Happy New Year - Watch the Winter Classic

New Year’s Day used to be one of the best days of the year as a sports fan. This is not the case anymore. Yes, there are still six college football bowl games on television, but the games are not as important as they once were. Only five of the top twelve college football teams actually play today. The Fiesta Bowl featuring Oklahoma against West Virginia; the Orange Bowl with Virginia Tech facing Kansas; and the LSU-Ohio State National Championship game take place on January 2nd, 3rd and 7th respectively. There are still meaningful games today for regular sports fans. You can see Darren McFadden play one last time for Arkansas, watch Tim Tebow and Florida meet Michigan in Lloyd Carr’s final game as the head coach and determine whether or not Hawaii is up for the Sugar Bowl challenge. However, none of these games have any relevance in terms of crowning a national champion.

If you’re at home today and a casual sports fan, I recommend taking a break from watching some of the football games and switch to the Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Buffalo Sabres at 1:00 PM on NBC. This is the National Hockey League’s first regular-season outdoor game in the United States. Today’s forecast calls for snow showers early which will become steadier snow for the afternoon. The high is expected to be around 35 degrees with winds at 20-30 miles per hour. In addition, 1-3 inches of snow is expected. Between the weather and the 73,000 fans at Ralph Wilson Stadium, this will be a terrific atmosphere for hockey. Seriously, how cool does this look?



For more about the game, visit
Empty Netters, The Pensblog and the NHL website.