The NFL schedule makers could not have done a better job than they did this year. When the 256-game regular season slate was announced on April 15, no one could have predicted that Week 16 would feature not one, but two games to determine the No. 1 seeds in the NFC and AFC Playoffs.

On Sunday night, homefield advantage throughout the NFC Playoffs will be decided when the Carolina Panthers (11-3) travel to face the New York Giants (11-3) at the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J.

Luckily, NBC’s “Football Night in America” had the benefit of late-season flex scheduling and, as a result, football fans will have the benefit of experiencing a playoff atmosphere in Week 16 of the regular season.

“How could it be any better than this?” asked Giants coach Tom Coughlin. “It is terrific. Can you imagine being this time of year, being 11-3 and playing at home for a chance to have a first round bye and play at home throughout the playoffs? Think about that, just think about it a minute… If you can’t be excited about this, I’m not sure what the heck you can be excited about.”

Earlier in the day, the Pittsburgh Steelers (11-3) hit Music City to square off against the banged-up Tennessee Titans (12-2), who started the season with a perfect 10–0 record but will play the rest of the regular season — against Pittsburgh and at Indianapolis — without Pro Bowl defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth (sprained MCL) and defensive end Kyle Vanden Bosch (groin surgery).

Saturday night also features a game with playoff implications. The Baltimore Ravens (9-5) fly into Big D to take on the Dallas Cowboys (9-5) in an AFC-NFC heavyweight fight on NFL Network. The winner will stay alive in their respective conference’s Wild Card chase, while the loser could be headed home early this year.

Fab Five

While the lineup on Saturday night and Sunday is slammed with high-pressure NFL games, Saturday afternoon is all about big time college basketball. In fact, this could be arguably the best weekend on the non-conference, pre-March Madness hoops schedule.

Come NCAA Tournament time, many of these games will be referenced or remembered by anyone filling out a bracket at the office. And if North Carolina — Athlon Sports’ preseason No. 1 team in the country — doesn’t win the title this season, the eventual champ could be among the 10 teams stepping up their level of competition this weekend.

There are five games with head-to-head match-ups of teams currently in the Top 25 of the AP poll:

• No. 6 Duke vs. No. 7 Xavier (CBS, 2:00 p.m. ET) #

• No. 19 Michigan State at No. 5 Texas (CBS, 2:00 p.m. ET)

• No. 2 Connecticut vs. No. 8 Gonzaga (CBS, 4:00 p.m. ET) %

• No. 22 Davidson at No. 13 Purdue (CBS, 4:00 p.m. ET)

• No. 11 Syracuse at No. 23 Memphis (ESPN, 6:00 p.m. ET)
 
# Izod Center at the Meadowlands
% Key Arena – The Battle in Seattle

Coed Bowling

While the Big Dance isn’t for another three months, college football’s bowl season kicks off on Saturday with four games. South Florida and Navy have the luxury of playing in their own backyards, while the BYU contingent flocks to Sin City once again this year.

EagleBank Bowl — Washington D.C.
Navy vs. Wake Forest (ESPN, 11:00 a.m. ET)

New Mexico Bowl — Albuquerque, N.M.
Colorado State vs. Fresno State (ESPN, 2:30 p.m. ET)

St. Petersburg Bowl — St. Petersburg, Fla.
South Florida vs. Memphis (ESPN2, 4:30 p.m. ET)

Las Vegas Bowl — Las Vegas, Nev.
BYU vs. Arizona (ESPN, 8:00 p.m. ET)

And on Sunday, two non-BCS programs with a Pro Bowl roster of NFL alumni — including DeMarcus Ware, Osi Umenyiora, Leodis McKelvin and Adalius Thomas — square off in the Big Easy in front of what should be a rowdy crowd of regional rivals stopping off at the Sugar Bowl in between trips to Bourbon Street.

New Orleans Bowl — New Orleans, La.
Troy vs. Southern Miss (ESPN, 8:15 p.m. ET)

Succession, Not Secession

Bowl season may be heating up, but the hottest story in the world of college football this week came from a team that didn’t win enough games to qualify for a postseason trip.

The Auburn Tigers hired Gene Chizik to replace Tommy Tuberville, who had an 85-40 record over 10 seasons On The Plains — including an undefeated 13-0 season in 2004 and a 7-3 mark against in-state rival Alabama.

But Tuberville suffered through only his second losing season at Auburn (5-7) in 2008, which included a humiliating 36–0 shutout loss to the top-ranked Crimson Tide. As a result, Tuberville resigned amid speculation that he would be fired otherwise.

