Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Best clip
NBC might be the Notre Dame network, but it doesn't shirk its responsibility of reporting the story even when it is critical of the Irish. As UConn lined up for a potential winning field goal at the end of regulation Saturday, NBC rolled out a clip of Charlie Weis from when he was hired in 2004. In it, Weis talked about how a 6-5 record wasn't good enough for Notre Dame and it wasn't good enough for him and that Notre Dame "had the wrong guy'' if anyone was satisfied with 6-5.

UConn missed the kick, but won in overtime, leaving Notre Dame at … 6-5. Still, if anyone ever thinks NBC is just a shill for Notre Dame, that theory was dispelled when it showed the Weis clip with strong negative comments about Weis' performance from announcers Tom Hammond and Pat Haden. NBC also deserves a pat on the back for focusing on what the victory meant to UConn. Sideline reporter Alex Flanagan's interview with an emotional UConn coach Randy Edsall after the game as the best interview of the weekend.

Biggest waste of time
Outside of ESPN's College GameDay, which airs from 10 a.m. to noon on Saturdays, why does any network have college pregame shows? CBS and Versus have pregame shows in the middle of the day, but who watches them when there are other college games to watch at the same time?

Best coverage
It was interesting to watch Saturday night the replay of last week's Manny Pacquiao-Miguel Cotto fight on HBO. What made it interesting was that we, as viewers, already knew that Pacquiao dominated and won with a 12th-round TKO, yet we were listening to three announcers who were calling the fight as it happened. Announcers Jim Lampley, Larry Merchant and Emanuel Steward seemed spot-on the entire night, never getting carried away when Cotto had some decent early moments and even suggesting as early as the eighth round that the fight would need be stopped at some point. It's almost as if they were watching the replay with us.

Best Gruden reference
Might former Bucs coach Jon Gruden end up coaching next season even though he just signed a contract extension with ESPN's Monday Night Football? Not a chance, according the NFL Network’s Jason LaCanfora. Gruden, LaConfora said, cannot get out of his contract with ESPN in 2010.

Worst conflict
ABC/ESPN continues to show a blatant conflict of interest with its commercials for its NBA coverage. The newest ad features play-by-play announcer Mike Breen, analyst Mark Jackson and Magic guard Vince Carter. This is the latest in a series of commercials featuring NBA players mixing with the ABC/ESPN announcers who cover their games. Again, it makes the viewer question the announcers' comments every time they talk about a player who has appeared in TV spot with them.

Most interesting graphic
It's pretty much a given that if Texas wins out, the Longhorns will play the winner of the SEC Championship Game between the Gators and Alabama for the national championship. Provided, of course, the Gators beat Florida State and Alabama beats Auburn this weekend. So where does that leave the other undefeated teams, especially TCU?

ESPN's College GameDay showed an interesting graphic Saturday and asked which team deserves a national title shot more. Is it Team A, which has one victory over a ranked opponent, one victory over a seven-victory team and whose opponents' winning percentage is .530? Or is it Team B, which has three victories over ranked opponents, four victories against seven-victory teams and whose opponents' winning percentage is .543? Then GameDay revealed that Team A was Texas and Team B was TCU. Interesting, huh?

Most analyzed story
All the NFL pregame shows Sunday looked back at the controversial decision by Patriots coach Bill Belichick to go for it on fourth and 2 from the New England 28 on Nov. 15 against Indianapolis. The Pats didn't make it and the Colts won. ESPN had the most interesting take thanks to an interview with David Romer, a Cal-Berkeley economics professor who, for years, has studied teams going for it on fourth down. Romer’s opinion? "It certainly wasn't a crazy decision. It wasn't stupid, it wasn't the dumbest decision in the history of mankind. ... It's a very defensible decision''

Of course, there's a difference between going for it on paper in a lab at a university and going for it on the field against 11 defenders in front of 60,000 people with a game on the line.

