The National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association is beginning their awards voting on December 1st for the Hall of Fame and National awards of the year, and many familiar names litter the ballot, including long-time ESPN talking heads Chris Berman and Dick Vitale as finalists for the sportscaster Hall of Fame.

This weekend, Fox will once again air both the Pac 12 and Big Ten championship games on back to back nights Friday and Saturday.  Friday night, Fox will visit Palo Alto for #8 Stanford hosting #16 UCLA.  Saturday night, the entire crew travels more than halfway across the country to Indianapolis for the Big Ten title game as #12 Nebraska faces unranked Wisconsin.

Once again, Gus Johnson and Charles Davis will pull double duty and call both games on back to back nights.  Davis just pulled the same feat last weekend as he called a college game on Saturday and subbed for Brian Billick for the NFL on Fox Sunday.

While last year's conference championship doubleheader was the unveiling for the new and improved Fox College Football series, the 2012 version will be a true test of how far they've come in a year with many high profile additions... and how far they have to go.

One of the best weekends of the year is championship weekend in college football.  The fun starts tonight with a de facto Big East championship game between Louisville and Rutgers... which also serves as the tiebreaker of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge that ended in a tie last night.

The CBS Sports Radio network will be launching January 2nd, and the talent lineup the network has put together for its four core three-hour shows is veteran-laden and impressive.

ESPN Insider columnist Jason Churchill also runs a site called Prospect Insider. Like most of the baseball prospect sites online, Prospect Insider is subscription based, to the tune of $36 per year or $3 per month. It's a lower per year cost than both Baseball America ($66 per year for online access) and Baseball Prospectus ($39.95 per year for online access), but the overall quantity and quality of the content falls short of the aforementioned sites.

Anyway, a subscriber to Prospect Insider got into a tiff with Churchill on Twitter on Wednesday about the necessity of creating a mobile version of the site and informed us of what went down. The conversation is quite long, and you can click here to give it a read. Instead of just taking the constructive criticism to heart and thanking the reader (who is also his customer, mind you), Churchill instead decided to go on a rant towards the reader, saying that if they don't like the clunky, ad-flooded, non-mobile optimized version of the site, they should just not read it. Keep in mind, this reader is *paying* to read Prospect Insider.

Long story short, the reader (Brett Miller, of the West Coast Bias blog) wasn't nasty towards Churchill and was merely offering feedback. Churchill's response was to cancel Miller's subscription to his site and call him a complete ass.

Wait, what?

Those who saw the depiction of famed Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein -- under the name "Harvey Weingard" -- on HBO's Entourage are well aware that the last thing you want to do is get on Weinstein's bad side. 

The NFL has gone and done exactly that. 

The Worldwide Leader In Sourcing Controversies is at it again. Les Miles has decided to stay at LSU thanks to a generous contract extension after a prominent flirtation with Arkansas Tuesday. Brooks Melchior of Sports By Brooks first reported on Twitter Tuesday afternoon that Arkansas had made Miles a five-year, $27.5 million offer to take over as their head coach, and New Orleans Times-Picayune reporter Jim Kleinpeter soon confirmed that with his own sources while giving Brooks credit for being first.

At first, ESPN followed suit. First Karl Ravech credited Brooks during halftime of the Indiana-UNC game aired on ESPN. Then on the 11 p.m. edition of SportsCenter, anchor Steve Levy relayed the report and cited Brooks' tweet. However, that clearly didn't sit well with the suits in Bristol.

If it bleeds, it leads, which is the only logical explanation for not flexing Eagles-Cowboys out of Sunday Night Football.

