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

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Happy Saturday! It's homecoming at the U of M and it's St. John's vs. St. Thomas in Collegeville today, so there's plenty for all of you football fans to do. For those of you going to the U along with me, here's a preview from the FBT blog; for those of you heading out to the MIAC battle, johnniefootball.com has an in-depth look at today's game, along with a prediction you might not expect. And for the rest of you: it's time for some weekend links!

*One bad start does not a disaster make, but even so, Parker Hageman looks at Nick Blackburn's two-seam fastball from his last outing - and is worried that we've seen the return of pre-demotion Blackburn.

*If there were football magazines that were sold only in gas stations, I'm guessing Chris Brown would be the Hugh Hefner of the genre. His latest "football adult literature" post showcases the differences between Cam Newton at Auburn and Denard Robinson at Michigan. They're both running quarterbacks - but one's running an offense from the 1970s, and one's running one from the 1910s.

*We've now reached the point in the weekend links where I usually include something silly, odd, or non-mainstream. Today, I'm proud to have three of those things. First, it would seem that Aussie Rules Football has hit on the next great money-making solution in pro sports: get the teams to play to a tie in the championship game, then make them do the whole thing over! (I bet Roger Goodell has thought of this.) Second, here's somebody who thinks that the model for the future of sport is - you guessed it - cricket. And finally: though it's not sports-related, commenter Brandon may have written one of the great first sentences in journalism, ever.

And that is that, for this week. Enjoy the weekend, and rememeber, things could always be worse: you could have to run 26.2 miles tomorrow, like Rand.