LINEUP

DEPARTMENTS

4 Leading Off

11 Letters

13 Scorecard

Keeping up with the Kardashians had a price for one NBA star

21 Faces in the Crowd

22 Just My Type

Tony Dungy on Indy's draft strategy

BY DAN PATRICK

24 Inside ...

NHL

The Rangers' rise

NFL

Top draft priorities

NBA

Sacramento's struggles

Baseball

Dodgers on the block

72 Point After

World Peace is just as elusive as world peace

BY PHIL TAYLOR

FEATURES

NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

34 ALABAMA VS. LSU

The long-anticipated showdown in New Orleans for the BCS championship

By Austin Murphy

• THE TOP 25 TEAMS FOR 2012

NFL PLAYOFFS

42 THE BRONCOS

After stunning the Steelers, Tim Tebow leads his flock on to New England

By Damon Hack

• A TESTED FORMULA FOR HOUSTON

48 THE SAINTS

Will New Orleans's offense stall in the open air of the later rounds?

By Jim Trotter

• THE GIANTS' D IS PEAKING

52 COLLEGE BASKETBALL

THE HOOSIERS

Indiana has emerged from a decade in the dumps

By L. Jon Wertheim

DID THIS MAN REALLY CUT MICHAEL JORDAN?

Clifton (Pop) Herring tells a different story

By Thomas Lake P. 56

"The Hoosiers' better-than-the-sum-of-their-parts collection of overachievers combines traditional Indiana basketball sensibilities with contemporary hoops—Hickory High meets the AAU summer circuit.

—L. Jon Wertheim on the rise of Indiana this season.

P. 52

Please Recycle This Magazine Remove Inserts or Samples Before Recycling

PHOTO

GREG NELSON (TEXANS)

HERE'S A FIRST In the franchise's postseason debut the Texans and Jacoby Jones smoked the Bengals 31--10.

PHOTO

BILL FRAKES (HERRING)

PHOTO

BOB ROSATO (TRENT RICHARDSON)

PHOTO

DERICK E. HINGLE/US PRESSWIRE (TYRANN MATHIEU)