Turkey Day football

Do you have your Thanksgiving turkey? The NFL sure does.
First, you have 2-8 Detroit hosting Green Bay.
Then, it's 3-7 Oakland visiting Dallas. (And it took fluke plays Sunday to give them such lofty records).
And NFL Network offers the Giants and Broncos in primetime. Both teams will be happy to see November end.
There's a few more turkeys on the Sunday schedule before you get to the meat of the slate in prime time - Steelers at Ravens on NBC Sunday night, and Patriots at Saints for Monday Night Football.
Locally, it looks like the Sunday afternoon slate will be Redskins at Eagles followed by Bears-Vikings on FOX. CBS goes with the late Sunday game of Jacksonville at San Francisco.
The college football regular season begins winding down this weekend. Thursday, ESPN has Texas at Texas A&M at 8 p.m.
The Black Friday football schedule opens with Rutgers at Louisville at 11 a.m. on ESPN2. The deuce adds a primetime doubleheader - Pittsburgh at West Virginia at 7 p.m. followed by Nevada at Boise State.
ABC has a doubleheader - Illinois at Cincinnati at noon and then Nebraska visiting Colorado.
CBS features Auburn-Alabama Friday afternoon, then brings you Florida-Florida State Saturday.
Saturday, ABC has three games in the late afternoon time slot - Virginia Tech at Virginia, Arizona at Arizona State and Missouri-Kansas. In primetime, the choices are Notre Dame at Stanford and Georgia-Georgia Tech.
NBC offers entertaining football and a great halftime show - the Bayou Classic featuring Grambling and Southern.
ESPN has an ACC doubleheader - Clemson vs. South Carolina at noon followed by Miami-South Florida. Then it's Arkansas taking on LSU at 7 p.m. ESPN2's game of the day is North Carolina at North Carolina State at noon.
Wake Forest-Duke is the ACC game of the week. MASN offers Utah State at Idaho Saturday at 5 p.m. Comcast brings you Oklahoma-Oklahoma State at 12:30 p.m., and closes the night with USC-UCLA.
There's time for a few college basketball games. ESPN2 has five games through the day Thanksgiving, starting at noon, and the ESPN family has the Preseason NIT Friday and Old Spice tournament throughout the weekend.
MASN shows some games from the Great Alaska Shootout Thursday and Friday, along with the final and third-place game Saturday night.
The NBA has a Thanksgiving doubleheader - Orlando takes on Atlanta at 8 p.m. and Chicago-Utah is the nightcap. Friday on ESPN, it's the Wizards at Miami early and Suns-Timberwolves at 9:30 p.m.
The Wizards are also on Comcast Saturday when the Bobcats visit Verizon Center.
The Capitals take a post-Thanksgiving road trip, visiting Montreal Saturday on Comcast-plus and Carolina Monday on regular Comcast.

NASCAR at the finish line

After 36 races since February, NASCAR crowns its season champion Sunday.
And sends gearheads into withdrawal for a while - only 12 weeks or so until Darrell Waltrip screams "Boogity, Boogity, Boogity" again at Daytona.
Jimmie Johnson appears on his way to his 4th straight championship, as long as if finishes no worse than 25th. I thought the "Chase for the Cup" was supposed to increase competition and interest down to the final race.
Maybe if other racers could distract Johnson. Give him some projects to do, like the commercials show.
The MLS season also comes to a close, with Real Salt Lake and the L.A. Galaxy playing for the MLS Cup Sunday night on ESPN.
There are several big rivalry games on the college football schedule Saturday.
Ohio State takes on Michigan at noon on ABC.
Versus has "The Game" - Harvard at Yale - at noon and Stanford at California (keep that band off the field) at 7:30 p.m.
ESPN begins the weekend Thursday as Colorado visits Oklahoma State. Friday it's Boise State at Utah State on ESPN2.
Other Saturday games include the SEC package on CBS featuring LSU at Mississippi.
ABC shows Virginia-Clemson and Penn State-Michigan State in the late afternoon, with Oregon at Arizona and Kansas-Texas in primetime.
At noon, ESPN has Minnesota at faltering Iowa. ESPN2 has North Carolina-Boston College at noon and Kentucky at Georgia in primetime.
Maryland visiting Florida State is the ACC game of the week.
Notre Dame closes at its home schedule - and possibly the Charlie Weis era - against Connecticut on NBC.
MASN has Louisville-South Florida at noon, followed by UAB at East Carolina. Comcast shows Oklahoma at Texas Tech at 12:30 p.m. Versus has a 3:30 p.m. game featuring San Diego State at Utah in between its rivalry games.
In the NFL, Indianapolis will try to remain undefeated when taking on Baltimore in the CBS early game. The prime late afternoon game features the Jets at Patriots, and locally FOX will show the Redskins at Cowboys.
The Eagles visit the Bears Sunday night, while the suddenly resurgent Titans visit Houston on Monday night. Keep an eye on that owner's box.
The Dolphins visit Carolina Thursday on NFL Network.
ESPN2 has a college basketball tripleheader on Thursday. Indiana visits Mississippi at 5 p.m., followed by Syracuse-California and North Carolina-Ohio State. Comcast offers Florida State-Mercer Saturday at 4:30 p.m., while Sunday, MASN shows Morgan State-Louisville at 1 p.m.
TNT's NBA doubleheader Thursday features the Suns at New Orleans, followed by Bulls-Lakers. ESPN has Orlando visiting Boston for its early Friday game, with Nuggets-Clippers as the nightcap.
The Wizards have a Southwest swing this weekend, visiting Oklahoma City Friday and San Antonio Saturday.
The Capitals have a Canadian tour after hosting Montreal Friday on Comcast. Then it's off to Toronto Saturday and Ottawa Monday.

