I know the ESPN droids on here only follow North Carolina and Duke here but the real heart of College basketball had some action last night.

University of Illinois showed what little class their coach and players had last night at the opening introductions by pushing Eric Gordon with a cheap shot where you're normally supposed to slap hands and mid-court. I would have expected the fans to be rough just like IU was when Shaun May played the worst game of his life in Bloomington a couple years back, but when the players are taking cheap shots at the beginning of the game and their your classless squeaky-voiced coach doesn't do any thing about it all you can do is frown.

It was a terrific game. It finished with Eric Gordon making some key plays down the stretch to send the Illini home in tears.

Here is a list of the top 10 running backs for the season including the playoffs so far.

1) Ryan Grant - The guy may have fumbled twice but he was the only running back to be the MVP of his game. You came out of no where and ran in an offense that had failed to run before.

2) Ladainian Tomlinson - You would have been first if you didn't sit on the sidelines while people showed your shoes can be filled.

3) Adrian Peterson - You had too many lows to be in the top 2.

4) Joseph Addai - Consistent all season and showed he is the best back that came out of his draft class.

5) Fred Taylor - You finally stayed healthy and look what happened your team did really well.

6) Brian Westbrook - You showed you can carry the team when McNabb can't do a whole lot.

7) Clinton Portis - You lost a great friend and you carried on to still be a really good back. Stop getting injured though.

8) Brandon Jacobs - Great job finishing the season and playing in the play offs.

9) Willie Parker - You would be further up if you didn't get injured and made your team go down.

10) Marion Barber - You seemed to go down after the Packers win. Mostly the play calling though.

NFL.com made a mistake. For some reason you guys aren't in the NFC Championship!!!! Why did they make this mistake?

Just within the past year I've really felt like there is a decline in the the quality of those who cover sports.

So for those of you here in the midwest that are in Big Ten land and pay attention to Big Ten sports may have noticed that your team isn't being covered on your local station with ESPN plus and now is on The Big Ten Network. Now being on a new network isn't what I'm upset about. I'm a little upset about the fact that its not being included in basic cable. It is here on campus but not in my home town. You can't even get it in my home town. The network and cable company are in a feud stand off that the BTN (Big Ten Network) wants it to be on basic cable and the cable company wants it to be a premium channel. Neither gets what they want so its not even being offered. That is pitiful. Next I can see why they don't want it on basic cable. The channel is absolutely horrible. The analysis is terrible and the people who cover the games are exteremly unprofessional. One person quoted on an IU football game as saying he had, "a brain fart." Wow. There's not much you can say to that analysis. Also an IU basketball game recently coming back from a time out the color commentary guy said on air, "well thats shit." The BTN is bad. Any one in the Midwest probably feels the same way I do.

Now the major networks. CBS's pregame crew Marino, Sharpe, Boomer, JB, etc. Is horrible. JB was awesome on Fox (still an awesome pregame show) and he still is good but Shannon Sharpe is god awful. The man can't even speak. He doesn't seem that bad though because all the rest of them are terrible. They are about 5 seconds behind calling the highlight and they don't even know the players names. Its like they don't watch the games or have even seen the plays before they come on. They get names wrong more than they get them right.

ESPN, who usually has an excellent line up of people to give their 2 cents has hired Keyshawn Johnson onto their crew. The guy is horrible. He doesn't bring any thing to the table that a 20x better personality Tom Jackson brings. When Michael Irvin used to be on with that crew he was SO much better. Keyshawn needs to go. While he isn't as bad as the CBS crew he is absolutely worthless.

Comparing this to other coverage like TNT's coverage of the NBA. Charles Barkley is one of the most entertaining people in the industry. The team meshes well and they all know and bring something different to the table. Plus they can all take a joke and makes it entertaining to watch... well unless its half time and the Knicks are getting blown out by 50.

Well I was clearly right Atari Bigby was going to be a costly player for us. To be honest I'm not sure why this guy has a job. He makes terrible penalties and can't seem to take someone down with out grabbing their face mask. There had got to be some one on the sideline that can have a better head on his shoulders than Bigby. When Woodson comes back move Williams to Safety and get Bigby off the field.

