TheLineup

Departments

4 Leading Off

10 Letters

15 Air and Space

Barry Bonds and A-Rod want to talk to you--in a crowd, for lots of money by Charles Leerhsen

18 Scorecard

• Zoning out with Ricky Williams

• Nationals have hats but no owner

• Tennis's gender role reversals

30 Faces in the Crowd

33 Players

90 Life of Reilly

Free the Angola nine! Or, how to play Louisiana's Prison View Golf Courseby Rick Reilly

Inside ...

80 College Football

• Ohio State's dazzling freshman

• Most underrated Division I stars

82 Golf

• Singh is SI's Player of the Year

85 The NFL

• McGahee sparks Bills' offense

• Rookie safety saves Seahawks

PRO BASKETBALL

44 The Ugliest Game

An NBA brawl exposed the worst aspects of player and fan behavior

by Jack McCallum

COLLEGE FOOTBALL

52 The BCS Mess

The Bowl Championship Series' problems keep growing

by Tim Layden

PRO FOOTBALL

56 The Kid Steps Out

Eli Manning was impressive in his first NFL start. Now, how soon can he learn to win?

by Josh Elliott

MOTOR SPORTS

60 Race to End All Races

Kurt Busch won the Nextel Cup in hair-raising fashion

by Lars Anderson

TENNIS

64 Outside Looking In

Roscoe Tanner tries to come back from his spectacular personal and financial flameout

by L. Jon Wertheim

Cover

IMAGE FROM ESPN

COVER FLAP PHOTOS: David Walberg (car); George Tiedemann/GT Images

SI Extra

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• More college football coverage, including a weekly Heisman watch and bowl projections that break down who's headed where, at SI.com/football/ncaa.

COLOR PHOTO

JOHN BIEVER

BLUEGRASS

Undefeated Boise State hasn't lost on its artificial turf in three years (page 55).

COLOR PHOTO

ESPN (INSET)