Oprah Winfrey had everybody talking as she brought down the house at the Golden Globes with her inspirational and determination-filled speech. Congratulations to all the winners and let’s keep up the dialogue.

In the sports world, football is dominating the water cooler chatter as college football crowned its champion Monday night and the NFL is racing toward the Super Bowl.

TINK Sports Big-3

Here are three things you need to know:

1) The College Football champion is Alabama for fifth time in the last nine years

2) The NFL playoffs are heating up and the Super Bowl is a few short weeks away

3) Villanova is back on top of the topsy-turvy college basketball standings

College Football

The state of Alabama might be split on Roy Moore but is in sync when it comes to football and their beloved Crimson Tide.

Alabama and coach Nick Saban sit atop the college football world (again) after beating fellow Southeastern Conference squad Georgia in overtime in Monday night’s National Championship game, 26-23.

The outcome was anything but expected midway through the game as Georgia led 13-0 at halftime. Alabama made the bold move of inserting true freshman Tua Tagovailoa, a Hawaii native who hadn’t started a game this year, to begin the second half. The freshman delivered in remarkable fashion throwing three touchdowns, including the winner in overtime.

Source: Newsday

To put Alabama and Saban’s dominance in perspective…

• This is the 17^th National Championship for Alabama, and fifth in the last nine years
• This is the sixth National Championship (five at Alabama) for Nick Saban, considered by some to be the best college football coach of all time

For its part Georgia played well and had a fantastic season, even holding the #1 ranking in the regular season, but ultimately fell short in the title game.

Party on in Alabama! #RollTide

National Football League (NFL)

The first round of the NFL playoffs is in the books.

A few words to describe the weekend’s winners:

Tennessee Titans – Impressive road win in a tough stadium

Atlanta Falcons – Experience paid off

Jacksonville Jaguars – Dominant defense led the way

New Orleans Saints – Escaped with a victory but very dangerous with Hall-of-Fame bound QB Drew Brees at the helm

Source: Yahoo Sports

Waiting in the wings are the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, New England Patriots and Pittsburgh Steelers who got the week off for finishing in the top-two in their conference.

To avoid any scheduling conflicts this weekend, here are Divisional Round playoff games:

Atlanta Falcons at Philadelphia Eagles – Saturday, Jan 13 @ 4:35pm

Tennessee Titans at New England Patriots – Saturday, Jan 13 @ 8:15pm

 

Jacksonville Jaguars at Pittsburgh Steelers– Sunday, Jan 14 @ 1:05pm

New Orleans Saints at Minnesota Vikings – Sunday, Jan 14 @ 4:40pm

National Hockey League (NHL)

Bringing the heat…In a sport played on ice, the top two teams in the NHL hail from…you’ll never guess…Tampa and Las Vegas. Huh?

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a good NHL franchise that has even won a Stanley Cup (in 2004). Ok but what about the Vegas Golden Knights? Most people didn’t even know there was a pro hockey team in Sin City. The expansion Golden Knights only came into existence this season, and are riding a stellar offense to the top of the Western Conference standings.

Source: NBC Sports

College Basketball

Overly confident, perhaps? Last week was rough for teams sitting atop the rankings as four of the top-five teams – Michigan State, Duke, Arizona State and Xavier – lost. The only survivor was Villanova who reclaimed its position as the #1 team in the land.

The new AP top-5 teams are:

1) Villanova

2) West Virginia

3) Virginia

4) Michigan State

5) Purdue

5) Wichita State

 

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Remember at TINK Sports we watch the games so you don’t have to.

See you next time…