No Longer Locked Out Sports Chowdah Update- Game On: NHL Set to Resume Play This Month; Tide Sweeps Away Irish; Bloody Monday- 7 NFL Coaches Get the Axe on New Year's Eve; Red Sox Get Relief From Pirates

NHL- After a protracted disupte with the NHL and the players' union which forced the cancellation of the Winter Classic and NHL All Star Game, it appears as though there will be an abbreviated hockey season in 2013.

The 113-day lockout was the third such labor stoppage under NHL Comissioner Gary Bettman. The previous labor agreement had expired on September 15th, 2012 and the lockout led to the cancellation of more than 480 games throughout the league. Some of the idle NHL players stayed in shape by playing in the American Hockey League [All AHL teams are affiliated with NHL parent clubs- NANESB!] as well as over in Europe.

This year's NHL All Star Game and the New Year's Day Winter Classis were cancelled as a result of the work stoppage. Although the complete schedule for the abbreviated season hasn't been released yet, the season begins on January 19th. Barring any changes on the NHL's part, the Bruins are slated to start the season at the TD Garden on the 19th against the New York Rangers. The defending Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings are scheduled to raise their champioship banner in the Staples Center the same day.


NCAA FOOTBALL- Man- do I have a shitload of games to catch up on. Is it just me, or aside from the Rose Bowl, did all the top tier BCS games turn out to be snooze-fests while the 'lesser' games turned out to be fairly close and much more interesting contests.

I've already posted the final scores for the New Mexico Bowl, the Idaho Potatoes Bowl and the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl before going on my Christmastime hiatus. Here are the finals from the remaining bowl games.

Beef O'Brady Bowl
Ball State- 17
UCF- 38

R+L Carriers Bowl
East Carolina- 34
Louisiana-Lafeyette- 43

Maaco Las Vegas Bowl
Washington- 26
Boise State- 28

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Fresno State- 10
Southern Methodist- 43

Little Caesars Bowl
Western Kentucky- 21
Central Michigan- 24

Military Bowl
San Jose State- 29
Bowling Green- 20

Belk Bowl
Cincinnati- 48
Duke- 34

Bridgepoint Holiday Bowl
Baylor- 49
UCLA- 26

Independence Bowl
Ohio- 45
Louisiana-Monroe- 14

Russel Athletic Bowl
Rutgers- 10
Virginia Tech- 13

Meineke Bowl
Minnesota- 31
Texas Tech- 34

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
Rice- 33
Air Force- 14

New Era Pinstripe Bowl
West Virginia- 14
Syracuse- 38

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
Navy- 28
Arizona State- 62

Valero Alamo Bowl
Texas- 31
Oregon State- 27

Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl
Texas Christian- 16
Michigan State- 17

Music City Bowl
North Carolina State- 24
Vanderbilt- 38

Sun Bowl
USC- 7
Georgia Tech- 21

Liberty Bowl
Iowa State- 17
Tulsa- 31

ChickFilA Bowl
LSU- 24
Clemson- 25

Gator Bowl
Mississippi State- 20
Northwestern- 34

Heart of Dallas Bowl
Purdue- 14
Oklahoma State- 58

Capital One Bowl
Georgia- 45
Nebraska- 31

Outback Bowl
South Carolina- 33
Michigan- 28

Rose Bowl
Wisconsin- 14
Stamford- 20

Orange Bowl
Northern Illinois- 10
Florida State- 31

Sugar Bowl
Louisville- 33
Florida- 23

Fiesta Bowl
Oregon- 35
Kansas State- 17

Cotton Bowl
Texas A&M- 41
Oklahoma- 13

BBVA Compass Bowl
Pittsburgh- 17
Ole Miss- 38

GoDaddy.com Bowl
Kent State- 13
Arkansas State- 17

BCS Title Game
Notre Dame- 14
Alabama- 42

To hardly anybody's surprise, the title game ended up being a fairly lopsided affair, with Brent Musburger's on-air comments about Crimson Tide QB AJ McCarron's girlfriend- Katherine Webb- generating more attention than Alabama's convincing victory over the Irish [For the record, the 73 year old Musburger basically pointed out how attractive Webb is and encouraged kids in Alabama to start throwing the pigskin around if they wanted to land a future Miss Alabama- NANESB!].

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA FOOTBALL- Boise State has announced the cancellation of their geographically improbable move to the Big East conference and will remain in the Mountain West conference. The university weighed the costs of playing in-conference games on the east coast and decided it would be more cost-effective to pay the Big East the one-time $10 million exit fee.

San Diego State, which was supposed to make the move to the Big East along with the Broncos, is now reconsidering their participation. With Boise State already gone from the Big East before even playing a game, the Aztecs can remain in the Mountain West without paying an exit fee due to a clause reportedly included in the agreement between the Big East and SDSU.