After interviewing several candidates, the Tigers settled on Chizik, who had an unimpressive 5-19 record as the coach at Iowa State after recording back-to-back unbeaten seasons as the defensive coordinator of Texas (13-0) in 2005 and Auburn (13-0) in 2004.

Unfortunately, the majority of Auburn fans weren’t crying “War Eagle” after hearing the Chizik news. Notable alum, former NBA great, current TNT announcer and self-proclaimed hopeful future Alabama governor Charles Barkley ripped the hiring as racist, citing Buffalo coach Turner Gill — a black coach who also happens to have a white wife — as a better candidate for the job.

“I think race was the No. 1 factor,” said Barkley. “You can say it’s not about race, but you can’t compare the two resumes and say (Chizik) deserved the job. Out of all the coaches they interviewed, Chizik probably had the worst resume.”

And while Sir Charles was certainly the loudest, he wasn’t the only upset Tiger fan. As soon as Chizik’s jet landed he was met with boos and chants of “5-and-19!,” "5-and-19!" The unpopular sentiment led to open letters to the “Auburn family” from Athletic Director Jay Jacobs and former coach Pat Dye. While Jacobs’ letter focused on justifying his hire, Dye seemed to be in charge of damage control. Neither seemed excited.

“I know winning is important to the Auburn people. But so is character. Jay Jacobs has it and so does Gene Chizik. Now we’ll see if they can win. They are our team. I like it. War Eagle,” wrote Dye, in his closing lines.

The story has since taken another strange turn. Black is no longer the color in question. Now, yellow — or rather, “YellaWood” — is the weapon of choice.

Rumors have circulated that following the blowout loss to Alabama, a certain Auburn booster who wears a big yella’ hat while pushing pressure-treated wood during TV timeouts of SEC games on the name-changing syndicator known as Raycom Sports, Lincoln Financial Media and Jefferson-Pilot Communications picked up the phone to call Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt about possibly replacing Tuberville.

That, however, seems to have been a breach of the contract agreed upon by Auburn and Tuberville, who had a tampering clause added to his new deal after the infamous Bobby Petrino courtship scandal of 2003. Under the agreement, Tuberville was due a rich buyout if the university pursued another coach without letting him know. So, maybe Tuberville really did resign — with a pocket full of cash and an old friend as his successor at Auburn.

Regardless of how true this botched firing-hiring speculation is, the key player in all of this is Memphis-based agent Jimmy Sexton — one of the most influential men behind the scenes in college football. Sexton represents Tuberville, Nutt and Chizik, all three of whom brought hefty commissions back for the 45-year-old who was once a suitemate of Reggie White while attending the University of Tennessee. The Minister of Defense was also Sexton’s first client, signing with the USFL’s Memphis Showboats for an unheard-of five-year, $5.5 million contract in 1984.

Left-Handed Insult

Auburn’s Gene Chizik wasn’t the only one being insulted this week. Phil Mickelson was also the victim of a highly publicized verbal assault. Tiger Woods’ caddy Steve Williams — who has been with Tiger for 13 of his 14 career major championships — spoke his mind at a New Zealand event; and the controversial bagman didn’t worry about being as politically correct as Lefty usually is in interviews.

“I wouldn’t call Mickelson a great player, cause I hate the prick,” said Williams. “I don’t particularly like the guy. He pays me no respect at all and hence I don’t pay him any respect. It’s no secret we don’t get along.”

The third-ranked player in the world and often considered Woods’ chief rival, Mickelson responded with a statement of his own, released soon after news of the incident made its way around the globe.

“After seeing Steve Williams’ comments, all I could think of was how lucky I am to have a class act like Bones (Jim McKay) on my bag and representing me,” said Mickelson.

Colonel Reb is Cryin’

Ole Miss basketball coach Andy Kennedy had his own problems outside the lines this week during a trip to Cincinnati — where Kennedy served as an assistant to Bob Huggins from 2001-05 before becoming the Bearcats interim head coach in 2005-06 — for the Big East/SEC Invitational.

After leaving a bar, Kennedy had an altercation with a cab driver, who claims that the coach punched him with a “closed fist” while shouting racial slurs, including calling him “bin Laden.” Kennedy was charged with misdemeanor assault but has since filed a defamation lawsuit against the driver and a valet parking attendant who claims to be a witness to the incident.

Sadly, the Rebel Yells didn’t stop there. Star sophomore point guard Chris Warren was lost for the season following a torn ACL suffered during a 77-68 loss to Louisville the night after Kennedy’s run-in.

Brave New World

While Jimmy Sexton was cashing in and opening new doors for his clients thanks to the Auburn fiasco, other agents may have been shortsightedly burning bridges. Atlanta Braves president John Schuerholz has drawn a line in the sand; he’s on one side and agents Paul Kinzer, Arn Tellem, Adam Katz and Joel Wolfe are on the other, following what Schuerholz described as “despicable” dealings with the Wasserman Media Group.

