A Sports Filled Weekend

We sure were getting to some fun baseball, and now it’s over. We will still find ways to amuse ourselves in the short term before college basketball fires up the early part of its schedule.

We can even provide some variety in our Weekend TV Six-Pack, so prepare the recliner to welcome your heiner…

Saturday will be busy. There is as, always plenty of college football, and we’ll whittle your watch list down to a couple, but first – something completely different. We’re taking you to lovely Santa Anita in California for the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The $6 million race over 1 ¼ miles goes to the post at 8:35 p.m. ET, with California Chrome the prohibitive favorite. California Chrome won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes in 2014 and is undefeated running as a 5-year-old. NBC will have this, with the Classic Hour starting at 8 p.m.

Which means you will need three TVs. Or the world’s greatest clicker. Because there’s some fine college football competing with the race (though the race will take two minutes).

On CBS at 8 p.m. from Baton Rouge comes No. 1 Alabama (8-0) against No. 13 LSU (5-2). Both play terrific run defense and LSU’s offense has perked up a bit under interim head coach Ed Orgeron. On ABC at the same time is No. 6 Ohio State (7-1) at home against No. 10 Nebraska (7-1). The Cornhuskers are coming off their first loss (in OT to Wisconsin), while OSU barely scraped past Northwestern.

Our NFL picks (check your local listings or the screens at the neighborhood sports bar) are the Philadelphia Eagles (4-3) at the New York Giants (4-3) at 1 p.m. on Fox, and the Sunday night matchup between the Denver Broncos and Oakland Raiders, both 6-2 an tied atop the AFC West. That’s NBC’s at 8:30 p.m.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup, XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series combine for a tripleheader at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend. The AAA Texas 500, as part of the Chase for the Sprint Cup Championship, is at 2 p.m. Sunday on NBC.

Relax and enjoy. You earned it. Please, watch responsibly.
 
 
Post By: Larry Weisman, a longtime sportswriter for USA TODAY, blogs for Twistity.com. Follow him on Twitter @MrLarryWeisman