NCAA FCS FOOTBALL- For the second consecutive season, the North Dakota State Bisons are the FCS Champions, beating the Sam Houston State Bearkats by a final of 39-13 in a rematch of last year's FCS title game.

The UNH Wildcats did make the cut for the FCS bracket, but were eliminated in their first game after losing to Wofford by a 23-7 final on December 1st. This season, New Hampshire holds the distinction of being the only New England team- FBS or FCS- to qualify for a postseason game.

NFL- OK, so Eli Manning, Drew Brees and Ben Roethlisberger walk into a bar.....to watch the playoffs on TV.

The NFL regular season wrapped up with the defending Super Bowl Champion NY Giants failing to make the playoffs along with New Orleans, Pittsburgh or Chicago.

New England finished the regular season with wins against Jacksonville and the Dolphins. Interestingly, the last place Jaguars gave the Patriots more of a challenge than Miami- Jacksonville's final drive started around midfield and got as far as the Patriots 12 yard line before QB Chad Henne was picked off in the end zone by safety Patrick Chung to hang on for the 23-16 win.

To wrap up the regular season, the Patriots shut out the Dolphins at Foxborough by a 28-0 final to finish the regular season with a 12-4 record- good enough for a 1st round bye, but not quite enough to clinch home field advantage. Instead, that honor goes to the 13-3 Denver Broncos who will host the Baltimore Ravens this weekend while New England hosts the Houston Texans for the second time in a month. Kickoff is set for 4:30 ET at Gilette Stadium and the game will be televised on CBS.

ELSEWHERE IN THE NFL- No less than 7 NFL  head coaches were handed their walking papers on December 31st. This includes Norv Turner of the San Diego Chargers, Romeo Crennel of the Kansas City Chiefs, Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles, Lovie Smith of the Chicago Bears, Pat Shurmur of the Cleveland Browns, Ken Wisenhunt of the Arizona Cardinals and Chan Gailey of the Buffalo Bills.

After about a week, the Chiefs made the decision to hire Reid as the head coach while Oregon Ducks head coach Chip Kelly interviewed with the Bills, Eagles and Browns. However, unnamed sources have indicated that Kelly is interested in staying on at Oregon.

Jamie Rhodes- USA Today photo

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- For the first time since 1988, the Texas Longhorns have won the NCAA Women's volleyball title. The lady Longhorns swept the Oregon Ducks 25-11, 26-24 and 25-19 in the title game at Louisville, KY on December 15th. Longhorns Junior Bailey Webster led the way with five kills and a .714 hitting percentage in the first match alone.

This was Oregon's first appearence in the NCAA Volleyball title game and Texas' second appearence in the championship game since 2009, when the Penn State Nittany Lions swept the Longhorns in the title match.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA VOLLEYBALL- The university of Nebraska has announced that they will be adding women's sand volleyball as an intercollegiate sport beginning this year. This will be the 24th intercollegiate sport in the Cornhusker athletic program.

Sand/Beach volleyball was recognized as an 'emerging sport' by the NCAA in 2009 and in 2012, sixteen schools began fielding teams. However, most of these programs were for colleges located in California, Florida or Hawaii. The announcement by Nebraska signifies a significant move inland for the sport, which the NCAA decided to refer to as 'sand volleyball' to invite the participation of teams from colder and more landlocked venues.

It remains to be seen whether or not additional midwestern schools will follow the Cornhuskers lead into the burgeoning sport.

RED SOX- The Red Sox have signed former A's and Diamondbacks shortstop Stephen Drew to a 1 year $9.5 million contract. Drew is the younger brother of former Red Sox outfielder JD Drew and has a .265 batting average with 77 HR and 349 RBIs over seven seasons. Although the youngest Drew brother got off to a lackluster start with Arizona in the 2012 season, he hit .250 with 5 HR and 16 RBI after being acquired by the Oakland A's on August 20. Drew also would reportedly recieve a $500,000 bonus if he had 500 plate appearences in a season.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS- In a 6-player trade with the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Red Sox have acquired Joel Hanrahan along with infielder Brock Holt. Boston sends outfielders Mark Melancon and Stolmy Pimentel as well as infielders Ivan DeJesus and Jerry Sands to the Steel City.

The Red Sox have been searching for a closer since the 2011 departure of Jonathan Papelbon who left as a free agent and signed with the Phillies.

Hanrahan had 36 saves in the 2012 seasons with a 2.72 ERA. Holt spent most of 2011 in AA Altoona before breaking through and getting called up by the Pirates late in 2012. In 24 games with the Pirates, Holt batted .292 with 3 RBI.

Sudden Realignment Sports Chowdah For 12/8- House Subdivided, Massive NHL Shift Ahead; Go East Young Man! California, Idaho Schools To Join Big East

NHL: The Boston Bruins impressive streak of going without a regulation loss since October 29th came to an end on the frigid windswept Manitoba plains Tuesday night.