“Having been in this business for 40-some years, I’ve never seen anybody treated like that,” said Schuerholz. “The Atlanta Braves will no longer do business with that company, ever. I told Arn Tellem that we can’t trust them to be honest and forthright.”

Furcal signed a three-year, $30 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers after it appeared that the 30-year-old shortstop had come to terms with the Braves, the team he played for from 2000-05. According to the Atlanta side of the story, a deal had been agreed upon but before the ink could dry — or more accurately, before Furcal could put his signature next to Braves GM Frank Wren’s name — the agency re-opened negotiations with the Dodgers and ultimately signed with L.A.

Happy Birthday, JoePa

There are still some people who act in good faith, however. Penn State icon Joe Paterno turns 82 years old on Dec. 21 and was given a three-year contract extension as a pseudo birthday slash Christmas present — since he was born around the holidays, he just gets one big gift, right?

After several years of retirement speculation, a man with 383 career victories will be headed to the Rose Bowl with an 11-1 team, something many doubted he could do following a 3-9 season in 2003.

Paterno has been coaching in Happy Valley since 1950 — as an assistant from 1950-65 before becoming the head coach of the Nittany Lions in 1966. During that time, JoePa has coached 31 NFL first-round draft picks, won 23 bowl games, recorded five undefeated seasons (1994, ’86, ’73, ’69 and ’68) and won two consensus national championships (1986 and ’82).

Recession Proof Pinstripes

After banking on homegrown farm system arms — Joba Chamberlain, Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy — last offseason, the New York Yankees are back on the free agent market with hopes of returning to the playoffs, after missing the Fall Classic last season for the first time since 1994.

Preparing to move into New Yankee Stadium in 2009, the Bronx Bombers signed hefty 6’7”, 290-pound lefty CC Sabathia — apparently he can’t afford periods for his initials — to a seven-year, $161 million contract. The Yankees also inked injury prone flamethrower A.J. Burnett — who must have timed the Market well enough to separate the first letters of Allan and James — to a five-year, $82.5 million deal.

Fantasy Super Bowl MVP

While CC and A.J. are cashing in millions, several thousands of fantasy football owners may be stacking hundreds after watching Colts quarterback and perennial fantasy star Peyton Manning complete 29-of-34 passes for 364 yards, three touchdowns and zero interceptions during a 31-24 win at Jacksonville on Thursday night.

“Peyton Manning is unbelievable. He put a lot of it on his shoulders and kept us in it,” said Indy coach Tony Dungy, following a hard-fought victory. “It was a great performance; it was an MVP performance for sure.”

The laser-rocket-armed passer had impeccable timing, since the majority of fantasy football leagues schedule the Super Bowl for Week 16 rather than Week 17, just in case a team — say, the record-breaking 2005 Colts — decides to rest its players for the “real” NFL playoffs on the final Sunday of the season.

Slingin’ Sammy Baugh

Peyton Manning is only the latest in a long line of signal-callers who have helped make the NFL what it is today. Whether it has been properly acknowledged or not, there is no denying that the modern pro football machine — which features a pair of epic Week 16 match-ups for homefield advantage throughout the playoffs on Sunday — was built on a foundation of greats who played for the love of the game.

On Wednesday, Dec. 17, Samuel Adrian Baugh, better known as Slingin’ Sammy Baugh, died at the age of 94. The last surviving member of the 17-man charter Class of 1963 in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Baugh played for the Washington Redskins from 1937-52, winning the NFL championship as a rookie after being drafted No. 6 overall out of TCU.

A one-of-a-kind three-way threat, Baugh earned a “Triple Crown” in 1943 by leading the NFL with 1,754 passing yards as a quarterback, 11 interceptions as a defensive back and a 45.9-yard average as a punter. Baugh finished his career with 21,886 passing yards and 187 touchdown passes, leading the league in passing six times while distancing himself from his peers with a Ruthian gap during an era when rules limited offensive linemen’s ability to pass protect and receivers’ ability to run unimpeded downfield.

Baugh also played minor league baseball — competing against the likes of Ted Williams and Satchel Paige — and starred in a television show called King of the Texas Rangers. A humble man who by all accounts lived out his dreams, Baugh lived on an 8,000-acre ranch outside Rotan, Texas, with his high school sweetheart Edmonia Smith, who died in 1990 after 52 years of marriage and five children together.

Slingin’ Sammy Baugh was a true pioneer who blazed a trail for those who followed, before riding off into the West Texas sunset earlier this week.