Funniest line
John Saunders, host of Sunday's Sports Reporters on ESPN, talking about Notre Dame:
"They're so bad in the red zone that they're going to change the name of Touchdown Jesus to Field Goal Jesus.''

Biggest missing game
No wonder the Pac-10 gets so little respect. The best game Saturday was Oregon and Arizona fighting it out for the Pac-10 lead and you couldn't watch it in Tampa Bay or in Florida or anywhere in the middle part of the country. Only the West and East Coast got the Saturday night prime time game. We were stuck watching Texas mugging Kansas on ABC and Nebraska-Kansas State on ESPN. And it's a shame, really, because many believe the Pac-10, from top to bottom, is the best conference in the nation this season. That's right, even better than the SEC.

"The lack of depth this year from the SEC East, in my opinion,'' College GameDay's Kirk Herbstreit said, "gives the Pac-10, top to bottom, the premier conference this year in college football.''

Herbstreit also pointed out that the Pac-10 was 5-0 in bowl games last year and 9-2 over the past two seasons.

Most confusing story
The Bills need a head coach. The Browns are looking for someone to run their franchise. All the rumors out there have the likes of Mike Shanahan, Bill Cowher and Mike Holmgren jockeying for position to take over those teams. But Sports Illustrated's Peter King, during halftime of the Notre Dame-UConn game on NBC, said to not expect anything soon. King figures all the out-of-work coaches will wait to see what the entire NFL landscape looks like after the season is over. Why would Shanahan take over in Buffalo if a better job comes open in the offseason?

However, on CBS's NFL Today, analyst Shannon Sharpe, who played for Shanahan in Denver, said Shanahan is going to interview in Buffalo this week. CBS's Boomer Esiason jumped in by saying, "Mike Shanahan is not going to Buffalo.''

It'll be fun to see who is right and who is wrong when all this shakes out.

Three things that popped into my head
1. The MLS championship -- uh, that's soccer -- isn't exactly the World Cup, so wouldn't it make sense to find a better time to have your title game instead of Sunday night against the NFL?
2. Another Lightning game on Sunday. Another Lightning game not on TV. What gives?
3. Someone please explain to me again how the Chase for the Championship makes NASCAR more exciting?

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Most coverage
It hit me late Saturday afternoon: Too many college football games are on television. This revelation occurred as I was trying to keep track of the Gators-South Carolina, Miami-North Carolina, Ohio State-Iowa and USC-Stanford games at the same time. If you're trying to keep track of four games, you quickly realize that you can't even keep track of one.

Every Saturday is the same. It starts with a slew of games at noon, most which are bad and only of interest to the fans of the schools playing in them. It's difficult to find one game that's any good. Then come the 3:30 games, and too many of them are good to zero in on one. Later, it's prime time, which usually has two or three really good games.

If you're a die-hard fan of one school, it's easy. You watch just your team. But if you're a general college football fan, or your team isn't on (or your team isn't all that good), deciding what to watch is nearly impossible. So you flip around and soon realize that you can't enjoy games like you really want to. You can't follow trends, you can't follow developing story lines, you can't get a feel for which team is playing better. You're just watching a bunch of plays until you change the channel and watch a bunch more.

Now, it seems like a silly complaint, and, yes, I'd rather have too many games on than not enough. It's a buffet, and the viewer can choose what to put on his or her plate. But Saturday, cable alone had 26 games, and that doesn't count games you could get if you also pay extra to get  the Big Ten Network and some of the Fox regional college channels. You might think that having 30-some games available is like a dream for college football fans. But for some of us, it can turn into a nightmare. To paraphrase Yogi Berra, so many games are on that you can't watch them.

Worst overturned call
Not only did the Bucs get a raw deal on an overturned call Sunday, another Tampa Bay team suffered a bum call, too. The Lightning had a victory taken away when officials ruled that Paul Szczechura interfered with Kings goalie Jonathan Quick on Saturday even though replays clearly showed he was knocked into Quick by a Kings defenseman.