November Super battle

For several years, one of the biggest NFL regular season games has been Indianapolis-New England. It's usually gotten prime coverage in November, boosting the network that got the coverage when national ratings points are counted. This year that's NBC, which shows the game Sunday night.
You have Peyton Manning vs. Tom Brady. Both teams have been successful throughout the decade, and the Colts remain undefeated halfway through the season.
On the other hand, look at the four games FOX has to choose from Sunday afternoon. Lions and Bucs on the road, and Rams at home against the Saints. The Falcons-Panthers may be the best of the lot, and that's not saying much. That's what we'll see in Fishersville.
At least FOX has Cowboys at Packers as the second game of their doubleheader.
The Redskins host their second AFC team of the season - Denver - so CBS from Washington will be showing that in Fishersville. No problem for Ravens' fans, since they head to Cleveland Monday night to beat the Browns on ESPN.
For those of you with NFL Network, the Thursday night package begins this week with the Bears visiting San Francisco.
The Big East kicks off your college football weekend. ESPN has South Florida at Rutgers Thursday night, then the big West Virginia-Cincinnati contest Friday night.
Saturday, ESPN has Michigan State at Purude at noon, and a primetime doubleheader - Alabama vs. Mississippi State at 7 p.m. followed by Arizona State at Oregon.
ESPN2 starts day with Georgia Tech at Duke, and offers Auburn-Georgia at 7 p.m.
In the late afternoon, ABC will bring Miami at North Carolina to ACC country. Other choices are Iowa at Ohio State and Nebraska-Kansas. In primetime, it's Notre Dame-Pittsburgh going to most of the country while Texas Tech-Oklahoma State goes to Big 12 territory.
CBS offers an SEC doubleheader - Tennessee-Mississippi at noon and Florida vs. South Carolina at 3:30 p.m.
Clemson takes on North Carolina State in the ACC game of the week. MASN shows the Big East game of the week, Syracuse at Louisville.
Versus has Missouri at Kansas State at noon, then the PAC-10 contest between Arizona and California at 6:30 p.m. Comcast starts the day with Texas at Baylor, followed by Stanford at USC.
Sunday, if you'd like a different football choice than Colts-Patriots, then ESPN has East Carolina at Tulsa.
NASCAR visits Phoenix in the 9th of 10 races in the Chase for the Cup.
The MLS conference finals are this weekend, and ESPN2 shows Friday's Western matchup between Houston and the L.A. Galaxy.
TNT's Thursday doubleheader starts with Cleveland at Miami at 8 p.m., then the Suns visit the Lakers. Friday on ESPN, it's the Hawks at Celtics followed by the Lakers at Denver.
The Wizards host Detroit on Saturday.
The Capitals play Friday and Saturday, both times pushed over to Comcast-plus. Why are they pushed there Friday? So Comcast can show Maryland basketball against Charleston Southern. It's that time of year.

Baseball's over, so now what?

Baseball fans, winter is here. No more baseball until mid-February, when pitchers and catchers report.
Time to check on the other sports. The NFL is halfway through the season, NBA and NHL just starting, and college football has just a few more weekends left.
Week 9 of the NFL season finds the Redskins coming off their bye to face Atlanta on FOX. Will they have any improvement as the schedule gets harder?
CBS has the doubleheader, and Fishersville should get the Ravens at Bengals early and Chargers at Giants late.
The Cowboys visit Philadelphia on NBC's Sunday Night package, and ESPN offers the Steelers at Broncos on Monday night.
The college football schedule starts with Virginia Tech at East Carolina Thursday on ESPN, then Friday Boise State is at Louisiana Tech on ESPN2.
Saturday night, the deuce has Vanderbilt facing Florida at 7:15 p.m. ESPN kicks off coverage at noon with Northwestern at Iowa, and has Florida State at Clemson in primetime.
ABC offers three choices at 3:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. The late afternoon games include Wake Forest at Georgia Tech (headed for ACC country), Oklahoma State vs. Iowa State and Ohio State at Penn State.
The prime time offerings are USC at Arizona State, Oklahoma-Nebraska and the Big East matchup of Connecticut at Cincinnati.
LSU visits Alabama in a big SEC matchup on CBS, while NBC has Navy's visit to Notre Dame.
Virginia takes on Miami in the ACC game of the week. Versus has TCU for the fourth straight weekend, visiting San Diego State at 4 p.m. At noon, it's Kansas vs. Kansas State.
MASN offers the Big East game of the week at noon - Louisville at West Virginia - and has VMI at Liberty in Big South action at 7 p.m. Comcast offers Central Florida visiting Texas at noon, followed by Villanova facing Richmond.
NASCAR heads to Texas Sunday afternoon on ABC. For another kind of racing, ABC and ESPN offer the Breeder's Cup Friday and Saturday.
The Capitals have a home-and-home series with Florida Friday and Saturday on Comcast.
The Wizards are in Indiana Friday and host the Suns Sunday afternoon.
TNT has two games Thursday - Bulls at Cavs and Spurs-Jazz. ESPN's Friday NBA doubleheader features the Cavs at Knicks, then Spurs-Trail Blazers.
The MLS playoffs continue with Real Salt Lake at Columbus on ESPN2.