The B's were without the services of Tyler Seguin for their first trip back to Winnipeg since 1995. Seguin reportedly missed a team meeting on Tuesday morning and as a result was scratched from the lineup. Tim Thomas also had Tuesday night off, with Tukka Rask starting in goal.

The Jets got on the board first with a goal from LW Andrew Ladd late in the first. After a scoreless second, the Bruins managed to tie the game at 1-1 early in the 3rd with a tally from Shawn Thornton. However, about 90 seconds later Bryan Little would get the go-ahead goal for Winnipeg, which would turn out to be the game-winner.

Tukka Rask stopped 33 of 35 shots faced while Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec stopped 39 of 40 shots faced and both teams went 0 for 3 on the power play on Tuesday night.

Some home cooking didn't help the Bruins much on Thursday night either when they returned to the Garden for what amounts to a quickie 1-game homestand. Thursday night's game against the Southeast-leading Florida Panthers remained scoreless all the way until late in the 3rd period, when the Panthers got on the board thanks to a goal from Florida's Tomas Kopecky with 2:22 in regulation. With a little over a minute to go, the Bruins pulled Tim Thomas, but Kris Versteeg got the empty-netter to make it a 2-0 Florida lead with 52 seconds remaining.

Tim Thomas turned aside 28 of 29 shots faced while Florida goaltender Jose Theodore stopped all 40 shots he faced on the evening. Neither team scored on the Power play- with the Bruins getting 4 opportunities and the Panthers getting just one.

Since upending the Pittsburgh Penguins on Monday night, the Bruins have lost two in a row and have been overtaken in the Eastern Conference lead by both Florida and Philadelphia (Philly took care of the Penguins in a Keystone State matchup on Thursday night).

For their next game, the Bruins will travel to Nationwide Arena in Columbus, OH to take on the Blue Jackets Saturday evening. Puck drops at 7 PM ET and the game will be televised on NESN.

Chart outlining the proposed conference realignment

NHL REALIGNMENT: The NHL Board of Governors authorized a radical new plan that would realign the entire NHL into four conferences instead of the current format of two conferences with three divisions each. The new alignment would take effect at the start of the 2012-2013 season and is pending the approval of the NHL Player's Association.

Under the proposal, the unnamed Conference the Bruins are in would resemble the current Northeast Division. Ottawa, Buffalo, Montreal and Toronto would be in the same Conference, but the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning would also be added.

The new format also guarantees that each team in the league would play each other at least twice- once at home and once on the road.

This was considered in part as a solution to the Thrasher's move to Winnipeg, yet still playing in the Southeast conference where the closest team is 1500 miles away. Initially, there was talk of solving this by having Winnipeg switch Divisions with Columbus or even Detroit (personally, I though trading places with Nashville would've made more sense).


ELSEWHERE IN THE NHL: Just to let you know, Paulina Gretzky's twitter account is still showing signs of life (however sporadic) after numerous media reports claimed she was deleting the account.

NCAA FOOTBALL: With only one regular season game to go [Saturday's Army/Navy game from FedEx Field in suburban Washington D.C.- NANESB!], the complete 2011-12 bowl schedule has been released this week. Perhaps the biggest surprise (or disappointment if you're not an SEC fan) is Alabama playing Louisiana State for the BCS title game in New Orleans instead of an Oklahoma State/Louisiana State matchup.

As I rather glumly and dejectedly pointed out earlier this week, none of the New England BCS schools are bowl-eligible this season. Sadly, neither Army or Navy are bowl-eligible this season. The only service academy that's going to a bowl game this season is Air Force- they have Toledo on 12/28 in the Military Bowl at RFK Stadium in Washington D.C.

Without any further delay, I bring you this season's bowl-a-palooza:

Gildan New Mexico Bowl
Temple vs. Wyoming
Albuquerque, N.M.
University Stadium
Dec. 17/2 p.m. ESPN

Famous Idaho Potato Bowl
Ohio vs. Utah State
Boise, Idaho
Bronco Stadium
Dec. 17/5:30 p.m. ESPN

R+L Carriers New Orleans Bowl
San Diego State vs. Louisiana-Lafayette
New Orleans
Mercedes-Benz Superdome
Dec. 17/9 p.m. ESPN

Beef O' Brady's St. Petersburg Bowl
Florida International vs. Marshall
St. Petersburg, Fla.
Tropicana Field
Dec. 20/8 p.m. ESPN

S.D. County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl
TCU vs. Louisiana Tech
San Diego
Qualcomm Stadium
Dec. 21/8 p.m. ESPN

MAACO Las Vegas Bowl
Arizona State vs. Boise State
Las Vegas
Sam Boyd Stadium
Dec. 22/8 p.m. ESPN