Usually, Lightning analyst Bobby "The Chief'' Taylor doesn't need much to get going on the officials, but Saturday his anger was justified, and priceless: "It's amazing to me how incompetent these guys are,' he said.

Good job by the Lightning Live postgame show to dedicate 20 minutes or so to the controversy, and nice hustle by announcer Rick Peckham to conduct a comprehensive interview with Szczechura. It would have been nice if analyst Chris Dingman had done a little less griping and a little more analysis of the play and the rule invoked, but the show was worth watching.

Best speculation
The clock might be ticking on Charlie Weis' career at Notre Dame. He is now 35-25 with the Irish, the record that got Bob Davie fired by the school and the winning percentage that got Tyrone Willingham fired. And the Irish have tough games left against Connecticut and at Stanford. ESPN College GameDay analyst Lee Corso said that perhaps part of Notre Dame's problem is that neither Davie nor Weis had been a head coach before either was hired. Corso has two leading candidates to replace Weis if he gets fired: Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly and, the biggest name of all, former Bucs coach Jon Gruden.

When host Chris Fowler threw out the name of Gators coach Urban Meyer, Corso immediately said no, and analyst Kirk Herbstreit said, "Urban Meyer will never leave Florida to go to Notre Dame.''

Strongest opinion
CBS's Shannon Sharpe talking about the Bengals' Chad Ochocinco being fined $20,000 for pretending to bribe an official with a dollar bill during a game last week: "I think the NFL should fine Chad Ochocinco $250,000. … He's not getting the message. A $1 bribe is the same as a $20,000 fine to him. It's nothing; $200,000 sends the message. Chad will stop these shenanigans. He's getting ridiculous with it.''

Best coverage
It's really too bad that Bright House Networks, which provides cable for much of the bay area, including most of Pinellas County, doesn't carry the NFL Network, because the NFL Network's game coverage might be better than that of Fox, NBC, CBS and ESPN. The network's season-debut Thursday game between the 49ers and Bears was compelling to watch even though it was a dud on the field, with the 49ers winning 10-6. The broadcast team of Bob Papa and Matt Millen is top notch, but amazing on-field camera access pushes the NFL Network's coverage over the top. The production is first-rate.

Now, unless your favorite team is playing in the Thursday night game, you probably don't miss the NFL Network. But if you're an NFL fan in general, you don’t know what you're missing. And that's too bad, because what you're missing is really, really good.

  Best of the weekend
Best scenario: On ESPN's Sports Reporters on Sunday, Miami Herald columnist Israel Gutierrez suggested that LeBron James could end up playing with the Heat, not the Cavs or Knicks, next season.
Best feature: Paula Lavigne’s report on the use of text messaging as an aide for law enforcement at Auburn football games on ESPN's Outside the Lines on Sunday.
Best network: CBS College Sports Network had a rare weekend in the spotlight and took full advantage with good broadcasts of UCF-Houston and TCU-Utah football games.
Best uniforms: South Carolina wearing camouflage football uniforms to salute the military, with labels such as "Integrity'' and "Service'' on the back where the player's name usually is.
Best school: Largo High gets our vote with a pair of former running backs. Graduate Brynn Harvey scored three touchdowns in UCF’s upset of Houston, and former star Dexter McCluster had four touchdowns, 282 rushing yards and a school-record 324 all-purpose yards in Mississippi's victory against Tennessee.

Best local story gone international
During Saturday's Hockey Night in Canada pregame show, the Nov. 5 hit on which Lightning defenseman Victor Hedman suffered a concussion came up in an interview with NHL vice president Colin Campbell. Campbell said a replay of Chris Neil’s hit was shown in a meeting of the league's general managers and it was an example of a good, clean hit.

"There wasn't one manager in the room who felt this hit was illegal,'' Campbell said. "In fact, they felt this was the type of hit we want in hockey.''

