The University of Idaho Argonaut

As Thanksgiving descends upon us, it is the perfect time to reflect on the sporting world.

Originally, this column was going to be what not to be thankful for in the world of sports, but it is Thanksgiving and the last thing that is needed is more negativity. Instead, why not focus on that in sports, which is seemingly around but could go unnoticed.

Much like dinner rolls at Thanksgiving dinner that nobody will remember or care about come the time dessert is served, there is a lot going on in the sports world that is easily greeted with the same indifference. Here are some of the proverbial dinner rolls of the current sports landscape.

NBA regular season

The NBA is great but the grind of the regular season is not. By the time the regular season comes to an end there are a few highlights and the rest can be discarded. It is not that a majority of it is bad, yet it is not good either. You take notice of it and at the same time you do not remember it. Those people who live for the NBA are definitely in the minority. For most of us, the NBA regular season is something we can watch when it is on but is not particularly missed when not around.

Any non Top-25 college football game
It is hard to get excited about a mid-table MAC game or a battle for fourth place in the Mountain West Conference contest. Sometimes these games can be exciting contests between teams with nothing left to lose. Sometimes it is two teams going through the motions. After the game, however, you are left with the knowledge that what you just watched was completely meaningless.
Unless you have some ties to the school playing, there is really no reason for a lot these games to be on TV. The only thing worse is when these games are put on during primetime on a Sunday or Tuesday night. Just because a college football game is being played does not mean it has to be on TV.

College basketball preseason tournament champions

When going on, preseason college basketball tournaments provide entertainment and a sense of importance. After they have concluded, nobody remembers or cares about them. Has anybody ever remembered the champion of the Preseason NIT or Maui Invitational? Probably not.

If anything, I wish teams would celebrate preseason tournament championships a lot more. Just imagine if right next to all the National Championship banners in Rupp Arena or Pauley Pavilion was a Great Alaska Shootout or Old Spice Classic championship banner. If a program is going to take pride in winning then it should go all out in bragging about it. The Colorado Rockies still wave the 1995 Wild Card flag with pride, so boasting about a preseason college basketball tournament should not be taboo.

Wigan Athletic

This reference might be obscure to some but those followers of the English Premier League will fully understand. Wigan Athletic is a team that is easy to forget about except when they are playing a high profile game. The Lactics do not overachieve or underachieve. Instead they just sort of exist doing enough to finish in a respectable but wholly forgettable position. It is hard to dislike Wigan because it would seem like a petty feeling and there is no redeeming quality about the team.