Sheraton Hawaii Bowl
Nevada vs. Southern Miss
Honolulu
Aloha Stadium
Dec. 24/8 p.m. ESPN

AdvoCare V100 Independence Bowl
Missouri vs. North Carolina
Shreveport, La.
Independence Stadium
Dec. 26/5 p.m. ESPN2

Little Caesars Bowl
Western Michigan vs. Purdue
Detroit
Ford Field
Dec. 274:30 p.m. ESPN

Belk Bowl
Louisville vs. NC State
Charlotte, N.C.
Bank of America Stadium
Dec. 27/8 p.m. ESPN

Military Bowl Presented By Northrop Grumman
Toledo vs. Air Force
Washington, D.C.
RFK Stadium
Dec. 28/4:30 p.m. ESPN

Bridgepoint Education Holiday Bowl
California vs. Texas
San Diego
Qualcomm Stadium
Dec. 28/8 p.m. ESPN

Champs Sports Bowl
Florida State vs. Notre Dame
Orlando, Fla.
Florida Citrus Bowl
Dec. 29/5:30 p.m. ESPN

Valero Alamo Bowl
Washington vs. Baylor
San Antonio
Alamodome
Dec. 29/9 p.m. ESPN

Bell Helicopter Armed Forces Bowl
BYU vs. Tulsa
Dallas
Gerald J. Ford Stadium
Dec. 30/Noon ESPN

New Era Pinstripe Bowl
Rutgers vs. Iowa State
Bronx, N.Y.
Yankee Stadium
Dec. 30/3:20 p.m. ESPN

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl
Mississippi State vs. Wake Forest
Nashville, Tenn.
LP Field
Dec. 30/6:40 p.m. ESPN

Insight Bowl
Iowa vs. Oklahoma
Tempe, Ariz.
Sun Devil Stadium
Dec. 30/10 p.m. ESPN

Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl
Texas A&M vs. Northwestern
Houston
Reliant Stadium
Dec. 31/Noon ESPN

Hyundai Sun Bowl
Georgia Tech vs. Utah
El Paso, Texas
Sun Bowl
Dec. 31/2 p.m. CBS

AutoZone Liberty Bowl
Cincinnati vs. Vanderbilt
Memphis, Tenn.
Liberty Bowl
Dec. 31/3:30 p.m. ABC

Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl
Illinois vs. UCLA
San Francisco
AT&T Park
Dec. 31/3:30 p.m. ESPN

Chick-fil-A Bowl
Virginia vs. Auburn
Atlanta
Georgia Dome
Dec. 31/7:30 p.m. ESPN

TicketCity Bowl
Houston vs. Penn State
Dallas
Cotton Bowl
Jan. 2/Noon ESPNU

Capital One Bowl
Nebraska vs. South Carolina
Orlando, Fla.
Florida Citrus Bowl
Jan. 2/1 p.m. ESPN

Taxslayer.com Gator Bowl
Ohio State vs. Florida
Jacksonville, Fla.
EverBank Field
Jan. 2/1 p.m. ESPN2

Rose Bowl Game presented by Vizio
Wisconsin vs. Oregon
Pasadena, Calif.
Rose Bowl
Jan. 2/5 p.m. ESPN

Tostitos Fiesta Bowl
Stanford vs. Oklahoma State
Glendale, Ariz.
U. of Phoenix Stadium
Jan. 2/8:30 p.m. ESPN

Allstate Sugar Bowl
Michigan vs. Virginia Tech
New Orleans
Louisiana Superdome
Jan. 3/8:30 p.m. ESPN

Discover Orange Bowl
West Virginia vs. Clemson
Miami
Sun Life Stadium
Jan. 4/8:30 p.m. ESPN

AT&T Cotton Bowl
Kansas State vs. Arkansas
Arlington, Texas
Cowboys Stadium
Jan. 6/8 p.m. FOX

BBVA Compass Bowl
SMU vs. Pittsburgh
Birmingham, Ala.
Legion Field
Jan. 7/1 p.m. ESPN

GoDaddy.com Bowl
Arkansas State vs. Northern Illinois
Mobile, Ala.
Ladd-Peebles Stadium
Jan. 8/9 p.m. ESPN

Allstate BCS National Championship Game
No. 1 LSU vs. No. 2 Alabama
New Orleans
Louisiana Superdome
Jan. 9/8:30 p.m. ESPN

OTHER NCAA FOOTBALL NEWS: The Big East Conference announced that Boise State and San Diego State Universities will be joining them as football-only members starting in 2013. The Broncos and Aztecs will be joining them from the Mountain West conference while the Big East will also add Houston, Southern Methodist and Central Florida will be joining them from Conference USA in all athletic programs starting in 2013.

[Between the University of Massachusetts Minutemen joining the Mid America Conference and the San Diego State Aztecs joining the Big East, I can't wait until the two teams get together for the 2013 'Piss Poor Geography' Bowl- NANESB!]