Three things that popped into my head
1. How come Gators coach Urban Meyer is always seen hugging quarterback Tim Tebow but you never seem him hugging any of his other players? Just wondering.
2. How depressing is it that USF is going to end up in the St. Petersburg Bowl again?
3. I better read within the next week that a fight has been set between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather.

WDAE-AM 620 talk-show host Dan Sileo was back on the air Friday, a week after being suspended for making comments about the financial state of Tampa Bay Bucs owners, the Glazers.

On Oct. 29, Sileo said the Glazers had lost $400-million in the Ponzie scheme of imprisoned Bernie Madoff and an impending debt payment likely would force the Glazers to sell the team. Bucs co-chairman Joel Glazer denounced the report and Clear Channel Communications, which owns WDAE, retracted the story, issued an apology and suspended Sileo.

However, Sileo, 45, returned to his usual 6-9 a.m. time slot Friday morning, making a few passing references about his suspension, but not talking about it directly and never mentioning the story that landed him in trouble. In his opening comments, Sileo joked, "I have learned I have the fattest pictures of me on the internet.'' Later, he referred to his time away as a "sabbatical'' and asked, "How does my tan look?''

Apart from that, it was business as usual for Sileo, who used his opening segment to praise Gators linebacker Brandon Spikes, who is suspended for one game after attempting to gouge the eyes of a Georgia player last Saturday. Several callers told Sileo they were happy he was back on the air. Sileo thanked them and then continued with the sports conversation.

Bucs director of public relations Jeff Kamis said, "We appreciate Clear Channel taking swift action on this matter by issuing their retraction and apology.''

WDAE is the local AM flagship station for the Bucs, and it's unclear if Sileo's comments will affect Clear Channel's relationship with the Bucs. Clear Channel signed a 10-year deal with the Bucs in April of 2004.

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Biggest local story
In a twisted sort of way, the Dan Sileo controversy might have been the best thing that could have happened to bay area sports-talk radio.

If you missed it, Sileo went on his WDAE-AM 620 morning show Thursday and said he had a friend who claimed the Bucs’ owners were in financial trouble because of dealings with imprisoned Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff and were desperate to sell the team. The Glazers responded by saying it wasn't true. WDAE suspended Sileo and ran a retraction of the story on its Web site, saying the story was "factually incorrect.''

Perhaps this will be a cautionary tale for sports-talk radio hosts, reminding them that their words are not spoken in a vacuum. People are listening, and if you make claims as facts, you better be right.
This isn't meant to wag a holier-than-thou finger at talk radio. All media outlets need to be held to the same journalistic standards. But if radio hosts are going to assume the role of news-breaker, as Sileo did, then the news must be accurate.

Here's the problem: Hosts often feel the need to be outrageous with their opinions and often speak without a filter. Their opinions often dictate the success of their show, and many hosts carry it too far, thinking the more uncensored their words, the better the show is. They push the envelope to make a name for themselves. They want the guy in the diner or barbershop to say, "Hey, did you hear what so-and-so said today on his show?''

It's not a case of speaking first and dealing with the consequences later. It's speaking first and not even considering the consequences. That's what happened last week. There's a difference between saying, "I think the Glazers are cheap, and I wonder about their finances'' and what Sileo claimed.

Perhaps now all talk-show hosts in town will think about Sileo the next time they're about to open their mouths and say something controversial or that they claim is fact. And if more people are thinking before speaking, that's good, isn't it?

Biggest decision
Dan Sileo remains suspended indefinitely while Clear Channel Communications, which owns WDAE, figures out its next step. Complicating this case is that WDAE is the flagship station of the Bucs. You wonder how much that will play into the decision about whether Sileo keeps his job. If WDAE is afraid of losing the Bucs contract, it might feel the need to fire Sileo. And it was interesting just how quickly WDAE distanced itself from Sileo, suspending him and retracting the story just hours after Sileo was on the air.

