The Weekend Lookahead: Should Be A Strong Few Days

Use ESPN The Magazine content to get prepared.

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It's Eric Maynor's world, and frankly, we're all just living within it.

Plain and simple, here's what you need to get through this weekend: pacing. On Saturday, you got 15 college basketball games involving Top 25 teams, including two battles where both schools are ranked in the Top 10. Same day: four college bowl games, including Mike Stoops (will his bro be on hand?) leading Arizona against BYU. Sunday: the two top teams in each NFL conference are battling. Ugh, we were all set to write the Christmas letter. ("Everyone's doing well this year…") Guess that's waiting till Monday. As for the next three days, we'll break it down for ya.

Saturday: roll out of bed, grab an OJ and a muffin, and turn on the TV. If you're lucky, the best scene in 27 Dresses will be on HBO to ease you into your day. 11am is the EagleBank Bowl between Wake Forest and Navy (ESPN), so check it out. Jim Grobe is legit. You like bowl games? Go here to read a nice feature by Ryan McGee on 'em. This is also worthwhile, if for no other reason than the top image.

You need to be ready to lock in at 2pm. On CBS, you got two huge college hoops games: Xavier/Duke and Texas/Michigan State. The two questions to ask at this point: (1) Is Xavier legitimate? and (2) Is Texas' ridiculous schedule going to make them really tough in March? A third: Is it ever socially acceptable to call brunch "linner?"

CBS will slide you to Gonzaga vs. UConn at 4pm. There's a legit chance that this game could be one of the National Semifinals in April. You just gotta hope Gus Johnson is on the 1s and 2s, you know? Our man Chris Sprow will be there. He's excited.

That game probably ends around 7, so you have one hour for dinner. We recommend salmon. Stuff's good for you. Hustle back to a TV for BYU/Arizona—you know Arizona hoops is playing UNLV at 3pm too? Gonna be some debt-riddled Tucson residents come Sunday morning.

Also at 8pm: the last game at Texas Stadium. Ravens vs. Cowboys. Basically, whoever loses will miss the playoffs. Egad. Watch this, then read this. Ed Reed needs to pull out one of these.

10pm on ESPN2? Virginia Commonwealth vs. Oklahoma, which means Eric Maynor vs. Blake Griffin (not directly). Supreme talent on display. Go to bed after it's over.

Sunday: fire yourself up with this clip. After that, your flow is pretty simple. At 1pm, it's Steelers vs. Titans for the No. 1 seed in the AFC. Big Ben needs another big game, and so does their D. Titans need a big day from this guy and from their backfield, who are both boys with this guy.

4pm you got Jets/Seahawks (Holmgren's last home game in Seattle) and Vikings/Falcons. Interested in that first game? Read 'dis. The second game pits two NEXT guys against each other in Adrian Peterson and Matt Ryan, so cue us plugging the hell out of THE NEXT BLOG. Fun times.

Around 7:30pm on Sunday, here's your realization: "Man, I watch too much sports. I'm neglecting the bigger picture. Maybe I should get involved in some type of service acti—oh crap, Giants/Panthers!" It gets you every time. That's gonna be a huge, playoff-atmosphere type game. You want to know more about the Panthers, read this. We got a cool video with Steve Smith too. Heck, Tom Coughlin did a video in the same series for us.

On Monday, we'll be here to rampantly speculate on the NFL playoff pairings. Dream of this and we'll see ya then.

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