Probably the most obvious problem in the game was the horrible officiating. On the Cowboys first drive (ok you can see where this is going you know the play) Romo throws it to Terrel Owens along the sideline and comes down with the ball. Owens, having the terrible hands he does, allows Al Harris, who didn't have a good game other than this play that was taken away from him, steals the ball away from Owens and of course the call is blown. No problem, we have a replay system right? They'll get it right... errrrr no. This chromosome-lacking Referee comes onto the field and decides to let the Cowboys keep the ball. I think this guy must hang out with Tim Donahee. This is one of those games where myself and I'm sure a lot of other fans would like to sit down with the game film with the referees and sit there and make fun of them for their terrible calls. This is pathetic. What other profession allows you to make so many huge mistakes and let you get away with it.

...Ok I just saw the press conference and Wade Phillips just attempted a joke. "Well I dunno if he's the next American Idol (about Tony Romo)." No one laughed. Well I laughed at how not funny it was and how he just tried to move right along because realized how retarded he sounded.

Tony Romo played really well though. I have to give it to him. He's probably the only player on the Cowboys that I have respect for. He's a very good quarterback. Check that. I also want to give props to the Dallas return team. They did a great job setting up their offense. Players like Owens and Barber need to stop thinking they're better than they are. I saw Marion Barber run the ball on one play for about a 7 yard gain proceed to get up and think he was hot stuff. The thing was he had a huge hole and the very first guy who hits him takes him down. You're not a good a good running back. TO is not a top receiver. He turned 7 points into an interception. That was clearly on him and he nearly cost the Cowboys the game there. He is not a hall of fame receiver and not even in the top 10 in the NFL currently.

Knowing in the playoffs the officiating crew won't be taking the short bus to the stadium, Favre will play the whole game, as well as Woodson and KGB i feel confident the game in the future (if it happens) will be different.

As a long time Green Bay Packer fan I'm as unsure about every game this season as I have been with any of the teams. Back under the Mike Sherman years I felt confident that we could beat any and every one with such a potent offense. Now I feel less secure. Maybe its the fact that we depend more on our defense now or that I know in the back of my head in the end all that matters is we have to be better than the Patriots. But for this week It's the Dallas Cowboys. While I hope and feel the Packers can win its no guarantee.

Starting with the offenses I feel that each quarterback has a chance at playing a bad game. While each quarterback has been phenomenal this season each has had bad games (I think Romo's interception fest in a near loss to Buffalo stands out the most). All in all I wouldn't count on either quarterback playing bad.

The running backs are closer than most might think. The consistency of the Dallas backfield to be an all formation consistent style allows them to keep the defense on their toes. The Packers offense and their running game relies solely on formation. 3 balance back attack always equals a run while the shotgun tight end and back on the same side always equals pass. The running game has been effective recently with ryan grant making the absolute most of his carries. All in all I think the offenses are more even than most would think.

The Packers have the advantage on defense heavily. We have a very strong pass rush with our defensive linemen, strong 1 on 1 coverage corners on the outside (given Woodson plays), and some speedy smart line backers. Our Safety play is weak but doesn't need to be as strong with our great corners. They get the job done but expect some costly penalties against the DBs like illegal use of hands and a big one on Bigby. The Cowboys secondary is where I think they will make their fall. I don't think beyond their starters they have enough corners to keep up with our spread offense. Along with that they can't cover the deep ball (something brett has been throwing very well to receivers all over the field lately).

All in all its at Dallas. People have been hyping up that the Packers haven't won there in a long time n' such. I would have to say that it makes very little relevance. The field is no longer roll out turf, its artificial grass. The only person on the field who will be the same for either team is brett favre. The Packers have won all their road games this season continuing their streak from last season. And it seems like every time i see that "blah blah blah" is 0-some number it always turns around that upcoming game time and time again.

It should be an awesome game. I have no doubt either team can win it and I don't believe it will lock up NFC home field since both teams can lose down the stretch. Go Pack, go.