I missed a huge story in yesterday’s Bulletin. Total oversight. So consider this your old news update.

Beginning in 2014, college football will finally turn to a playoff system to determine the National Champion. A yet to be determined board will determine the four best teams and place them in a seeded tournament using the current bowl system. They’ll apparently measure strength of schedule, win-loss record, and give preference to conference champions. In short, the BCS, for all intents and purposes, is dead.

So commence the arguing over who is the fourth best team in the country. Bear in mind that last year’s 4^th and 5^thplace teams in the BCS were Stanford and Oregon. And Stanford was the 4^thseed. And they didn’t win the Pac-12. And they lost to Oregon. Let’s hope the humans get it right.

Something about Cristiano Ronaldo not having a penalty kick…

-The San Francisco Giants completed their first ever shutout sweep of the LA Dodgers, outscoring the boys in blue 13-0 in the series. The teams are now tied for the NL West lead.

-The Baltimore Orioles had found a diamond in the rough in Jason Hammel. Hammel had been a less than successful pitcher for the Rays and Rockies before coming to Baltimore in an offseason trade. Up until 7:05 p.m. yesterday, Hammel had been a revelation. Then he got lit up by the Angels and all was made right with the world.

-The Chicago Cubs are terrible. They proved that yesterday by surrendering 17 runs to the New York Mets.

-Chase Utley returned to the lineup for the Philadelphia Phillies last night and delivered a home run in his first at bat. Then the Phillies lost. And again, all was made right with the world.

-(an editorial) The Colorado Rockies are an embarrassment to baseball. You’ll recall that the Rockies have employed a 4-man rotation of underqualified starters. Yesterday, they promoted an ill-prepared AA prospect to start against the best team in the National League (the Washington Nationals). That prospect (Edwar Cabrera) was shelled by the Nationals. 6 runs in 2 1/3 innings. It is never a good idea to promote and expose a raw pitching prospect to Major League hitters. Especially on a team that is going absolutely nowhere and has very little. The Rockies need as many good young pitchers without destroyed psyches as possible. It does no good in promoting a guy like Cabrera nearly a year too soon.

As you could probably tell in the previous bit, the Nationals exploded offensively again last night, en route to an 11-5 victory over the Colorado Rockies. They continue to possess the best record in the National League. They’ll look to take the series against Colorado this afternoon. Edwin Jackson will face Josh Outman (3:10/MASN).

Germany v. Italy (2:45/ESPN). The winner will face Spain in the Euro Final on Sunday.

My baseball game of the day features one of my favorite prospects in the game, Diamondbacks pitcher Trevor Bauer. He’ll make his MLB debut tonight against the Atlanta Braves, down in the Peach State. He’ll oppose Jair Jurrjens. Game time is 7:10. You’ll need to have some sort of MLB package to watch.

The Bulletin may not be watching Bauer’s debut live tonight though, as one of its favorite sporting events will be taking place. That, of course, is the 2012 NBA Draft. The Draft starts at 7:30 and airs on ESPN. The Bulletin wrote an NBA Draft preview over on his weblog.