Weekend viewing includes ABC in Iowa City, playoff baseball, B.J. Armstrong and the NFL

Sports fans, belly up at the television smorgasbord this week. There's something for everyone beginning tonight and lasting through Monday.

Local fans are buzzing about Saturday's night Big Ten showdown featuring Iowa and Michigan. ABC/KCRG-TV9 will air the game nationally from Kinnick Stadium and the network's top college football crew of Brent Musburger, Kirk Herbstreit and Lisa Salters will call the game from Iowa City. Although the game will air nationally, it's unlikely the game will take precedence over CBS' Saturday night match-up, at least in ratings. CBS will broadcast No. 1 Florida at No. 4 LSU concurrently, which means outside of the Midwest, the Iowa-Michigan game will see lower ratings.

This weekend marks a true convergence of sports seasons with football, golf, hockey, baseball, basketball and auto racing all overlapping on different networks. The President Cup airs all weekend on The Golf Channel (Thursday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Friday from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m.) and NBC (Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.).

Major League Baseball's Divisional Series on TBS is in high gear with three games on Thursday (Colorado at Philadelphia, 1:30 p.m.; St. Louis at L.A. Dodgers, 5 p.m.; Boston at L.A. Angels, 8:30 p.m.) and two on Friday (Minnesota at N.Y. Yankees, 5 p.m.; Boston at L.A. Angels, 8:30 p.m.). Times are undetermined on Saturday and Sunday.

Hockey is in high gear, and Comcast Sports airs the Chicago-Detroit rematch (7:30 p.m. Thursday) from last year's NHL Western Conference finals. NASCAR's fourth installment of the 10-race chase to the cup airs at 2:15 p.m.. Sunday (ABC/KCRG-TV9) with the Pepsi 500 at Fontana, Calif.

 NON-EVENT VIEWING

The  Big Ten Network will air its latest installment of "The Big Ten's Best: Basketball Dynamic Duos," at 7 p.m. Friday. I've been told former Hawkeyes Roy Marble and B.J. Armstrong are featured on this countdown.

The NFL Network's version of "Greatest 4th Quarters" continues at 8 p.m. Thursday (and midnight, 9 a.m. Friday) by re-airing the 1991 49ers-Falcons thriller, and a pair of wild Monday night endings - Patriots-Broncos in 2003 and Jets-Dolphins in 2000.

At 5:30 p.m. Monday, the NFL Network's "The Head Coaches" features ex-NFL coaches Steve Mariucci and Mike Martz. They break down the games from a coach's perspective, which includes the X's and O's as well as gameday management situations. It also removes some of the laughter and jibberish that often accompanies pregame shows involving former players.

"Our point of view will come from having coached, having made some of the decisions that coaches will make," Mariucci said. "Hopefully we'll give our perspective as a coach, not as a fan, not as a former player, and we're going to give our point of that's not necessarily debated by somebody that hasn't been in our shoes."

Among the topics discussed on "The Head Coaches" include media interviews and play breakdowns. The show also features a current NFL coach explaining decisions as well.

"We'll do some X's and O's," Mariucci said. "We discussed thoroughly the T.O. (Terrell Owens) situation when he was interrogated it seemed in his press conference (after a loss to New Orleans) and those sorts of topics."

Here's Saturday's college football lineup:

11/11:30 a.m.

• ESPN: Auburn at Arkansas
• ESPN2: Purdue at Minnesota
• ESPN Classic: Eastern Illinois at Penn State
• Big Ten Network: Michigan State at Illinois (Overflow: Miami (Ohio) at Northwestern)
• Versus: Iowa State at Kansas (11:30 a.m.)
• ESPNU: Houston at Mississippi State (11:30 a.m.)
• Fox Sports/Comcast: Oklahoma State at Texas A&M (11:30 a.m.)

2:30 p.m.

• ABC/KCRG-TV9: Wisconsin at Ohio State
• CBS/KGAN: Alabama at Ole Miss
• ESPN: Connecticut at Pittsburgh
• Fox Sports/Comcast: Northern Iowa at North Dakota State  (3 p.m.)
• ESPNU: Duke at North Carolina State ( 3 p.m.)

6/7 p.m.

• ESPN: Colorado at Texas (6:15 p.m.)
• ESPNU: Southern Miss at Louisville (6:30 p.m.)
• Fox Sports North: Stanford at Oregon State (6:30 p.m.)
• ABC: KCRG-TV9: Michigan at Iowa (7 p.m.)
• CBS/KGAN: Florida at Louisiana State (7 p.m.)
• ESPN2: Georgia Tech at Florida State (7 p.m.)

Here's Sunday's NFL lineup:

• CBS/KGAN: Pittsburgh at Detroit (noon)
• FOX/KFXA: Minnesota at St. Louis (noon)
• CBS/KGAN: New England at Denver (3:15 p.m.)
• NBC/KWWL: Indianapolis at Tennessee (7:15 p.m.)
• ESPN: New York Jets at Miami (7:30 p.m. Monday)