AP Photo

NFL: After leaving Thursday night's Browns/Steelers game in the second quarter with what was described as a high ankle injury, it looked as though Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was done for the night, if not the next few weeks.

However, with a 7-3 lead, the Steelers were still very much in it even before Roethlisberger returned in the 2nd half. With 2:52 to go in the 4th quarter, Pittsburgh would pad their lead over the Browns thanks to a Roethlisberger pass to WR Antonio brown for a 79 yard pass and run for the end zone to make it 14-3, which also happened to be the final score.

The Steelers will have a much more difficult test next Monday when they play the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night football. San Francisco has already clinched the NFC West title.

OTHER NFL NEWS: Former San Diego Chargers linebacker Lew Bush- who was with the team during their sole Super Bowl appearence during the 1994 season- has passed away at the age of 42, dead from what the AP indicates is an apparent heart attack. A Washington State alumni, Bush played in the NFL for 9 seasons- six of them with the Chargers and the final three with the Kansas City Chiefs.

MLB: Former St Louis Cardinals 1st Baseman Albert Pujols is heading to Southern California. The Angels are said to have reached a deal with the Cardinals slugger for 10 years that's reportedly worth more than $250 million.

While many had projected the Cards star first baseman might be part of a revamped Florida Miami Marlins, Pujols decided to head west instead and joins other big money players on the Anaheim roster such as outfielders Vernon Wells or Torii Hunter.

Meanwhile, in South Beach, although the Marlins came up empty in their pursuit of Pujols, they did sign former White Sox starter Mark Buehrle to a 4 year, $58 million deal. Buehrle went 13-9 with a 3.58 ERA for the ChiSox last year. The Marlins also managed to sign former Padres closer Heath Bell and Mets shortstop Jose Reyes. Bell had 42 saves for the Padres last season with a 2.44 ERA and 51 strikeouts. Reyes had a batting average of .337 with 7 homers and 44 RBIs for the Mets last season.

Turkey Sports Chowdah Recap- BC End Regular Season w/Orange Crush; Huskies BCS Bound? Pats Lion Down on the Job; B's Thrashed; Land that Shaq Forgot

NCAA FOOTBALL: Holy crap, where to start?

Boston College finished up its regular season with a road trip to the Carrier Dome in Syracuse, NY to renew their rivalry with the Syracuse Orangemen. This would be the first meeting between the Orangemen and Eagles football since Boston College left the Big East in 2004. And BC would have to get it done without RB Montel Harris, who underwent surgery on his left knee after last week's game against Virginia.

Stepping in to fill the void was freshman tailback Andre Williams, who's increased playing time saw him net 185 yards on 42 carries and BC's only TD on the day. The Eagles carried a 6-0 shutout into halftime thanks to two Nate Freese FG's from inside the 30 yard line before Syracuse briefly took a 7-6 lead in the 3rd quarter.

BC would go on to take the lead for good on the following possession which started from their own 22 and culminated with Williams TD run from inside the Syracuse red zone after shaving 4 and a half minutes off the game clock. Freese would add a FG to round out the Eagles scoring and LB Matt Herzlich intercepted Ryan Nassib's pass on the following Syracuse possession with 1:28 remaining to ice BC's 16-7 win over the Orangemen.

Both Boston College and Syracuse finish the 2010 regular season with identical 7-5 records, with the Eagles winning their last five straight- including four against ACC opponents. Saturday was a fairly quiet day for Eagles QB Chase Rettig, going 11-19 with 110 yards and rushing for 13 more.

It was looking pretty bad with all of BC's losses coming in 5 consecutive weeks, but the Eagles were able to persevere and finish strong, and hopefully this will be rewarded with an invitation to their 11th straight bowl game.

ELSEWHERE IN THE ACC: The University of Miami fired head football coach Randy Shannon after the Hurricane's 23-20 OT loss to the University of South Florida. The Hurricanes had lost two straight and like BC and Syracuse, finished with a record of 7-5.

*The ACC Championship game will kick off at 7:45 PM Saturday night at Charlotte, NC. #21 Ranked Florida State will take on #15 Virginia Tech for the conference title and a BCS berth.

BIG EAST: My my....the plot thickens in the Nutmeg state.

With a 7-4 record after easily handling defending Big East Champions Cincinnati on Saturday night, the UConn Huskies may be heading to a BCS bowl with at least a share of the Big East title.

Although it got as close as 24-17 at one point in the 4th, the Huskies led the whole night in their 38-17 win over the Bearcats. RB Jordan Todman had 31 carries for 175 yards and 3TDs while Huskies QB Zach Frazier went 11-24 with 121 yards, a touchdown and an INT and DT Kendall Reyes ran back a Zach Collaros interception 70+ yards (it was initially run back all the way, but a blocking penalty nullified the TD and gave UConn the ball on the Bearcats 15).

