The day after. Yesterday’s game between the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots lived up to the hype, as the Pats scored late in the fourth quarter to win 24-20. As good as the game was, however, it was still a regular-season contest that will likely bring a rematch in a couple of months. Boston College, on the other hand, lost to Florida State on Saturday night and is out of the national championship picture after one loss. Which regular season game had more impact in the grand scheme of things? Home-field advantage or no chance to win a national title? The college regular season means more.

Tragedy in NYC. Ryan Shay collapsed and died in Central Park on Saturday during the sixth mile of the United States men’s marathon Olympic trials. Shay, who won the 2001 NCAA individual title in the 10,000 meters while at Notre Dame, had been diagnosed with an enlarged heart but was cleared to run by doctors. Shay’s death is a huge loss for the marathon community, which lost an amateur runner earlier this fall during a race in Chicago. An interesting note – the marathon was created when the Greek soldier Pheidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon. After running 26.2 miles to Athens to make his announcement, Pheidippides collapsed and died. Based on its history and recent tragedies surrounding the sport, are marathons too dangerous?

It’s tourney time. The Division III men’s soccer bracket was finalized at about 3 on Sunday morning, and you can tune in at 11 to see where your favorite teams will end up. While the Division I basketball tournament brackets are well publicized, the selection committees for all NCAA sports spend long hours reviewing criteria to make the best possible decisions when putting together a bracket. It’s always an arduous task, but it’s certainly worth it, as more than 380,000 NCAA student-athletes dream of winning a prestigious NCAA championship.

Midshipmen get day off. There are a lot of rivalries in college football, but few have the one-sided history of that between Notre Dame and Navy. The two programs have met each of the last 79 years with Notre Dame getting the better of the Midshipmen most of the time. Things were different on Saturday, however, as Navy pulled out a thrilling 46-44, triple-overtime win. It was Navy’s first victory over Notre Dame in 44 years and despite Notre Dame’s lackluster 1-8 record, the game meant everything to the folks in Annapolis – enough to grant the Midshipmen a day off from classes today.

Parity – exhibition style. Tim Selgo should have bragged more during our chat about Grand Valley State on Friday. The Laker men’s basketball team pulled out an 85-82 double-overtime victory over Michigan State in an exhibition game on Friday night. And although the game doesn’t mean anything as far as records are concerned, it does say something about the parity between the divisions. Grand Valley wasn’t the only Division II team to pull out an exhibition upset this weekend – Tarleton State beat Baylor, 95-85.