I’m mad at the NFL right now. I didn’t realize all those skills competitions were happening last night. Nobody told me! I even looked on the ESPN app—I’m mad at ESPN too, by the way—and there was nothing. I was on an airplane anyway, but it would have at least been nice to know.
Thankfully, I’m now aware enough to have googled this all myself, and there isn’t anything today or tomorrow, but there are more skills competitions on Sunday, to go with the flag football. Best Pro Bowl ever, I am pumped anew.
The NFL isn’t the only entity thrilling us with gimmicks these next two days, though. The NHL is in on it. NASCAR is in on it. Depending how much you care about soccer, you could make a case that the Premier League is in on it. There is inconsequential sport happening all over the country, so let’s break down your options:
The Pro Bowl (and Assorted Fun)
It’s wild how even a meaningless regular season NFL game is pretty fun to watch but the Pro Bowl always was not. I’m not sure how that happened. There is some threshold for watchable football, and it is very low, but you can dip below it. Maybe we subconsciously know when an offensive line isn’t working well with itself.
It’s great, then, that the NFL fixed this, seemingly by walking into a meeting in Bristol and saying, “Hey, what kind of reruns would you like to fill summer afternoons on ESPN2?” Everything is silly, everything is fun, everything—especially the flag football—is actually interesting. This might be the golden year of this format before it either gets old or gets overdone, so enjoy it while it lasts. Nice little time capsule.
NHL All-Star Weekend
Skills here too, but that’s not as new. The NHL is sticking with a fun, interesting, no–longer–surprising–but–Gary–Bettman–could–do–so–much–worse setup: Skills tonight, mini tournament tomorrow. Big fans.
NASCAR Clash at the Coliseum
And lastly, NASCAR, where the old Busch Clash is now the Busch Light Clash and was moved last year to the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, basically because it looked really cool to race there in the movie Cars.
The race has absolutely no consequence for the season ahead—it’s a pure preseason exhibition—but it’s hyped up, and it’s short-track racing both in format (there will be heats) and style (it’s only a quarter-mile track). February is NASCAR’s best month, and it’s starting strong again.
Which to Watch?
Well, you’ll be watching NIT games, so none of them, potentially (I haven’t looked at the college basketball schedule yet).
No, they scheduled around each other. Tonight’s NHL, tomorrow afternoon’s NHL, tomorrow night’s NASCAR, Sunday afternoon’s NFL, and Sunday night’s NASCAR. Again, lots of other sports going on that aren’t exhibitions, but if you are by any chance a person to whom exhibition sports are the greatest thing in the world, you are on Day 2 of the greatest four days of your life.
Unless you also missed the memo about the skills competition last night.
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Two orders of business, before we get to this weekend’s schedule:
First, we’re planning on trying an NIT Saturday and NIT Sunday preview posted each of those mornings, rather than doing the whole schedule here where it is overwhelming (especially on a telephone).
Second, the Sens’ minor league coach allegedly gave a scouting report to an opponent and has thus been fired. Pumped to hear where this one goes, we’ll try to have more on Monday.
Now. The menu for the weekend ahead:
- Friday, 7:00 PM EST: NHL Skills Competition (ESPN)
- Saturday, 3:00 PM EST: NHL All-Star Games (ABC)
- Saturday, 6:00 PM EST: Busch Clash Practice (FS1)
- Saturday, 8:30 PM EST: Busch Clash Qualifying (FS1)
- Sunday, 3:00 PM EST: Pro Bowl Skills & Flag Football (ESPN, ABC)
- Sunday, 5:00 PM EST: Busch Clash Races (FOX)
This is everything about which we just spoke, broke up into a bulleted list so you can read it. Internalize it. Write it on your hand. Or, you know, just watch Wisconsin whenever they play.
- Saturday, 7:30 AM EST: Burnley @ Norwich (ESPN+)
Big game for the Burnleys, who are trying to stay at least two games clear of Sheffield United for first place. FiveThirtyEight has the lads up to a 94% probability of qualifying for promotion without even playing in the playoff. The Burnleys are rocking.
- Saturday, 8:00 PM EST: Blazers @ Bulls (League Pass)
I feel like you could do a big breakdown of why the Blazers not tanking has been fun and the Bulls not tanking has been miserable. Maybe it’s because the Bulls did tank and this was all they got to show for it.
- Friday, 5:00 PM EST: Yale @ Harvard (ESPNU)
- Friday, 7:00 PM EST: VCU @ Saint Louis (ESPN2)
- Friday, 7:00 PM EST: Cornell @ Princeton (ESPN+)
- Friday, 9:00 PM EST: Kent State @ Akron (ESPNU)
- Friday, 9:00 PM EST: Boise State @ San Diego State (FS1)
- Friday, 11:00 PM EST: Air Force @ Nevada (CBSSN)
Again, we’ll outline tomorrow tomorrow and Sunday on Sunday, but for toNITe, we’re working with the Ivy League, the A-10, the Mountain West, and the MAC.
The Ivy League’s fun right now because if Cornell, Princeton, and Yale all keep winning, we have a shot at a two-bid Ivy League in the NIT, which would go a long ways towards our claim on the NIT being the strongest academic tournament in the land. Cornell and Princeton are at the top of the league right now (and Cornell’s a riot—one of those teams that just refuses to play defense so they can get the ball back as fast as possible and try to go score more), Yale’s right behind them. Princeton beat Cornell already up in Ithaca, so if the Tigers win this, it’s hard to see Cornell grabbing the automatic bid. Meanwhile, Yale has to try to keep up while dealing with a rivalry game.
The A-10’s fun right now because it’s having a woeful time. VCU and Saint Louis are the league’s best teams (which makes tonight huge for them), but neither would comfortably be an NIT at-large if the season rolled out exactly as we expect from here. It shouldn’t be a bad game, but the A-10 is used to so much better that I think we get to call this “gritty.”
The MAC’s fun right now because it’s the MAC, and as you’d hope, every contender for noteworthy postseason play is in Ohio. Kent State’s the favorite, but Akron’s tied with them at the moment and if you’ve ever wondered where Kent State is, it’s near Cleveland, just like Akron is, making this potentially a rivalry game? I am not from Cleveland, but if I can find someone who is, I’ll ask. (Update: Kent is actually right next to Akron. They’re closer to each other than either is to Cleveland. And each is close to Cleveland!)
The Mountain West’s fun right now because they could put five teams in the NCA* *********t (what they want) and they could put five teams in the NIT (what we want). Boise State and San Diego State are the furthest out of our reach, but I guess that adds some intrigue, if you’re into that sort of thing. Nevada’s right on the cusp, making this evening a big opportunity for the school where we’re obligated to remind you that Steve Alford is still the coach.
