Bob Valvano is a weekend overnight host for ESPN Radio.  While not quite a nationally recognized name like his more famous weekday counterparts, Valvano's work has recieved national plaudits.  In the clip below, you can see why Valvano is a respected voice in an industry that too often gives the top real estate to the loudest and most controversial.

During the week, Valvano hosts a radio show on ESPN 680 in Louisville.  After the Cardinals upset the Florida Gators in Louisville, Valvano unleashed on the lack of repsect given Louisville not before the game, but after the game, especially by his counterparts at ESPN.

Valvano was incensed with the way ESPN analysts and the media-at-large tried to make excuses for Florida, claiming they somehow weren't ready to play the game.  Nobody could seemingly admit Louisville may have actually been better than Florida because it didn't fit the SEC-Big East narrative.  Granted, Louisville is Valvano's home market, but never have I so totally agreed with a radio rant like this one.  And honestly, calling it a rant is doing it a disservice.  The clip is quite lengthy (40 minutes), but it's as well reasoned and articulated as an argument as you can give regarding the larger issues affecting the media and college football.  Valvano touches on it all - from the groupthink with regards to the SEC, ESPN analysts like Kirk Herbstriet refusing to admit when they are wrong, to the convoluted system of preseason rankings, the presence of 35 bowl games, and the sport protecting the powerful.  This is as good as sports talk radio gets.  I'd encourage you listening to the entire thing, but if you don't have the time, some of Valvano's highlights are quoted below.

Last night's BCS National Championship Game between Alabama and Notre Dame drew a 15.7 overnight rating, up 14% from Alabama-LSU last year.

Blow-out or not, BCS title best cable overnight since 2011 BCS, 15.7, and up 14% over 2012 game.Overall BCS up too.

— Mike Soltys (@espnmikes) January 8, 2013

Despite the huge predictions many had coming into the game (including myself, which look really bad right now), the uncompetitive nature of the game likely drove fans away in droves, and the 15.7 overnight is lower than all of the games from 2009 to 2011, ranking ahead of just last year's game and 2008's LSU-Ohio State matchup. However, if that overnight rating does hold up, the BCS title game will be the highest rated show on cable since the 2011 BCS title game when it moved from ABC to ESPN (after previously being on both ABC and Fox).

Local news pieces previewing a football game from a specific bar or restaurant usually aren't all that notable, but apparently no one told the staff at Minneapolis NBC affiliate KARE-11. Reporter Lee Valvsik starts this report in typical fashion at the rooftop bar of the Union restaurant (where the menu is apparently "the culmination of a life lived for food") and talking about how executive chef Jim Christiansen was going to "grill us up some salmon with red wine oxtail sauce." Then, things get a little weird. Watch what happens when Valvsik gives the football to the bar's mixologist, Johnny Michaels (can we call him Johnny Mixologist?), who then throws a pass to a man Valvsik later identifies as "Craig, our camera guy":

With Alabama crushing Notre Dame from the outset, ESPN desperately needs some way to keep viewers, and apparently their broadcasters, invested in the game.  Enter A.J. McCarron's girlfriend, Miss Alabama Katherine Webb.  Seeing Webb on screen gave Brent Musburger the most excitement he had seen in the first quarter.

"Wow you quarterbacks get all the good looking women, what a beautiful woman, whoa!  If you're a youngster in Alabama, start getting the football out and throw it around the backyard with pops."

Sadly, it looks like this will be the most memorable moment of the 2013 BCS National Championship Game.  Jenn Sterger must be so jealous.

UPDATE: (Tuesday, 3:30 PM ET) ESPN has released a statement apologizing for Musburger's commentary saying the announcer went too far:

"We always try to capture interesting storylines and the relationship between an Auburn grad who is Miss Alabama and the current Alabama quarterback certainly met that test. However, we apologize that the commentary in this instance went too far and Brent understands that."  

(video via cjzero)

The above is what Texans running back Arian Foster is now using for his Twitter avatar. It is a cut and paste job from the article Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe wrote yesterday in advance of next weekend's AFC playoff game between the Patriots and Texans. Shaughnessy is known for two things: being a troll while offending pretty much everyone, and making grandiose and hyperbolic predictions and/or statements that are honestly laughable.

Exhibit A: "The 2012-13 Texans? Pure frauds. The worst 11-1 team in the history of the NFL. These Texans have absolutely zero chance of beating New England here next week. And everybody knows that this is true."

Everybody? Really? Every single person? You can most certainly cross Foster off the list of "everybody" along with probably every member of the Texans team and staff.

With the Baseball Hall of Fame announcing their induction class for 2013 on Wednesday, the debate around candidates has been getting fierce over the last week or two, moreso than in recent years due to the presence of Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, and several other players who have been branded "steroid-abuser!" with no evidence whatsoever (Mike Piazza, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, come on down!). Of course, this has resulted in the people with ballots hopping onto their soapboxes and regurgitating the usual batch of rhetoric regarding protecting the integrity of the game and so on and so forth, going based solely on hearsay and assumptions. And as of this point, it appears nobody will be elected to the Hall of Fame.

The logic (or lack thereof) in many of the ballots that writers have made public thus far this winter has been stunning. I'm not here to argue personal choices. If you think Dale Murphy is a Hall of Famer because he's a great person and had a high peak, whatever. That doesn't make your ballot terrible. But if you're refusing to vote for Mike Piazza because "Jeff Pearlman once wrote that he had backne, and Piazza never went after him" you're damn right that's worth a callout.

Here are some of the worst ballots I've come across this winter, and what exactly makes them tick...

Suspended ESPNer Rob Parker is almost near the conclusion of his 30 day suspension for asking whether or not Redskins QB Robert Griffin III was a "cornball brother."  

In a hometown interview with WDIV's Flashpoint (Parker has also written for WDIV's website, clickondetroit.com), Parker spoke publicly for the first time since the suspension with Devin Scillian Sunday morning.  In the interview, Parker continued to dig a deeper hole around his comments questioning Robert Griffin III.  You can watch the entire Parker interview at clickondetroit.com (the segment begins at the 2:45 mark), but here are the highlighted quotes from Parker:

Back in November, we brought you the news of the Los Angeles Dodgers and their potential $6 billion, 25 year TV deal with Fox. But here we are in 2013, and the deal has still not been finalized. As time continues to roll on, the Dodgers may be going in a different direction from Fox, and could actually ink a deal with Time Warner instead.

Bobby Valentine's one year tenure as Boston Red Sox manager was one of the biggest crash and burn jobs in the last several years.  The Red Sox went from AL East contender to AL East cellar dweller and had their worst season in almost 50 years.  Valentine made the return to the bench after a stint on ESPN as a Sunday Night Baseball analyst.  Now, Bobby V is making the quick turnaround back to the media after being a bust in Beantown.

But he's not returning to ESPN.  Instead, Bobby V will take on a much lower profile role as a contributor to the NBC Sports Radio network.  Via NBC release:

The NHL and NHLPA have reached a deal on the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement. In summary, the agreement will pave the way for an abbreviated 48-game or 50-game season that will salvage the 2012-13 campaign. The news of the deal spread like wildfire online Sunday morning with news outlets, bloggers and fans on Twitter discussing and analyzing the deal and what lies ahead as soon as the story broke in the wee hours of the morning.

Except NHL Network.