New England has had a couple of scares lately but have looked virtually unstoppable for much of the season. Once they lock up home field advantage, it’s going to be tough for any AFC team to derail their Super Bowl mission. On the other hand, the Cowboys and Packers look like the cream of the crop in the NFC and appear to be headed for a rematch of their exciting Thursday night game in week 13. The Packers would fare better if they have a healthy Charles Woodson and Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila (and a not-so-jacked-up Brett Favre). Of course, either team faces an uphill battle against the Pats.

Sorry Indians fans, but while you had a good run in 2007, you’ll have to compete with the Yankees, Red Sox and White Sox for the Wild Card in 2008. That’s because the Detroit Tigers are primed to not only contend for the AL Central crown, they may have just swiped it right out from under your noses. While it's true that the games are played on the field, on paper the Tigers look look like baseball's version of the Patriots. After making several big moves this winter, most notably the recent trade for Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, their lineup will feature Curtis Granderson, Placido Polanco, Gary Sheffield, Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Pudge Rodriguez, Edgar Renteria and Jacque Jones. Their starting rotation will be Justin Verlander, Jeremy Bonderman, Willis, Kenny Rogers and Nate Robertson. And not to take anything away from Todd Jones, but if flamethrower Joel Zumaya finally wins the closer’s job and can stay healthy, this team might win 120 games. On paper, anyway.

In the Atlantic, the Raptors aren’t in the same class as the Celtics, and Jason Kidd is threatening to leave the Nets. In the Central, the Cavs are off to a slow start and even though LeBron has been nicked up, they haven’t looked all that good even when he plays. Meanwhile, the Bulls are trying to get their heads above water as they collectively wrestle with the possibility of a Kobe trade. In the Southest, Gilbert Arenas is out and Miami is a mess. All this could add up to easy division victories for the Celtics, Pistons and Magic, assuming they continue to play good ball and are able to stay healthy.

The first head coach to get axed will be the Ravens’ Brian Billick. After a season in which he looked befuddled, confused and completely lost, Billick is shown the door in Baltimore and replaced by defensive coordinator Rex Ryan. The Eagles and Andy Reid will come to a mutual agreement that the head coach should step down at the end of the season and concentrate on his family life. In a somewhat surprising move, the Bengals let Marvin Lewis go and replace him with Lions’ offensive coordinator Mike Martz, a move that will guarantee that Cincinnati will not have a decent defense any time in the near future.

After winning the Heisman Trophy in 2007, Florida’s Tim Tebow vows to be even better in 2008. In one of the greatest college football seasons ever, Tebow rushes and passes for 30 touchdowns apiece and absolutely runs away with the prestigious award yet again. After the Gators win the national championship, Tebow will break the hearts of Florida fans and declare for the NFL Draft, where the Minnesota Vikings trade away their entire draft in order to pair him with Adrian Peterson.

This, of course, will have nothing to do with the aftermath of the Mitchell report and the subsequent demands for more stringent testing for performance-enhancing substances. There is no connection whatsoever between the sudden breakdown of normally healthy players and the league administering a tougher, more comprehensive drug test policy, and you’d be a fool and a Communist to make one. A fool and a Communist, we tell you!

As the Patriots roll through the rest of the regular season and playoffs, they’ll meet the Dallas Cowboys in Super Bowl XLII in Arizona. There, Tom Brady will connect with Randy Moss as they torch the Cowboys secondary for 205 yards and four touchdowns. Afterwards, it will be Moss, not Brady, who wins the Super Bowl MVP award. Shortly thereafter, Pacman Jones, Chris Henry and Tank Johnson are all acquired by the Patriots and subsequently turned into choir boys.

South Florida, Boston College, Kansas, Oregon and Missouri don’t exactly have a history of competing for national championships. That all changed this season, however, as each one of the aforementioned programs reached – and subsequently dropped from – the #2 spot in the polls. With the number of upsets this year (none bigger than Appalachian State’s 34-31 dismantling of Michigan), smaller schools are having an easier time luring top recruits because they now can promise them some national exposure. Plus, for top high school prospects, why go to USC and ride the pine until you’re a senior when you could go to Wake Forest and start immediately? As this year proved, the playing field has leveled across college football.

Man, we hope the Suns can finally break through in the West and take their up-tempo attack to the NBA Finals. Once there, it seems likely that they’ll meet up with the Celtics, who have thus far dominated their competition in the East. It would be great to see grizzled vets Steve Nash, Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen finally get a shot at a title. The matchups would be especially interesting as each team’s strengths line up with their opponent’s weaknesses. But the one strength-on-strength matchup – The Matrix vs. KG – would be a sight to behold.

