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It’s always fun when the Vikings play the Packers in an NFL game. So this Sunday will be fun. But this one also counts. Big time.

It was fun for a while when the two teams met in Minneapolis six weeks ago, but not for long. The Packers did a 30-13 number on the Vikings that day, and it was one of those woeful off-days for Minnesota. The Vikings have had a couple others of those this season, such as the 20-3 opener at San Francisco, and the 38-7 drubbing absorbed at home against Seattle.

The Packers, meanwhile, looked like one of the NFL’s true elite teams until they went to Denver and the wheels came off. The Broncos clobbered the Packers, and ever since then we’ve been watching to see if the Pack is back, or if they’re still trying to get those wheels aligned. Even quarterback Aaron Rodgers lost his swagger. The Packers seemed to get it all back together, but then they went out to Arizona last Sunday and were embarrassed 38-8 by the Cardinals, who sacked Rodgers eight times and returned two of his three fumbles for touchdowns.

It was the perfect scenario, coming in mid-afternoon, because it left room for the Vikings, whose game was switched to nighttime, to vault back into a tie for first place in the NFC’s North Division. In one of the more impressive performances-under-pressure in Vikings lore, they throttled Eli Manning and thrashed the Giants 49-17.

That leaves the Vikings and Packers deadlocked with 10-5 records going into the final game of the season, so along with the usual fun of the rivalry,  the game will decide the division champion. There will be no swaggering. We are finding that, great as he is, Aaron Rodgers cannot do it alone for the Packers, and when he is left alone, the Packers aren’t very good. The Vikings have a distinct edge when Teddy Bridgewater thinks, passes, and occasionally scrambles or runs, but always with the threat of running back Adrian Peterson keeping the defense honest.

Last weekend was a great one for those fans who just like exciting football. It was not a good weekend for those fanatics who bet on games or who think they have this NFL business all figured out. Take me, for instance. I projected that even while neither team would enter the playoffs as divisional champ, the hottest two teams in football are the Seattle Seahawks and the Pittsburgh Penguins. I went so far as to predict they would make it all the way to the Super Bowl, where Seattle would prevail.

In my personal ranking of who’s hot right now, I put Seattle an eyelash ahead of Arizona and Carolina, and all three are in the NFC – where the Vikings and Packers are breathing down their necks. In the AFC, I submitted, Pittsburgh was hot and had risen above New England, Denver, and Cincinnati. The Cardinals now make that a crowd at the top.

So what happens on the very next round of games? Pittsburgh was stifled 20-17 by Baltimore, and Seattle struggled to find its offense before yielding 23-17 to the St. Louis Rams.  I still like both of those teams making a serious run at the playoffs, and maybe the lost weekend won’t hurt either . The Steelers learned that big Ben Roethlisberger can’t do it alone, either, and the Seahawks found that Russell Wilson was almost magical the way he kept finding ways to win without star running back Marshawn Lynch, but it had to catch up with them. Lynch, by the way, is back from hernia surgery this week and ready to go.

Battling for last Sunday’s biggest surprises, the Carolina Panthers are no longer undefeated, after a 14-0 start. Atlanta, of all teams, came through for a stunning 20-13 victory that ended when Cam Newton was stripped of the ball on what might have been a tying touchdown pass at the wire.

And the proud Patriots were humbled by the New York Jets, who held the lead until Tom Brady fashioned a 17-3 rally at the finish to tie the game 20-20. The Patriots won the coin toss and chose to kick, later captain Matthew Slater said he assumed by choosing to kick, he could also choose which direction he wanted to kick. But no. The Jets took the ball, and Mark Fitzpatrick completed passes of 48 and 20 yards to power a drive that reached the 6. Then former Gopher Eric Decker ran into the end zone, turned right, and sped under a lop from Fitzpatrick for the winning touchdown in a 26-20 triumph.

Denver, which started 7-0 but have since been struggling with Peyton Manning out, were left clinging to first place when they faced Cincinnati Monday night. But Kansas City had risen to challenge the Broncos by reaching a 10-5 record with a simple formula: win every game. The Chiefs beat Cleveland 17-13 Sunday, which was their ninth straight triumph – after a 1-5 start to the season.

If you get your fill of college bowl games, be aware that the classic Vikings-Packers game has been switched to a 7:30 p.m. start by those slick NFL officials, who probably figured it might not be quite cold enough in mid-day. But meantime, look for one other classic finale to the regular season when Seattle (9-6) tries to get it all back together at Arizona 13-2).

Not Many Bowl Games are Classics

There will be some interesting bowl games this weekend, and there will also be some dull and uninteresting bowl games. There will be great teams, great players, and also mediocre teams and mediocre players. The problem with the college football bowl season is that there are simply too many of ’em. It used to be easy.

There used to be the Rose Bowl, Sugar Bowl, Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl, and then the Fiesta Bowl, and the Sun Bowl crowded in. Then inflation took over. Now there are so many bowl games that they might as well expand by a few more and simply let every Division I team play.

Amid all the bowls, there are those games that represent the semifinals leading up to the national championship. Those are the Orange Bowl in Miami where Clemson plays Oklahoma, and the Cotton Bowl at Arlington, Texas, where Alabama will face Michigan State. Both should be good games. Those games will both be on Thursday, which is New Year’s Eve.

