A long 105th show, ostensibly broken into to parts. The first half of the show is a talk with Brian Powell of Awful Announcing.

We talk about the decision by both the NHL and MLB to push big TV ventures – the Winter Classic and the official launch of MLB Network – on the day that is synonymous with college football.

We agreed that in the case of MLB, it was just the launch of a network and not a specific time for one event. But with the NHL, it just seems surprising that they’d want to go heads up with the bowl games each  year. I guess NBC feels it’s a completely different audience, but we discuss the future plans of that event.

Oh, speaking of college football, we talk about the BCS and how great the semifinal between Utah and USC is going to be next week...wait, WHAT? We use the great teams still standing to show exactly how stupid the BCS system is. Well, we discuss how the ratings for these games, compared to the ratings for say the NFL playoffs, have been terrible. And if those ratings continue to be poor, hopefully someone at ESPN when they get the rights to the BCS or perhaps, gasp, even a few college presidents will realize that a playoff is a cash cow. Hopefully someone will finally wake up to see that a playoff system will be more profitable than bowl games nobody cares about.

That brings us to the actual NFL playoffs. We talk about the quality of games on Wildcard Weekend and discuss the fact that an 8-8 team and a 9-6-1 team could be the favorites to go to the Super Bowl after last weekend. Seriously, the Eagles beat the Giants a few weeks ago. Does anyone think they DON’T have a chance to win at NY and Carolina? And San Diego is the hottest team in the league.

Back to the announcing side. we talk about the terribly awkward interview between Dan Patrick and Matt Millen during Saturday’s NBC telecast. Millen looked meek and Patrick was obviously asking him canned questions but it still looked like Millen had to take his official media lumps before they let him back in the pundit fraternity and Brother Patrick had the paddle. It had to be done, but did it have to be done the way it was? It was, in fact, awkward and terrible.

Speaking of awkward and terrible, we discuss the big announcement that Jay Mariotti has started blogging at Fanhouse. Interesting decision for AOL and we dissect his first endeavor and wonder if anyone will care about his future columns.

The second half of the show is a more in-depth breakdown of the NFL weekend with Nick. But first, we talk about the insane situation brewing at Boston College. Gene DeFillipo is a bad guy.

Then, we talk about the Birds, their legit chances to go to the Super Bowl and who we think, and who we want, to get into the big game. There is a perfectly legitimate set of circumstances that a team that went 8-8 could HOST THE AFC TITLE GAME. Is that great for the game or bad for it?

We also plug some stuff for the show, including FREE T-SHIRTS.

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