The average age of the projected starting lineup for next season’s Giants is 33.5 years old. And that’s after they got rid of Barry Bonds (43), Ryan Klesko (36) and Pedro Feliz (32). Their idea of getting younger was to sign 30-year-old Aaron Rowand (one good season, in a contract year) to a five-year deal, after talks with the Yankees about Hideki Matsui (33) fell through. Wow. The Marlins’ projected lineup for next year, on the other hand, is currently 25.875 years of age, and they will collectively be paid less than the first year on Rowand’s contract. When the season ends, the Marlins will finally move out of the Giants’ basement and get their own place with Jacoby Ellsbury and Hunter Pence.

The Atlanta Falcons will appeal to an arbitrator about recouping $19 million in bonus money from suspended quarterback Michael Vick, but they’ll lose. The most the arbitrator will award them is $3 million, but instead of using that money to upgrade their team, they’ll instead buy a lie detector to use on future draft prospects. At the NFL scouting combine in February, the Falcons will use the lie detector to determine whether or not the draft prospects like animals. Furthermore, if the test revels that any player had ever fought dogs, cats, horses, giraffes, frogs or rabbits, that guy will immediately be taken off the Falcons’ draft board.

The Blue Devils are off to a 9-0 start with wins over #13 Marquette, #20 Wisconsin, Illinois and mid-major power Davidson. They face a tough test on Dec. 20 when they face #9 Pittsburgh. If they win, they should be unbeaten when they enter the rigorous ACC regular season. Duke has a nice mix of experience and youth, as DeMarcus Nelson and Greg Paulus provide leadership, while freshman phenoms Kyle Singler, Taylor King and Nolan Smith give the team serious depth. But it’s sophomores Gerald Henderson and Jon Scheyer that could determine Duke’s fate in the NCAA tourney. Henderson has elevated his game and is leading the team in scoring while Scheyer has graciously (and energetically) accepted a role off the bench. If it all comes together, the haters will have someone to root against come March.

After firing Huston Nutt at the conclusion of the 2007 season, the University of Arkansas wanted a proven winner as their next head coach. So they sold their souls for Bobby Petrino, who lied to Falcons owner Arthur Blank about wanting to stay in Atlanta for the long haul, yet all the while was secretly working on his exit to Fayetteville. Petrino signed a five-year deal with Arkansas but he has no intension of staying, Hog fans. Just ask the Falcons and the University of Louisville. The Razorbacks might have gotten their man in the short term, but Petrino will eventually leave as soon as the grass looks just a little greener on the other side. And when he does bolt, Arkansas will get what they deserve, just like the Falcons did when they lured him away from Louisville.

Bill Belichick clearly does not believe in a level playing field. He has one of the best teams in football history and he still tried to get a leg up on his opponents by videotaping them. Think a $500,000 slap on the wrist is going to change that? Hardly. That kind of pathological lust for victory by any means necessary – even when those means aren’t at all necessary – is not erased with a first-round draft pick. We predict that Belichick will stump the NFL brass next year by going extremely low-tech, jamming the radio frequencies of his opponents with white noise and the occasional snippet of John Madden saying “Brett Favre” over and over to up the irritation factor. The plan will go without a hitch until the Patriots play the Jets, at which point the white noise will bounce off the mound of tinfoil underneath Jet coach Eric Mangini’s hat, rendering the Patriots’ equipment inoperable. The Patriots will still win the game 56-3.

Barring a major injury to a star, the Suns, Mavs, Spurs, Jazz, Rockets and the Nuggets (with their weak division schedule) are probably in. That leaves two spots for three teams. The Hornets are playing great ball with a healthy Chris Paul leading the way while the Warriors have managed to overcome a very bad start. That leaves the Lakers, who have a giant rain cloud hanging over their head. Keep an eye on the head-to-head matchups between these three teams – they could decide who’s still playing in May.

Increasingly concerned about the criticism from BCS apologists that the regular season of college hoops “doesn’t matter,” officials are going to do away with the 64-team thrill ride that is the NCAA Tournament in favor of a two-team, computer generated championship game. Upon hearing the news, millions of hoops fans organize a mass suicide.