Never mind the tradition that the big bowl games should be on New Year’s Day -- January 1. The rest of the bowl games have suffered a blow in prestige, because of the obvious importance of the playoff semifinals. The University of Minnesota had to play well to beat Central Michigan in the Quick Lane Bowl in Detroit Monday, but at 2-6 in the Big Ten, the Gophers should have stayed home. With the victory, they rose to 6-7. Ho-bleeping-hum! I’ve heard about the great advantage playing in such a bowl is, because a team gets 15 days of extra practice, which is a huge advantage for the next season. But the Gophers had lost seven straight bowl games, and had mediocre records in the years following those games. So much for the advantage of the extra practice.

Meanwhile, I remain a cynic, and a critic of the whole system.

   First off, I think it’s excellent that the NCAA is allowing more than just two teams, selected by a rarely objective committee, to play one game and declare a national champion. But as long as such a decision has been made, more thought needs to go into the process.

There are five major conferences under consideration, although outsiders might sneak in. Basically, though, we’re talking about the Southeast Conference, the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12, the Big 10, and the Pac-12. Math majors might concur, but it’s difficult to divide four (teams) into five (conferences) and come out with something approaching equitable.

I happen to be among the cynics who have grown weary of the constant promotion of the supposed supremacy of the Southeast Conference. Back when they just went off ratings, the rest of us rubes were unaware of the backdoor dealings. But over a decade, the SEC seemed to have a team in the title game -- usually Alabama, LSU, or Auburn. On some occasions, both teams in the game were from the SEC.

We listened to ESPN analysts rave about how clearly better the SEC was, and for evidence, they would point out how many championships the SEC teams had won -- conveniently overlooking the fact that if a team was in the championship game every year, chances are it would win a share of those games. For example, the Big Ten faded from elite level in recent years, but if you put Michigan or Ohio State in the national championship game every year, it would win a few of them. And if you put both of them in the game, I guarantee the Big Ten would win the title.

Now we learn that ESPN has a contractual tie to promote the SEC. So all that flak about how good SEC teams are is just that -- flak. Alabama is strong, no question, and Clemson is undefeated although the ACC is not as strong as usual. Oklahoma is a good team, from the Big 12, and Michigan State won a battle of survival in the Big Ten.

Of the five major conferences, the one left out is the Pac-12. That happens to be the conference I believe is the strongest of the five. I think Stanford, Oregon, Southern Cal, Utah, Washington, Washington State, Arizona, Arizona State, California, and UCLA make up an extremely potent conference where nobody can ever take a day off. They are fast, creative, hard hitting, and immensely talented. In my humble opinion, none of the four semifinalists -- Alabama, Michigan State, Clemson or Oklahoma -- would have won the Pac-12.

The Pac-12 is so strong, top to bottom, that nobody could go through it without losing two or three games. That’s evidence of how strong a league is. But in the eyes and heads of the NCAA bowl championship selection committee, that is how you get eliminated from consideration for playoff duty.

Earlier, Utah won an early bowl game, and last weekend, did you watch Washington beat Southern Mississippi 44-31? The Huskies were led by two freshmen, quarterback Jake Browning, a 19-year-old who was 23-34 for 284 yards, and running back Myles Gaskin, who scored four touchdowns while running for 181 yards on 26 carries. Washington State, meanwhile, beat Miami of Florida 20-14 in the Sun Bowl, with Luke Falk throwing two touchdown passes and the Cougars defense making two ferocious goal-line stands and forcing dthree turnovers. Falk, a 6-foot-4 sophomore, was 29-53 for 295 yards to guide the top passing attack in the nation.

With that in mind, check out the Wednesday night Holiday Bowl in San Diego, where Southern Cal plays Wisconsin in what should be a great game. On Thursday, watch the semifinals, and on Friday, you should also seek out the Rose Bowl, where Stanford plays Iowa -- both of whom would have been worthy semifinalists pursuing the national championship. On Saturday, you should dial up the Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, whjere Oregon and Texas Christian will undoubtedly get into an offensive shootout, and at Phoenix, Arizona State plays West Virginia.
The Big Ten, by the way, has come back well in the last couple of years. Michigan State, Iowa, Ohio State, Northwestern, Nebraska and Michigan are all quite good. Nebraska stunned UCLA, rallying from a 21-7 deficit to win last week. On Friday, the proper January 1, Northwestern plays Tennessee, and is an 8.5-point underdog, in the Outback Bowl; Michigan plays florida in the Citrus Bowl, and Ohio State plays Notre Dame in what could be a classic Fiesta Bowl. Penn State plays Georgia in Jacksonville, for good measure.

So how can we improve the playoff situation? My theory is that each of the five major conferences plays down to a champion, whether by playoff or season standings. Each of those five advance to BCS structure, where they are joined by a sixth team that is either from a lesser conference (Boise State?) or an independent (Notre Dame?).
At that point, and only then, does the bowl selection committee swing into action, rating the six teams 1-6. Teams 1 and 2 get byes, while 3 plays 6 an 4 plays 5. Those two winners advance to the semifinals against Teams 1 and 2, on the way to the final.

Yes, there would be an extra game in there for four teams, but they have the time between the end of the s
season and the playoffs anyway. The key to my plan is that no conference would get more than one team, rendering the SEC to something closer to equal with the other major conferences.

That would be a true way to determine if one conference seemed to have the upper hand or not, and it would decide a true national champion.

And by the way...Happy New Year!