Broadcast Maps via the506

Thursday, November 29

New Orleans Saints @ Atlanta Falcons [NFLN 8:20PM] Brad Nessler, Mike Mayock & Alex Flanagan

Sunday, December 2

New England Patriots @ Miami Dolphins [CBS 1PM] Greg Gumbel, Dan Dierdorf
Indianapolis Colts @ Detroit Lions [CBS 1PM] Ian Eagle, Dan Fouts
Houston Texans @ Tennessee Titans [CBS 1PM] Kevin Harlan, Solomon Wilcots
Jacksonville Jaguars @ Buffalo Bills [CBS 1PM] Spero Dedes, Steve Beuerlein

Minnesota Vikings @ Green Bay Packers [FOX 1PM] Joe Buck, Troy Aikman & Pam Oliver
San Francisco 49ers @ St. Louis Rams [FOX 1PM] Kenny Albert, Daryl Johnston, Tony Siragusa
Arizona Cardinals @ New York Jets [FOX 1PM] Thom Brennaman, Brian Billick & Laura Okmin
Seattle Seahawks @ Chicago Bears [FOX 1PM] Chris Myers, Tim Ryan & Jaime Maggio
Carolina Panthers @ Kansas City Chiefs [FOX 1PM] Ron Pitts, Mike Martz & Katarina Pink

Tampa Bay Buccaneers @ Denver Broncos [FOX 4:05PM] Dick Stockton, John Lynch & Jennifer Hale

Pittsburgh Steelers @ Baltimore Ravens [CBS 4:25PM] Jim Nantz, Phil Simms Cincinnati Bengals @ San Diego Chargers [CBS 4:25PM] Marv Albert, Rich Gannon Cleveland Browns @ Oakland Raiders [CBS 4:25PM] Bill Macatee, Steve Tasker

Philadelphia Eagles @ Dallas Cowboys [NBC 8:20PM] Al Michaels, Cris Collinsworth & Michelle Tafoya

Monday, December 3

New York Giants @ Washington Redskins [ESPN 8:30PM] Mike Tirico, Jon Gruden & Lisa Salters  

H/T Sammy!

It's hard to fathom how a school without a conference, who controls their own schedule, and has its own television deal with NBC could be leaving significant television revenue on the table. But, that's exactly what Notre Dame is doing. In light of the monster ratings ABC pulled in Notre Dame's finale versus USC the question changes from "IS scheduling hurting television revenue" to "HOW much is it hurting them?"

At issue here is the fact that Notre Dame by its own choosing, schedules its last game of the year on the road at either Stanford or USC. Going through past schedules and future schedules, those two teams have alternated Notre Dame's last game of the year for quite awhile and into the foreseeable future.

Because Stanford and USC host these season finales, those games fall into the Pac 12's television contracts which means it can air on ABC or potentially Fox. 

When Stanford and USC play in South Bend, those games take place earlier in the season and fall under Notre Dame's contract with NBC (who airs ND home games). 

The big news on this week's NBA announcing schedule is Charles Barkley making a cameo in the TNT booth Thursday night.  He'll announce Spurs-Heat alongside Kevin Harlan and Reggie Miller.

Wednesday, November 28

Houston Rockets @ Oklahoma City Thunder (NBAtv 8PM) Local Broadcast
Minnesota Timberwolves @ Los Angeles Clippers (NBAtv 10:30PM) Local Broadcast

Thursday, November 29

San Antonio Spurs @ Miami Heat (TNT 8PM) Kevin Harlan, Reggie Miller, Charles Barkley
Denver Nuggets @ Golden State Warriors (TNT 10:30PM) Marv Albert, Steve Kerr  

Friday, November 30

Washington Wizards @ New York Knicks (NBAtv 7:30PM) Local Broadcast
Denver Nuggets @ Los Angeles Lakers (ESPN 10:30PM) Mike Breen, Jeff Van Gundy

Saturday, December 1

Brooklyn Nets @ Miami Heat (NBAtv 7:30PM) Local Broadcast
Philadelphia 76ers @ Chicago Bulls (WGNA 8PM) Neil Funk, Stacey King
Sacramento Kings @ Los Angeles Lakers (NBAtv 10:30PM) Local Broadcast  

H/T Sammy!