After being released from prison in May of 2009, Michael Vick learns that Commissioner Roger Goodell has suspended him for the 2009-10 season. Disappointed but still determined to make it back onto an NFL field, Vick spends the next seven months training rigorously and volunteering his time as a PETA spokesman. But once the season comes to a close, the only team to come calling is the Cincinnati Bengals, and they want Vick to be a return man and backup running back. Faced with no other options, Vick swallows his pride and signs a one-year deal for the minimum. Teammates and coaches immediately describe Vick as humble, mature and extremely remorseful, saying the former star quarterback is “the perfect teammate.” After a few uneventful preseason appearances, Vick takes the field in a regular season game for the first time since 2006 when his Bengals travel to Cleveland to face the Browns in Week 1. He admits to being “extremely nervous” in pregame interviews but after catching the opening kickoff in his own end zone, Vick shows that he’s still one of the finest athletes in the game by juking and spinning around several defenders before blazing up the sideline for a 104-yard touchdown. Taking a cue from teammate Chad Johnson, the emotionally charged Vick takes a celebratory leap into the Dawg Pound…and is never heard from again. Even worse, the kick is called back because of a holding penalty.

No song with the word “Devil” in the title has ever made it to Number One on the pop charts, and the Almighty has the same rules when it comes to baseball. (This mandate clearly does not apply to hockey, though that makes sense now that we think about it.) When pitchers and catchers report for spring training, God will hold a press conference, admitting that He had been punishing Tampa Bay for their transgression. “I really like that Crawford kid, and the way they stole Kazmir from the Mets…that was sweet,” God will be quoted as saying. “It actually bothered me to give them the smackdown year after year, but now that they’ve cleared their name, as it were, I see big things for this team.” The Rays will win the Series in a thrilling Game 7 comeback against the Chicago Cubs, who will have a 3-2 lead with two outs and the bases empty in the bottom of the ninth, then proceed to walk in the go-ahead and winning runs.

About this time last year, we predicted that Favre would lead his team to the playoffs and then announce his retirement at the end of the 2007 season. But the young Packers exceeded all expectations, and we think this year of rejuvenation will convince #4 to play at least one more season. Sorry, Mr. Marino, you can probably kiss most of your passing records goodbye.

Barring a blockbuster trade (or Andrew Bynum moving into All-Star territory), the Lakers are not going to get good enough quickly enough to satisfy Kobe, and once the threat of an opt-out in the summer of 2009 becomes a real possibility, the Lakers are going to make a move to ensure they get something in return for their disgruntled star. Look for LA to be involved in a big trade in the next year or so.

One program plays for national championships. The other program plays for Big 10 Championships. One program was willing to find the right head coach, no matter what state he was raised in or where he played collegiately. The other program only wants a “Michigan man” and therefore will pass on good coaching candidates when they have vacancies. One program is committed to changing with the times, which includes running the highly successful spread offense. The other program is still committed to 1950s-style football, where running the ball on first and second down is the only option. One program is Ohio State, who will make its second national championship appearance in as many years. The other program is Michigan, who will continue to look up at their most hated rivals unless they start adapting to how the college football game is changing. Get with the times, Michigan, because Ohio State continues to do laps around you.

He might have said he wanted to watch his daughters play basketball and play armchair quarterback from the comfort of the broadcast booth, but Bill Cowher is too much of a competitor to stay away from coaching for very long. Look for him to land on the sidelines with the Giants, Ravens, Bengals or Raiders -- or even more likely with the Panthers, since he lives in North Carolina.

We expected the Knicks to come to their senses sooner than this, but Isiah is still in charge. The team is a mess, the payroll is a joke, and the Knicks faithful boo Thomas every chance they get. He has put the Knicks in a horrible financial situation and is in a nightly war with his “star” point guard (who actually claims to “have shit” on his coach, so much so that Isiah should feel compelled to start him). At this point, it’s irrelevant whether or not Isiah is a good coach; there is just too much history here to move forward. The team needs to build around Zach Randolph, Jamal Crawford and David Lee – everyone else is expendable.

In 13 years as head coach at Grand Valley State, Brian Kelly won five conference titles and made six Division II Playoff appearances. The Lakers also won two Division II national titles under Kelly and in 2003, Kelly was named the AFCA Division II Coach of the Year. After GVSU, Kelly was hired at Central Michigan, where he carried the Chippewas to a MAC Championship in just two seasons. In his first year at Cincinnati, the Bearcats finished 9-3 under Kelly and will play Southern Mississippi at the Papajohns.com Bowl. In other words, Kelly has been a winner everywhere he’s gone and with all the coaching vacancies that are starting to pop up in college football, he’s likely to get looks. Brian Kelly – get to know the name.

After getting a few token carries in the first and only game of his latest comeback bid, someone stomped on Ricky Williams’ chest and tore his pectoral muscle. Ouch. There are only so many hours in the day that a guy can rehab and work out. The rest of the time, we all know Ricky will be taking bong hits and watching re-runs of “Weeds,” setting the stage for another failed whiz quiz and suspension.