Now here's where it gets a little strange- although #23 West Virginia thrashed the Pitt Panthers by a 35-10 final and have a better record than UConn at the moment, UConn holds the tiebreaker over both Pitt and #23 West Virginia. Whether or not UConn can get at least a share of the Big East's BCS berth will come down to whether or not they can win their remaining regular season game, a road game against the 7-4 South Florida Bulls (keep in mind USF just came off a win against Miami (FL) in OT on Saturday).

Kickoff will be at 8PM ET at Tampa on Saturday night.

OTHER BIG EAST NEWS: The Texas Christian board of directors announced that they have accepted an invitation that will send the Horned Frogs to the Big East conference effective July 1, 2012. TCU had been with the Mountain West conference since the 2005 season.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAAF: Huge upset in Reno, NV where the #19 Ranked Nevada Wolfpack bested the #3 ranked Boise State Broncos in overtime on Friday night, handing the Broncos their first loss since the 2008 Poinsettia Bowl. After taking a 24-7 lead into halftime, it appeared as though the Broncos were just toying with Nevada, seemingly able to put the game out of reach at any given moment.

While Nevada was able to come back and tie up the game at 24-24 in the 4th quarter, the Broncos pulled ahead on a Kellen Moore pass to Doug Martin for 79 yards that put Boise State up 31-24 with just over 5 minutes to go.

Nevada would respond with a 4 and a half minute drive from their own 21 and managed to tie the game at 31-31 with 17 seconds left in regulation. Incredibly, with only 9 seconds left in regulation and starting out on their own 38, Broncos QB Kellen Moore made a 53 yard completion to WR Titus Young setting up a go-ahead 26 yard Field Goal attempt by Kyle Brotzman with 2 seconds left in the 4th.

Inexplicably, Brotzman's kick missed, sending the game to OT, where one would assume he'd have the chance to redeem himself. However, with Boise getting the 1st possession of OT, he would end up missing from the 29 yard line as well while Nevada's Anthony Martinez would boot the game winning FG on the Wolfpack's only possession in OT.

The 34-31 OT win puts the Wolfpack at #17 in the BCS standings and drops Boise state to #11.

NFL: For the first time since 2002, the New England Patriots wound up playing on Thanksgiving Day against the Detroit Lions at Ford Field.

The Patriots actually headed into halftime in this one trailing 17-10 and would actually go on to trail 24-17 in the 3rd before Brady connected with Deion Branch for 79 yards and a TD to tie everything up at 24-24.

The 4th quarter was all New England, though, with Brady connecting with Wes Welker and Branch (again) for a pair of TDs and Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis rushing for one inside the Lions 5 to put the game away and give the Pats a 45-24 win.

Branch had 3 receptions for 119 yards and two TDs while Welker had 8 catches for 90 yards and two TDs of his own. As far as the running game was concerned, the law offices of Ben Jarvus Green-Ellis had 12 carries for 59 yards and 2 TDs and Brady went 21-27 for 341 yards and 4 TD passes.

On the defensive side of the ball, CB Devin McCourty had two INTs and the kicking game was perfect with Shayne Graham making his only field goal attempt to the day,

This is starting to feel a little like a bye week, with the Pats having played 3 days before most of the other teams and having until Monday, December 6 for their next game. The Pats will host the Jets at Foxboro for their final Monday Night football appearance of the 2010 season. Interestingly, the Jets also played on Thanksgiving, easily dispatching the Cincinnati Bengals by a 26-10 margin for the late game on Thanksgiving.

NBA: The Celtics managed to bounce back from a narrow loss to the Toronto Raptors on Friday night, this time manging to down the Raptors 110-101 on a busy night from 'old timers' Kevin Garnett (26 points, 11 rebounds) and Shaquille O'Neal (16 points) for their third win in a row.

Their next game will be against the Cavs at Cleveland on Tuesday night.

OTHER CELITCS NEWS: D'OH!

You may not be the only one thrown off by the C's light schedule over the weekend. None other than Shaquille O'Neal missed a scheduled practice on Monday after forgetting the start time. Glen Davis took his spot among the starting players though.

NHL: The Bruins have managed to lose two in a row and three out of four to Southeast Division opponents. After getting shut out at home 3-0 to the Carolina Hurricanes, the Bruins travelled to Atlanta Sunday where they were downed 4-1 by the home team. Tukka Rask stopped 22 of 26 shots faced and Blake Wheeler had the only goal for Boston (with assists from Ryder and Lucic) midway through the 2nd period.

For their next game, the Bruins will be travelling to Philly to take on the 15-6-4 Flyers on Wednesday night.

