Thursday baseball ... and some weekend lines

I kept waiting to hear Karl Ravech say something to this effect on Sportscenter this morning:

Hi everybody, this is Karl Ravech. It's freezing out here, and we just watched this droll World Series conclude with a three-inning mockery that occurred because baseball lacks the guts to tell FOX to stick it and either a) play games in the afternoon when people might actually watch them, or b) just postpone Game 5 two days. Suffice to say, we all have opinions on this issue which we're not allowed to talk about on-air because ESPN doesn't want us to have actual personalities or insight. Anyway, pitchers and catchers don't report for 2009 until February, and there's no chance in hell you'll see any of us doing anything for television until then because we're all sick of each other. So, hope you enjoyed the season -- I'm going somewhere to drink something stiff and warm and think about how much more fun this show was when Harold Reynolds was here. For ESPN, this is Karl Ravech.

Even though they're the Braves' division rivals, I'm pleased for Philadelphia to win something, even if 20 years from now everyone will have forgotten who won this Series, just how it was played. Even so, good for the Phils, good for Brad Lidge, boo for baseball. Again.

On to something more pleasant -- lines for this weekend's games. As always, this weekend's lines come courtesy of NCAAFlines.com. (Also, Kurt insists on asking about my opinion of Auburn football. You can read this weekend's version at warblogle.com.)

Thursday
South Florida (-3) at Cincinnati
Saturday
Wisconsin (+4.5) at Michigan St.
Air Force (-8.5) at Army
Miami (+2.5) at Virginia
West Virginia (-4) at UConn
Kansas St. (+10.5) at Kansas
Auburn (+6.5) at Ole Miss
(Note: Stay away, stay away, stay away.)
Colorado (+3.5) at Texas A&M
Pitt (+5) at Notre Dame
Kentucky (+3) at Mississippi St.
Missouri (-20.5) at Baylor
Clemson (+4.5) at Boston College
Iowa (+3) at Illinois
Florida (-6) vs. Georgia
Duke (+7.5) at Wake Forest
Oregon (+3) at Cal
BYU (-14.5) at Colorado St.
Washington (+45) at USC
(Note: Take the favorite. Seriously.)
Louisville (-14) at Syracuse
Tennessee (+6) at South Carolina
(Note: Not as enticing a matchup as maybe it used to be. Click here for more on that.)
UAB (+8.5) at Southern Miss
Texas (-4) at Texas Tech
Tulane (+25.5) at LSU
(Note: We'll deal with this next week, but ... is LSU even that good? Do we know for sure?)
Arizona St. (+15) at Oregon St.

wlh