Jon Marthaler bakes up a batch of delicious links just for you. Other times, you can find him here and here. Jon?

Greetings once again on a chilly, hazy Saturday morning. There's snow on the ground, ice in the air, Christmas music on the radio, Army-Navy on the tube, and Gopher basketball in the Barn; there's really that holiday feeling in the air, isn't there?

I'll save you the reminiscing about Decembers past, though, and just get on with (as Rand always writes in the introduction) this week's batch of tasty links:

*Nathan Eide at Hockey Wilderness got a chance to grill NHL commentator Eddie Olcyzk on the Winter Classic, pond hockey, and Martin Havlat. It's a must-read. Also, if the Winter Classic isn't in Minneapolis soon, then clearly the NHL has no idea what the Winter Classic is really about.

*Sports Media Watch got a chance to catch up with the members of TNT's NBA studio team who aren't named Charles Barkley. Here are the interviews with Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith, and producer Tim Kiely. I found these quite interesting, given that the studio show is usually the only good reason to watch a regular-season NBA game on TNT.

*Phil Miller at The Sports Economist thinks that the NFL could end up like the Big Twelve. And no, I don't mean "the sixth-placed team has to play in the Insight Bowl."

*And finally: Canis Hoopus has a nice little piece on NBA finances, and the importance of gate receipts.

That'll do it for this edition... and if none of these links drew you in, then roughkat points out an easy way to make a billion dollars. What could be simpler?