MLB: Victor Martinez and the Detroit Tigers have reached a 4 year $50 million deal- pending a physical- while the Red Sox declined salary arbitration with Jason Varitek. The Red Sox are likely interested in retaining Tek's services, hoping he could mentor Jarrod Saltalamacchia who was picked up from the Texas Rangers at the trade deadline in 2010. By not offering salary arbitration to the veteran catcher, the Sox are likely attempting to retain his services under reworked contract.

Playing Hooky Sports Chowdah Update- BoSox Take 2 of 3 From Blue Rays After Windy City Sox Breeze Thru Fenway; Eagles Soar While UConn's Sore

Elsa/Getty Images

MLB: Well scheisse....I've been a bad little blogger, trying in vain to score some easy cash playing the ponies whilst neglecting my blog. Then again, out of the last 6 games the Red Sox played, the only one I get to watch was Sunday's sucktastic snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory against the White Sox courtesy of Papelbon where the White Sox completed their sweep of the Red Sox.

The bad news is that absolutely NONE of the games in the subsequent homestand against Tampa Bay were close. The good news is that two of them went Boston's way, with Jon Lester going six innings while giving up four hits, two earned runs, three walks and striking out ten. Big Papi and Beltre homered and Ryan Kalish hit a grand slam off of Andy Sonnanstine in Monday's 12-5 win over Tampa.

Tuesday night was Boston's turn to get roughed up, with Daisuke Matsuzaka lasting all of four and 2/3rds innings while giving up eight earned runs in Tampa's 14-5 win over Boston.

Wednesday night's rubber game looked like it was going to be more of the same after Wakefield gave up an RBI sac-fly to Evan Longoria in the 1st, followed by a 3-run homer from BJ Upton in the 2nd. The Sox got on the board with a 2 run homer off the bat of Adrian Beltre before tying the game in the bottom of the 3rd with solo homers from Marcos Scutaro and Big Papi. Tampa briefly re-took the lead with an RBI double from Jason Batlett in the 4th, but the Red Sox re-took the lead in the bottom of the 5th thanks to Victor Martinez solo homer, followed by Ryan Kalish's RBI double and THEN scoring on an Evan Longoria throwing error with 2 away.

Boston would go on to tack on three more runs, including another homer by Scutaro to win by the final of 11-5 (this one being a little closer than it looked, given how quickly Tampa got out of the gate).

Vintage knuckleballer Tim Wakefield got 5 innings of work in, giving up 4 earned runs (plus one unearned) on six hits while walking two and striking out 4. With an abundance of run support, Wake's outing was good enough for the win, making the 44 year old knuckleballer the oldest Red Sox ever pitcher to get a win. Hall of Famer Dennis Eckersley was 43 when he got his last win in a Red Sox uniform.

Thursday's a pretty light day in general in the American league, and the Red Sox will be travelling for another West Coast road trip that gets underway with a Friday night start against the Oakland A's with Clay Buchholz (15-6; 2.25 ERA) scheduled to start against Trevor Cahill (15-6; 2.72 ERA) at 10PM Eastern time, 7PM Pacific.

OTHER RED SOX NEWS: Jason Varitek made an appearence with the AAA PawSox for their final two games of the International League season at McCoy stadium, going 2-5, batting .400 and driving in a run in two games against the Syracuse Chiefs before being activiated by Boston on Monday night. The captain made an appearence in Tuesday night's loss, going 0-2 with two groundouts, but sat out Wednesday's game against Tampa with the knuckleballer starting.

NCAA FOOTBALL: The BC Eagles are off to a 1-0 start after their 38-20 win over Weber State at Chestnut Hill on Saturday. Eagles QB David Shinskie was 10-20 with 185 yards, 2 touchdowns and two interceptions and LB Mark Herzlich returned to the lineup after missing the 2009 season to undergo treatment for bone cancer.

This was pretty much a first week 'gimmee' where the hapless Division 1AA/FCS team gets slapped around by their 1A/FBS counterpart. Next week, the BC Eagles will host Kent State for a 3:30 PM ET kickoff.

The UConn Huskies had a much rougher start to their season at the Big House in Ann Arbor, MI. The Husky D couldn't contain an occasionally shoeless Denard Robinson, who was 19-22 with 186 yards and a touchdown passing while rushing for another 197 yards and a TD. Michigan wins their home opener against Connecticut, 30-10.

The Huskies will next host the Texas Southern Tigers at Storrs at noon Saturday.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAAF: Pretty good game Monday night between Virginia Tech and Boise State. The game took place at Fed Ex Field in Landover, MD- home of the Washington Redskins- and had the uncanny ability to time some big plays in the second half when I went out to flip some burgers or brats on the grill on Labor Day. The visiting Broncos held off a late drive by the Hokies to win 33-30.

Tuesday Night Sports Chowdah- Border Wars; USA Golden in World Jr Chamionships, Bruins Let Loose in Canada's Capital, Broncos Run The Table

(Canadian Press) U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!

