Joe Girardi, just led the Yankees to over 100 wins and easily the best record in the sport.

Which begs the question: How many managers have won Manager of the Year coaching the smallest payroll in the sport, and then within a 3 year span, led their new team, with the largest payroll in the sport, to the best record in the league?  Do they keep track of this stuff?  They must, right?

So who are the Marlins supposedly looking at to make the great leap to the post-season in 2010?  Bobby Valentine.  I kid you not.  Valentine, best known for his fake mustache after being ejected from a game while managing the Mets, is apparently being sought after by a few teams, most notably Florida.  Valentine’s contract with some Japanese team ran out, so now he’s back on TV, and apparently back in the MLB conscience.  The Indians and Nats are also believed to be interested. So the question is this: is Valentine really a step up from Fredi Gonzalez? The Marlins apparently think he might.

Oklahoma is out of the national title picture.  Miami is back in? After a bad defeat in Blacksburg last week the Canes were staring at a potential 2-2 start as the Sooners flew out to an early 10-0 lead.  Usually a given for an OU victory, the watered down Sooners, still missing Bradford and Gresham, were unable to hold off the Canes. Though OU has lost a pair of games by 1 point each, the fact is this: they’re 0-2, and San Bradford has to be shaking his head that he came back.  Most likely still the number 1 pick in next April’s draft, the Sooners will be lucky at this point to get into a BCS bowl game.  They do have one thing going for them though: neither of their 2 losses were in conference play.

So the SEC has 3 out of the 4 best teams in the country for the second week in a row.  I’ve been fighting people for a few years now who state that the SEC is by far and away the best conference in the country, but maybe it’s time I join the club.  The SEC has SIX teams in the top 25 this week, including newly minted Auburn and South Carolina, and Florida, Alabama, and LSU in the top 4.  The only reason Georgia isn’t ranked is because the AP probably felt it was unfair to have SEVEN teams from one conference in the top 25.  More astonishing about the SEC’s incredible dominance of the polls: Between the Big East and ACC (two of the “big six”), are just five ranked teams (and just two in the top 10.  It should be noted though that the Big East will have it’s clash of the Titans (or clash of it’s only two ranked teams), when USF gets its shot at Cincy.  Cincy it should be dutifully noted is actually ahead of Ohio State in the polls this week.

The Colts look Super.  It may sound premature, but I think Indy has the best team in football right now.  Yes, the Giants have been great, as have been the Saints, but the Colts are just tearing it up offensively.  Since a paltry week one win over the Jags (who usually play them close) Peyton Manning and Co. have lit up their opposition.  With just 15 minutes of possession time the Colts scored 27 points and beat Miami.  Then they went cross country and crushed the Cards.  And today they’re manhandling Seattle.  I know those teams aren’t elite or close rather, but reports of the Colts demise under new coach Jim Caldwell appear to be well off the mark.

How do you schedule a Monday night game after the final day of the baseball season in one of just three stadiums that plays host to both a football and baseball team.  That’s the question I’m asking after the NFL inexplicably scheduled Brett Favre’s new team versus his old one in the Metrodome, the same stadium where the Twins play.  With both the Tigers and Twins tied entering the final day of the regular season, the teams are in the midst  of finishing with the same mediocre records.  And because the Twins won the tiebreaker over Detroit they would host a one game playoff.  Unfortunately the Vikes have dibs on the Homer Dome on Monday night, which means a playoff would have to wait till Tuesday.  This is Minnesota’s last year in the dome, they move to a beautiful new ‘outdoor’ park next year, but c’mon people: this could all be avoided.  Next year NFL schedule makers, do us all a favor: don’t schedule a MNF game in either Miami or Oakland the Monday after the MLB regular season ends.  That probably won’t be a problem though.  Both teams stink right now.  But still. Just saying.

LSU-Florida next week.  Will Tim Tebow play?  Unless he’s unconscious there is no way the Gators rest their championship hopes within anyone else.  The Gators know they have to run the table with their horrendous out of conference schedule, and any slip up, even against a top 5 team like LSU would doom their hopes of a repeat.

Hey Cal, stop doing this.  Every year it seems for like the last 4-5 years you start out hot, people start talking about one of your great running backs for Heisman, and your school as the one to supplant USC at the top of the Pac10 pecking order, and then you actually play USC and your running back gets overwhelmed and you lay another egg.  After getting beatdown 30-3, at home nonetheless, the Golden Bears pulled off the impressive feat of dropping off the face of the earth after looking like a potential title contender within 2 weeks (from number six to completely unranked).  The high powered Bears offense (okay, whatever) put up a meager 3 points in a mutilation at Oregon, and then they come home and get beat down by the Trojans. Cal would make a great stripper, because they’re one hell of a tease, but they won’t be taken seriously as an elite program until they finally win some of these big games.

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The Phoenix Coyotes know they’ll be playing in Glendale, Arizona this coming season.

As for how many people that come to watch them, how many companies (if any) choose to sponsor them, who will coach them, and who will get the rights to them, well, those unsettled developments are as murky as they’ve ever been. Dogged by a nightmare summer long, now into the fall battle, the Coyotes are running out of money, their fans (the few of them that remain) are running out of hope, and their status still remains in limbo.

The Coyotes filed for bankruptcy over the summer, after claiming to have lost over $300 million since moving to the desert in 1996, and their assets are drying up faster than spilt water in the Arizona sun. Sponsors refuse to throw them a dime and who can blame them? Why sponsor an inferior team, that has very few fans, stagnant in a bitter court battle.

This is not the Seattle Supersonics situation. The Coyotes have a shiny new place to play. This is the result of horrible ownership, baffling moves, and a move to a city that does sleep, and could indeed live without hockey. The Coyotes are locked in a nightmare that they can’t escape. They are the laughingstock of the sport. Blackberry billionaire Jim Basille wants to move them to Canada. The NHL wants to buy them for a lot less money and continue the search for local ownership that would give them a chance to survive– and maybe someday thrive– in Arizona. There have been more twists and turns in this story than a rollercoaster at Busch Gardens, and hockey fans, and the sports world can’t wait to get off. The whole thing just makes me want to puke. The mismanagement of the franchise right into the ground, the on again off again offers from interested local buyers, the one buyer that wanted to stick a bunch of their games in Canada, while still playing in Phoenix.

Wayne Gretzky has not been the Great One through this process. He’s been the invisible one. Today he finally stepped down after a rocking coaching tenure that showed just because you’re a great player, doesn’t mean you’ll make a great coach. He knew his time was limited. Neither Basille nor the NHL was going to keep him around, so he bolted to– I guess you could could say– save face?

Up until yesterday there was actually uncertainty if the Coyotes would play this season in Arizona. I repeat, the season starts in a week! Could you imagine moving your team to another city a week before the season starts? I can’t.

The judge has held off on ruling which bid should get the Yotes, and there’s a fear that he could fail to award it to either bidder, which might lead the team into the dark hole of dissolution. Hard to imagine contracting a team that was really successful for years when it first moved, but it’s becoming possible. With no money coming in, and time ticking away the Coyotes are running out of options.

The NHL wants to control who can buy its franchises. Basille was not approved as an NHL owner. If he gets the team anyways it could change the face of sports forever. The NHL is mortified of losing control of their owners. This could be a landmark case.

And there in the wake of this ugly divorce lie the Coyotes who are quickly fading into oblivion. No money, no sponsors ante-ing up money, and no fans is not the way to start a season.

When will this nightmare ever end?

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