Weekend Football Roundup

Notre Dame's defense managed to carry them to the BCS Championship game, while Ohio State's tattoo scandal prevents them from joining the Irish.  If there was ever a year when I'd like to see Notre Dame play the Buckeyes, it is this one.  Instead, they will be meeting the winner of the Alabama-Georgia game.  That won't be nearly as good for the Irish.  Also on the college front, Purdue blew out Indiana for the Old Oaken Bucket, Northwestern beat Illinois for the Land of Lincoln trophy, Tennessee beat Kentucky in the former Beer Barrel game and Alabama crushed Auburn in the Iron Bowl.

In Division III, Mount Union and Widener moved up to meet next week, as did St. Thomas and Hobart, Linfield and Wisconsin-Oshkosh,  and Mary Hardin-Baylor and Wesley.

Up north, Toronto and Calgary meet today in the Grey Cup final at 6:00.  For any of the dozen or so folks in the States who want to watch it, it is supposed to be broadcast live on NBC Sports Network.

In the NFL, I am forced to root for the Browns to beat the Steelers to give the Bengals a chance to creep into the playoffs in spite of their pathetic loss to said team from Cleveland.  I will feel extremely dirty today.

Update:  Browns give up on white flag giveaway: 

The Browns have waved the white flag on their white-flag giveaway for tomorrow's game against the Steelers.
Sponsored by Ticketmaster, the Browns planned to give every fan in attendance an inflatable white flag with the Browns name and an orange helmet on it.
But the symbol of surrender -- especially against the Steelers and their Terrible Towels -- met with great resistance from fans and players.
"After further and careful consideration, we felt it was in the best interests of everyone involved that we not have a giveaway item at tomorrow's game,'' said Browns spokesman Neal Gulkis. "It is something that was intended to be fun for our fans and that they could rally around, and we regret that some didn't perceive it that way. We want to thank all of our fans for their tremendous support and we look forward to seeing them out in force at the stadium tomorrow.”

That is hilarious.