I have to say, I feel derelict in my duties as a sports fan to only notice that the IIHF World Under 20 Hockey Championship game was taking place only when the absolutely bored-sounding Ottawa Senators broadcasters gave the listeners the update from Saskatoon, SK to take their minds off the 4-1 thumping the Bruins were laying down on the home team Tuesday night. XM and the NHL Network were carrying the World Junior Championships live from Saskatchewan, so I figured that would be as good a time as any to tune in. Hell- I had only heard about Team USA's loss to Canada in the shootout New Year's eve second or thirdhand a few days after the fact.

Even though both the XM and NHL feed featured the slightly biased announcers from TSN, it was clear I made the right choice by tuning in towards the end of the first period when the match was tied at 2 goals a piece.

Team USA scored on a power-play goal by John Carlson (Hershey Bears of the AHL) just over a minute into the second period, but Canada came right back and scored the equalizer thanks to Taylor Hall (Windsor Spitfires of the OHL). That was enough for USA head coach Dean Blias to pull netminder Mike Lee (NCAA's St. Cloud St.) for Jack Campbell and the contest would head into the third period knotted at 3-3.

The third period was one for the ages and any meager attempt on my part to describe it on this little podunk blog would fail to do it justice, but I have to at least try. At the 4:12 mark of the third period, RPI Freshman LW Jerry D'Amigo made the twin behind Team Canada goalie Jake Allen (Montreal Jr. of the QMJHL). Team Canada coach Willie Desjardins pulled Allen in favor of Martin Jones (Calgary Hitmen of the WHL) in net for Canada. Just over two minutes later, Wisconsin sophomore Derek Stephan put one past Jones to put the USA up 5-3. However, the game was far from over and after nearly 10 minutes of pressure and swarming the net, Canada's Joran Eberle (Regina Pats of the WHL) broke through on a power-play goal to make it a one goal game and with a 1:25 remaining in regulation, Eberle scored again to tie the game on an even-strength goal and send the Championship game into overtime with what by rights should've been a back-breaker for Team USA.

However, at just over 4 and a half minutes into overtime USA's John Carlson shot beat Jones to the left side for the game winner and second goal of the game, deflating the crowd of 15,000 at Saskatoon's Credit Union Centre. Jack Campbell stopped 32 of 34 shots faced in 40 minutes of playing time and the USA won their second ever gold medal in the IIHF World U20 Championships. Congratulations guys, and good job overcoming what was no doubt that running-head-start-kick-to-the-nuts in the form of Eberle's game-tying goal. Hopefully this will whet the appetite of the 'grown-up' Team USA for the 2010 Winter Olympiad in Vancouver next month.

(AP)

While my attention was focused on the goings-on in Saskatoon, the Bruins had a pretty good night in Ottawa after coming off their 3-2 loss to the NY Rangers. Blake Wheeler notched two goals and an assist while Tim Thomas stopped 27 of 28 shots on goal faced. David Krejci and Mark Recchi also had goals for the Bruins, who scored all of their goals in the first period for the 4-1 win over the Senators.

(Idaho Statesman/Joe Jaszewski)

No hook and lateral or on-field marriage proposals this time around, but the results were the same as #6 Boise State's last appearance in Glendale, AZ. Although the game didn't feature nearly as many gadget plays as the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, I had to admire the chutzpah behind kicker Kyle Brotzman's 30-yard completion to TE Kyle Efaw on 4th and 9 during what would turn out to be the game-winning drive for the Broncos on Monday Night. Boise State beats #3 Texas Christian 17-10 and finishes with a 13-0 record on the year.

Ordinarily I'm not one of these 'let's all dogpile on the BSC system' people since I don't really have a dog in the fight, but this blogger thinks that pitting the undefeated Mountain West team against the undefeated WAC team was a huge cop-out on the part of the BCS when both teams earned the right to take on the SEC or Big 12 champions (or even the Gators). Now granted I think part of that stemmed from the fact that there were three undefeated teams from the rat-bastard conferences the BCS could never love (Cincinnati from the Big East as well as Boise St. and TCU), but I also think they were reluctant to have an SEC or Big 12 team embarrassed like what #7 Utah did to #4 Alabama in last year's Sugar Bowl.

Elsewhere, one of the less contrived matchups of the BCS pitted #9 Georgia Tech against #10 Iowa in the Orange Bowl. Now keep in mind Iowa started off the regular season barely squeaking past Div 1AA Northern Iowa by virtue of not one but two missed field goals at the end of regulation back in September, but went on a 9-0 tear until falling to Northwestern the first weekend in November. Despite outgaining the Yellowjackets 155 total yards to the Hawkeyes 403, the game was a fairly close 17-14 affair until Brandon Weghner's 32-yard TD run (which I tuned in from the IIHF final just in time to see) for Iowa late in the fourth, giving Iowa the 24-14 win.