In case you missed it...

With two semesters as a national sports columnist under my belt, the IDS was kind (dumb) enough to give me a crack at a third semester.\nSince I made predictions for 2008 yesterday, and there were way too many good news stories during break to choose just one, I decided to give you a pu-pu platter of all my favorite stories during our short time away from school.\nWithout further ado:\nThe Chicago Bulls sent head coach Scott Skiles a Christmas card with his pink slip in it. It must be nice getting fired on Christmas Eve since Chinese food and a movie always make me feel better.\nOh wait, Skiles isn’t Jewish? In that case, that’s just mean.\nSince I feel bad for Skiles’ misfortune, I decided to write him a Christmas jingle (sung like Jingle Bells):\n“Jingle bells, Ben Wallace smells. Your team sank like \na boat.\nYou can’t get mad that your team is just bad.\nYou’re what we call a scapegoat.”\nSpeaking of dirty, unliked animals, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady led the New England Patriots to an undefeated regular season. It is quite an accomplishment that won’t go unnoticed since ESPN and the world won’t stop talking about it. \nOf course I really didn’t care. I just wrote this to jinx the both of them. \nO-H-N-O. It was too bad for the Buckeyes, who were pummeled Monday night in the BCS title game for the second year in a row.\nThis title game was awful. It’s incredible that every year the effectiveness of the BCS and its need for a playoff is written by sports writers across the country. If this year didn’t prove the need for a one, then I don’t know what it will take. With a playoff, everyone gets to see better games, and the NCAA will end up making more money. Isn’t making money what the NCAA is all about?\nSince we’re already talking about money, the Colts re-signed Bob Sanders to a $37.5 million contract for the next five years. If my calculations are correct, he will be making $144,230 a week. That means he’s making $144,220 more than I am on a weekly basis.\nI wish I was born with speed, agility and all around natural talent like Sanders so I could play a sport professionally and roll in the dough. But I guess there’s always a sport like golf for my waste of a body.\nLike golf, hockey is also a sport no one watches anymore, but the league hit it big over break with the NHL Winter Classic. The outdoor game in Buffalo had the highest ratings of any NHL game in more than a decade. Its ratings beat out Wayne Gretzky’s final game but I think it would have done better if it was on TV in Indiana. If it was on, I couldn’t find it. During the time it was supposed to be on, NBC was showing “Dr. Phil” at my house. Woo-hoo.\nThanks, Indiana. Instead of watching one of the most exciting hockey games in years, we were forced to watch some fat guy preach psychobabble for an hour. And people wonder why our child obesity rate is problematic in Indiana.\nOr maybe I’m just terrible at searching for things on TV.