Four SEC West foes, both sides of the Red River Showdown, plus Notre Dame-Stanford converge on Nebraska — With more newly-minted champions such as Mississippi State, Vanderbilt and Oregon State unrepresented at this year’s College World Series, a new generation of title-bearer is destined to be crowned. In fact, the most recent Series winner among the 2022 field is Texas, led by the late, great Augie Garrido to…

…can’t believe the Frozen Four is nuthin’ but wihked posahs from out west — American International, UMass Lowell, Northeastern, Harvard and defending champion Massachusetts. Five of the 16 NCAA tournament teams would have given Boston’s TD Garden some local rooting interest in this year’s Frozen Four. All were knocked out in the first round of play. Instead, New England will host four schools from…

with blood the color of a Blue Hurricane — To say that the 2022 Final Four has been overrun by the blue bloods of college basketball would be to traffic in understatement; a quality unfamiliar to the very nature of New Orleans. The four participating schools have accounted for nine of the last 20 NCAA titles (Duke: 2001, 2010…

From Sign Language to Sign of the Apocalypse, Barbra StreiSAND to Sand Wars, Oscar 2022 has a little something for everybody — Having ditched Amtrak Platform 29 inbound at Los Angeles Union Station, the COVID-mandated site of last year’s ceremony, to return to the friendly confines of Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre, the 2022 Academy Awards should take on a more familiar appearance. The nominated fare form a coincidental, but seemingly uninterrupted 20th-century timeline…

The bracket road ends in NOLA for the sixth time — A sampling of highlights from the previous five times the Sweet Sixteen fed into the Louisiana Superdome: 1982 — UAB 68, #3 Virginia 66. The Blazers, playing in just their fourth season of basketball, had already knocked out defending champion Indiana in the second round before neutralizing the Cavaliers and…

The bracket road ends in NOLA for the sixth time — The Spectrum. Market Square Arena. The Special Events Center. Prior to 1982, the Final Four was the domain of actual basketball venues. Sure, the NCAA experimented with the Astrodome in 1971, but that attempt, with an elevated court placed at the center of the stadium’s playing surface, led to many…

Forget the annual Florida-Georgia ‘World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party’, Alabama-Georgia is the Demarcation du Jour — In 1860, the United States Supreme Court, in a 9–0 decision, ruled that the true border between the states of Alabama and Georgia was the “average and mean stage of the water” on the western bank of the Chattahoochee River. The nature of the relationship between the two states has…

12/31 — Gator Bowl: Wake Forest vs. Rutgers Accidental Tourist #1, 5–7 Rutgers, replacing inaugural COVID casualty Texas A&M, will take its swings against the ACC Atlantic Division champion Deacons. Wake ranks fifth in the nation in scoring and first downs. The Knights lead FBS in punting. Simon’s pick: Rutgers …

12/28 — Liberty Bowl: Texas Tech vs. Mississippi State This is your life, Mike Leach. Leach has represented the participant schools in 12 of the past 22 seasons (Tech, 2000-’09, MSU, ’20-’21). The Bulldogs bear the current Leach fingerprints, ranked third nationally in passing offense (nearly 386 yards per game). …