Best feature
ESPN's Outside the Lines had a chilling piece Sunday on Raiders coach Tom Cable. A former wife and a former girlfriend said Cable was physically abusive to them. Raiders assistant coach Randy Hanson had accused Cable of breaking his jaw during an altercation in August, but the Napa County (Calif.) district attorney said he would not pursue charges, saying the facts didn't merit them. Another one of Cable's former wives said she was never a victim of violence by Cable. After the report, Cable admitted once slapping his ex-wife but denied hitting his former girlfriend. Give OTL credit for tracking down these women and getting them on the air. The report again shows that OTL remains the gold standard of sports investigative journalism.

Most disappointing interview
All last week, Fox drummed up excitement for Terry Bradshaw's interview with Brett Favre on Fox NFL Sunday. The interview turned out to be a whole lot of sizzle and no steak. There were no revelations and no tough questions, and more frustrating than anything, viewers heard more from Bradshaw, who too often interrupted Favre, than they did from Favre. It could've been one of the most interesting interviews of the year — Fox advertised it as so — but Bradshaw dropped the ball.

Worst graphic
Do we really need a graphics box taking up space to tell World Series viewers where the Series stands? For example, Saturday night it read, "Series tied 1-1.'' On Sunday, it read, "NY leads 2-1''’ Put the graphic up along with the score coming in and out of commercial break, but we don't need something else crowding the screen during the game.

Most disappointing pregame
Fox's game coverage of the World Series is outstanding, but am I the only one disappointed by the yawn-inducing pregame show? This is the World Series, for crying out loud. But the pregame show doesn't have a special feel. Host Chris Rose seems more interested in cracking lame playful jokes at the expense of the analysts. Eric Karros gives some decent analysis, and Mark Grace and Ozzie Guillen have had a few moments, but it's mostly scratch-the-surface, obvious stuff. There's little depth, no must-see features, and at times it has the feel that they're just winging it.

Saturday night's Game 3 broadcast turned into a fiasco because of a long rain delay that it seemed Fox wasn't prepared for. The panel bumbled its way through shallow chatter, and there were a couple of interviews about the weather, but then Fox ran out of content and was reduced to showing a replay of the ninth inning of Game 2. When that didn't fill the time, Fox put on an episode of The Cleveland Show.

Are you kidding? Fox had two full days before the Series started knowing the Yankees were going to play the Phillies. It knew for nearly a week that the Phillies were going to be in the World Series. And it can't put together enough content to fill time during a rain delay?

Best idea
Not everyone is a fan of Don Cherry's "Coaches Corner'' during the first intermission of Hockey Night in Canada, but whether you like the acerbic analyst or not, you can't help but respect his occasional feature when he shows a photo of a Canadian solider killed in Afghanistan as he emotionally speaks about them. Watching it this past Saturday, I wondered why we don't see American sports broadcasts do more to honor the troops.

Then, Fox announced Sunday that next week, the Fox NFL Sunday pregame show will have a two-hour special live from an undisclosed military installation in Afghanistan.

"Our men and women in the military put themselves in harm's way to protect everything we hold dear, and none more so than those who are stationed in the Middle East,'' said FOX Sports Chairman David Hill. "It is our privilege and honor to take Fox NFL Sunday to them in November, right before Veteran's Day. Amidst the fun and football, it's our hope to showcase the dedication of these men and women who have to defend against a lot more than the Wild Cat.''

This is a tremendous gesture by Fox. Way to go.

Strongest comment
On ESPN's Sports Reporters on Sunday, Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan took a sledgehammer to the Cardinals and manager Tony LaRussa for hiring Mark McGwire as hitting coach. With McGwire's murky past regarding steroids and his infamous "I'm not here to talk about the past'' testimony to Congress, Ryan is shocked that he would be welcomed back by the Cardinals and commissioner Bud Selig, who said he was "delighted'' by McGwire's return to baseball.

