Editor's Note: Due to the dwindling quality of online news coverage that makes it easy for readers to scan and find out about upcoming events, we are launching this new feature for football season 2006. Each Friday, we will carry a column from a legendary Southern sports writer who wishes to write under a pen name here to prevent career problems at the corporate news organization he is affiliated with. Do you ever find yourself just trying to find an easy place online to find out what games are coming up, what time the games start, and what television network will be carrying them? Then check back in here every Friday afternoon or Saturday morning and we'll have it for you. It's easy to print out. Just hit the print button in your Web browser.

It's Not A Big Game Weekend, Unless You Are A Tide Or Hog Fan

by Paul Rockne

After a big week of big games in college football last weekend, this week’s schedule is a letdown. Not that there aren’t a few interesting matchups … especially if you are an Alabama or Arkansas fan, for instance, but the meaningful meetings on the college gridiron are few and far between.

On the Southern scene, the Crimson Tide will travel to Arkansas for what is always an important meeting of these two similarly-clad teams (often, it is hard for viewers on TV to tell which team is which because their colors match up so well).

“This game usually always decides a lot about your year,” said the Hogs’ head coach, Houston Nutt, last week. And he’s right. Historically, the winner of the early-season meeting between the Tide and Hogs will battle for the SEC West title, while the loser is relegated to the second rung of the standings.

And while the Alabama-Arkansas game doesn’t have the glamour of last week’s West matchup between Auburn and LSU, it could produce the same type of glued-to-the-screen drama. The cumulative score while these two division rivals have been splitting their last eight games at 4-4 has been just as even … Alabama 191, Arkansas 191.

And with both teams having trouble scoring points while playing solid, for the most part, defense in their first three games, it looks to be another defensive slugfest like last week’s AU-LSU headliner.

The similarities between the two teams this season are uncanny. Both sport close conference opening wins over Vanderbilt and a win over an early-season creampuff. The main difference is that while Bama was opening its season with a close win over Hawaii, the Hogs were being beaten badly by Southern Cal.

Part of both teams’ offensive problems stem from the fact they each have new starters at quarterback - Bama going with sophomore John Parker Wilson and Arkansas with true freshman Mitch Mustain.

Arkansas (2-1 overall, 1-0 SEC) has been named the pre-game favorite, by a narrow 2-and-a-half-point margin over the still unbeaten (3-0, 1-0) Crimson Tide.

The Bama-Arkansas game is the main CBS game for the weekend - highlighting the weak week’s schedule - with game time set for 2:30 p.m. After an absence from the TV lineup in two of the first three weeks of the season, Bama will be on national TV for two weeks in a row. CBS has announced it will broadcast the Alabama at Florida game from Gainesville next Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

No. 2 ranked Auburn (3-0) will not be on the tube anywhere - not even pay for view - as they host the University of Buffalo Saturday.

Speaking of the War Eagles, Auburn fans have been saying “all the way to Glendale (site of this year’s BCS national championship game)” since last week’s win over LSU. The thinking is that now all Auburn has to do is to win out to make it to the title contest.

But Auburn, as well as anyone, knows that winning out is not enough - not if more than two teams make it through the year unbeaten. And this could be one of those years.

After three weeks of the 2006 college season, 29 teams are still on the unbeaten list. The include, by conference: SEC - Alabama, Auburn, Georgia and Florida; ACC – Boston College, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest; Big East - Louisville, Rutgers, West Virginia and South Florida; Big Ten – Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, Purdue and Wisconsin; Big 12 - Kansas State, Missouri, Oklahoma State and Texas A&M; Conference USA - Houston; Mountain West – TCU; Pac-10 – Arizona State, Oregon, Southern Cal and UCLA; Western Athletic - Boise State; Independent - Navy.

This week’s college football TV schedule kicks off tonight, Friday, with Northwestern at Nevada at 7 p.m. on ESPN2). Saturday’s weekend TV lineup, other than pay-for-view is as follows:

Wisconsin at Michigan, 11 a.m., ESPN
Minnesota at Purdue, 11 a.m., ESPN2
Cincinnati at Virginia Tech, 11 a.m.
North Carolina at Clemson, 11 a.m., ESPNU
Iowa at Illinois, 11 a.m., CSS
Louisville at Kansas State, 11 a.m., FOXSS
Colorado at Georgia, 11:30 p.m., WJCT
Alabama at Arkansas, 2:20 p.m., CBS
Penn State at Ohio State, 2:30 p.m., ABC
Arizona State at California, 2:30 p.m. FOXSS
Connecticut at Indiana, 2:30 p.m., CSS
Rice at FSU, 2w:30 p.m., ESPNU
West Virginia at East Carolina, 3:30 p.m., ESPN2
Western Carolina at Furman, 6 p.m., CSS
South Florida at Kansazs, 6 p.m., FOXSS
Miami (Ohio) at Syracuse, 6 p.m., WAPNU
UCLA at Washington, 6 p.m., TBS
Kentucky at Florida, 6:45 p.m., ESPN
Boston College at North Carolina State, 7 p.m., ESPN2
Notre Dame at Michigan, 7 p.m., ABC

The biggest game on the grid schedule this week will not be played on Saturday and it will not be a college game either. This week’s big game will the first game played in New Orleans’ Super Dome since Hurricane Katrina. After playing a whole season on the road, the Saints return to the Dome in triumphant fashion for what is actually an important division win. Coming to town is arch-rival Atlanta and the game Monday (7:30 p.m. on ESPN) will be for first place with both teams sitting at 2-0.

The Sunday NFL television schedule has Carolina vs. Tampa Bay at noon (FOX), Jacksonville at Indianapolis at noon (CBS), New York Giants at Seattle (3:15 p.m. FOX) and Denver at New England (7 p.m. NBC).