Are you ready to NOT SEE some football?

So a brief word or two on the current scrum involving the major cable companies and the NFL. For those not in the know, this Thursday night features a showdown between the 2 best teams in the NFC as Green Bay visit Dallas. Yet this game is televised on the NFL Network. This means if you have the channel, available on all satellite providers, or if you live in the Green Bay/Milwaukee and Dallas/Fort Worth markets, available on over-the-air channels, you have no worries.

But if you are continuing to be a slave to the thugs that run Comcast, Time Warner, and Cablevision, among others, than you need to seek out a local bar or a friend with satellite. Once again, a battle between billionaire cable companies and billionaire sports teams/leagues, ends up in regular fans getting dragged.

Those that know me (or read the previous paragraph) know my feelings about cable companies. The way Cablevision used to suck the life out of Devils fans by not being able to see games 10 miles away that friends in Florida could see was borderline criminal. The only time I ever rooted for the Yankees was not on the field, but when they launched their network and Cablevision refused to carry them in New York because it wanted to treat it like an HBO.

And it's not because James Dolan, otherwise known as the world's oldest toddler, owns Cablevision. It's just so unfair that these giant behemoths couldn't figure out how to make sure people could see these games until now. I mean, most of the games on the NFLN schedule appeared at the beginning of the season to be unwatchable, but I can promise you the bars and restaurants are happy about this, because many will be venturing out to see this showdown.

I have long been someone who has advocated the virtues of satellite television over cable, from the quality of picture and channels to the great customer service they offer, and many other reasons too numerous to mention even in a blog. I emplore you, if you are one of the millions who will get screwed out of watching that game from the comfort of your home because you have cable, go Albert Finney on their asses and tell them that you're not going to take it anymore!

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By the way, if you have the NFL package (and BTW, how great is the SuperFan feature?), you can see updated listings on Mahalo of where to watch each game and who the broadcasters are. Just click here:

http://www.mahalo.com/nfl_episode_guide

We also have one for college football, which I'll be updating next week to include all the bowl games.

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Speaking of college football: A few weeks back, I painted a picture of how to throw the BCS system into utter chaos. Well, look at the mess the BCS is now! The regular season would be so much better, especially conference play, if the conference champions advanced to a playoff, and the BCS was used to select 2 at-large teams.

Anyways, here are my picks for this week's conference title tilts:
ACC: Boston College over Virginia Tech - Matt Ryan is in the Hokies collective heads
BIG 12: Oklahoma over Mizzou - I'll be rooting for the Tigers, but I think Stoopes will have something special in store for Chase Daniel.
Conference USA: Central Florida over Tulane - home field advantage for UCF
MAC: Central Michigan over Miami OH - Only because of CMU's nickname, the Chippewas, which always makes me think of Gordon Lightfoot's Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald - goofy I know, but that's my methodology here
SEC: LSU over Tennessee - Many think LSU won't show up emotionally because of last week's loss that blew their BCS Title hopes - but I think they wake up and become the angry bear that got poked here and steamroll the Vols.