"It's sad to see this great manager in denial,'' Ryan said, "but it's worse to have the commissioner say, 'Everything is okay with this guy.' It's not okay. Mark McGwire has no business being in a Major League Baseball uniform.''

Three things that popped into my head
1. No disrespect to the Gators, but Florida's easy victory over Georgia said more about Georgia than it did about the Gators.
2. How do you think Indians fans feel watching the World Series and seeing former Indians CC Sabathia pitching for the Yankees and Cliff Lee pitching for the Phillies while they’re licking their wounds from a 97-loss season?
3. Funniest quote of the weekend goes to ESPN's John Saunders, talking about Cavs center Shaquille O’Neal, right: "If fans or manage­ment are expecting 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds), they better count on getting change.''

Former Bucs and Gibbs High quarterback Shaun King has been let go from his broadcasting job at ESPN. In a statement, ESPN said, “We have decided to go in a different direction. We thank Shaun for his contributions and wish him the best.”

King played for the Bucs from 1999 to 2004 and, as a starter, led the Bucs to two postseason appearances, including NFC Championship Game in the 1999 season. After bouncing around the NFL, the arena league and the CFL, King took a job with ESPN in 2007 as a pro and college football analyst.

King was outspoken, opinionated and honest and that, you would think, would go a long way in making a good television analyst. However, ESPN apparently wasn't pleased with his performance.

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Most interesting comment
On Friday night's Charlie Rose show on PBS (see, you never know where you're going to hear talk about sports), Sports Illustrated's Peter King gave the best explanation yet for why the new Cowboys stadium is so swanky. It's not because of owner Jerry Jones' ego, he said.

"Jerry Jones built this stadium and built it the way he did -- garish, bigger than life, giant screens here, creature comforts there -- for one reason,'' King said. "He's afraid of football becoming a studio sport. He's afraid of men 25 to 49 saying, 'You know what? It's raining out there today. I'm going to stay in my man cave with my big TV and have three or four beers and watch the games on TV rather than going out to the stadium.' (Jones said,) ''That's the danger in our sports. TV is so wonderful right now.'''

Biggest conflict
ABC and ESPN are at it again, seeing no issue with their broadcasters doing television commercials with players. The latest ad promoting NBA coverage on the networks is as entertaining as the others, but it features analyst Jeff Van Gundy and Clippers rookie Blake Griffin. This is a conflict. Griffin, one would assume, was compensated for his appearance, and one would assume that Van Gundy and Griffin hung out while shooting. And now every time Van Gundy makes a comment about Griffin during the season, we can't help but think about them doing a commercial together.

Biggest nonconflict
ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit might be the best pound-for-pound analyst on television, and if anyone thought the former Ohio State quarterback couldn't be objective when it came to the Buckeyes, he annihilated that notion Saturday with a scathing review of the program, and in particular, quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

"You don't see him progressing to become a complete quarterback,'' Herbstreit said. "He is not advancing as a quarterback. … He looks confused, his body language is terrible. Other than that, he’s playing well.''

Herbstreit wasn't done with Ohio State:
"They can't run the ball because they have probably the biggest underachieving offensive line in the last 10 years or college football history, and they're uninspired consistently.''

Best son
I was watching the Clemson-Miami game Saturday for 20 minutes before I realized the color commentator was not Bob Griese, but his son Brian. The two sound identical. Fortunately, Brian didn't say anything dumb like his dad did Saturday during the Ohio State-Minnesota game. Talking about Colombian NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya, the elder Griese said, "He's out having a taco.'' Griese apologized later. And let's not overreact and call for Griese's firing. His comment was stupid and insensitive, but it's not the worst thing ever said on the air.

Strangest story line
ABC's Brent Musburger spent way too much time during Saturday night's Texas-Missouri game talking about how Texas wanted to impress poll voters with style points so the Longhorns could pass either Alabama or Florida, as if Texas was in danger of being shut out of the national championship picture. It wasn't a passing reference. He mentioned it several times, obviously forgetting that Texas is fine in the No. 3 spot. Either Alabama and Florida is guaranteed a loss, because if those two remain unbeaten, they'll eventually meet in the SEC Championship Game.

Best premonition
When University of Tennessee kicker Daniel Lincoln made a 24-yard field goal early in the second quarter of Saturday's game against Alabama, CBS's Gary Daniel­son pointed out the low trajectory of the kick and told viewers, "That's something to keep an eye on later in the game.''

Sure enough, Lincoln later had two kicks blocked, including a 44-yarder that would have won the game on the last play.

Unfunniest moments
When did the NFL pregame shows turn into frat parties? This isn't scientific, but if you turn on either Fox NFL Sunday or CBS NFL Today, there's a 67 percent chance that you'll see the analysts doubled over in laughter, all talking at the same time and acting as if they've just heard the funniest thing ever uttered by a human. It's often followed by tossing paper or pencils at one another and even more talking while the host is moving on to the next subject. It turns into a bad version of the old Dean Martin Celebrity Roast, which actually had its moments.

Sadly, what sends these analysts into laughing fits is some verbal insult directed at one of them that isn't even worth a smile, let alone table-pounding, eye-wiping, side-holding laughter. The shows don't have to be as serious as Law & Order: SVU, but if we want a comedy show, we'll watch The Office or Entourage.

Biggest rip
Fox NFL Sunday did get serious long enough for analyst Terry Bradshaw to carve Titans coach Jeff Fisher who wore a Peyton Manning jersey last week at a luncheon where Fisher introduced former Colts coach Tony Dungy. The move didn't go over too well among Tennessee fans because the Titans are winless and were coming off a 59-0 loss to New England.

"I have a big problem with it,'' Bradshaw said. "If you are a player in that locker room and the coach is separating himself from you, he's basically turned around and told the players, 'You're the losers.' I'm disappointed in Fisher.''

Three things that popped into my head
1. He might not be the best football coach in the land, but Notre Dame's Charlie Weis gives the most honest, cooperative and entertaining halftime interviews of any in the country.
2. Know which college "team'' I'd least like to be a member of this season? An SEC officiating crew.
3. Sight I'm tired of seeing: football coaches doing jumping chest or side bumps with players. Can you imagine Tom Landry or Vince Lombardi doing that? Heck, do you even see Bill Belichick doing that? Act like you're the boss, not a buddy.

Looking back at a weekend of televised sports ...

Worst question
What was CBS's Tracy Wolfson thinking while interviewing Gators coach Urban Meyer after Florida escaped with a 23-20 win Saturday against Arkansas? After gushing over QB Tim Tebow, who had a so-so day, Wolfson said to Meyer, "First time this team has really been tested in a while. Talk about their resiliency.''

Thankfully, Meyer pointed out how dumb the question was, saying, "Well, I'm not sure what season you've been watching. We've been tested a lot.''

For some reason, Wolfson thought that was funny because she laughed. Actually, the Gators were tested a week earlier in a 13-3 victory at then-No. 4 LSU. And the funny thing is, Wolfson covered that game!

Worst graphic
Fox is an innovator in sports graphics. It was the first to run the "Fox Box,'' a miniscoreboard in the upper part of the screen during play, something every other network eventually adopted and no fan can live without. But in the American League Championship Series, it has gone a little overboard with something called "Fox Trax Plus.'' It clocks the speed of a pitch when the ball leaves a pitcher's hand and then gives the speed when the ball crosses the plate. Analyst Tim McCarver seemed amazed that a ball comes out of a pitcher's hand at, say, 93 mph and crosses the plate at 87 mph. That's not amazing. That's physics.

Best idea
Every second of ESPN’s College GameDay is must-watch TV, but now the network has added another wrinkle to take the show up another couple of notches. It has added a guest "picker'' at the end of the show, a celebrity to help predict the outcome of the big games of the day. Bob Knight, Drew Brees and Lance Armstrong have been on. Mark Cuban was on Saturday. Waiting to see who GameDay gets as its guest is as climactic as Lee Corso putting on the mascot's head.

Best use of Telestrator
Few broadcasters -- including national and local ones in every sport at every level -- use the Telestrator better than Lightning analyst Bobby "Chief’'' Taylor. Any announcer can break down a play when given enough time to look at replays over and over. But Taylor needs only a few minutes during intermission to break down several replays and point out things that even avid hockey fans probably didn't notice.

Best line
After running for 246 yards against South Carolina in Alabama's 20-6 victory Saturday night, Crimson Tide running back Mark Ingram accidently tripped into ESPN reporter Erin Andrews as she was about to interview him and then quickly apologized to her.

"Isn't it interesting that Ingram apologized for tripping into Erin Andrews,'' ESPN announcer Brad Nessler said, "but he didn't apologize for running over South Carolina.''

Worst schedule
Can you believe college basketball is starting? Midnight Madness was Friday night, and games start in two weeks. Doesn't it seem like a bad idea to start in the middle of football season? Why not push the start back a few weeks to avoid the conflicts?

Anyway, for those who think college basketball can't start soon enough, ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb has listed his top five teams going into the season:
1. Kansas. 2. Texas. 3. Kentucky. 4. Purdue. 5. Michigan State.

Biggest doubt
Fox analyst Jimmy Johnson is one of those who thinks Gators QB Tim Tebow will have trouble making it in the NFL. But he does think Tebow has a shot, under one interesting condition.

"If Urban Meyer is brought along with Tim Tebow, that would be the key,'' Johnson said. "If you're going to bring in Tebow, you've got to make sure the offense comes with him, because Tebow’s not going to fit in with a pro-style offense.''

Best radio team
I've never been a fan of ESPN's Sunday night baseball announcing team, Jon Miller and Joe Morgan. On TV, they strike me as arrogant know-it-alls who are constantly trying to outdo one another. But strangely, they are more interesting on radio than they are on TV. They are calling the American League Championship Series for ESPN Radio and do a really solid job. They seem to mesh better on radio, and both seem to make the game the focal point as opposed to their voices.

Best point
Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albom was right when he said on Sunday's Sports Reporters: "When (Oklahoma quarterback) Sam Bradford went down again (against Texas on Saturday), it was a scary moment. It scared a whole lot of underclassmen into turning pro as quickly as they can.''

You have to wonder whether Bradford's pro stock has dropped mightily for fear that he now has a creaky shoulder. On top of that, underclassmen have watched Florida's Tim Tebow suffer a concussion as Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez and the Lions' Matt Stafford are having success and getting well-paid instead after leaving school early. Who can blame a kid for seeing all this and wanting to leave early?

Worst quote
Advice to the NFL Network's Michael Irvin: Don't say things like this when the team you're talking about has a tough opponent later in the day:
"This New York Giants football team is better than the New York Giants team that won the Super Bowl,'' Irvin said Sunday morning. "This is the next team that we use the word 'dynasty' around.''

Irvin's dynasty then went out and got blown up by the Saints 48-27.  By the way, CBS's Bill Cowher not only called New Orleans' victory but said the Saints have the best chance of going undefeated.

Three things that popped into my head
1. Doesn't it seem a little early in the season for Lightning general manager Brian Lawton to be reading people the riot act?
2. I don't care whether he's writing for Sports Illustrated or appearing on NBC's Sunday Night Football or at halftime of NBC’s Notre Dame coverage, if NFL writer-analyst Peter King has something to say, I'm interested in hearing it.
3. If a big baseball game is on TV, would you rather have anyone calling it than Fox's Joe Buck and Tim McCarver?