Week three of the college football season might end up being a bit of a lost season here in Houston, as well as large portions of Texas, because of Hurricane Ike. In some ways, this week of football reminds me of Tea Leoni, a very beautiful and smart actress who is not known for her movies, but as the wife of the sex-addicted David Duchovny. Maybe she’ll have some luck with her new movie, next week’s Ghost Town.

THE YOU KILL ME GAMES OF THE WEEK: A great little comedy thriller that let Tea shine as an actress – I love her smile. The definite game of the week involves Ohio State visiting USC in prime time Saturday night on ABC. The Trojans are my pick as the best college team in the county. Ohio State is my pick as the most overrated college team in the country. Buckeye running back Beanie Wells should be healthy, but I don’t think he will be enough.

Friday night brings what should be a great matchup as Kansas (2-0) travels to Miami to take on the South Florida Bulls. Kansas is averaging 35-points so far, and they are the best team South Florida has faced this year. South Florida nearly blew a 14-point fourth quarter lead to Central Florida last week before getting the win in OT. If Ike hasn’t destroyed Houston, this should be a fun game to watch on ESPN 2.

The Astros refuse to die, and I can’t help but get the feeling that they wouldn’t mind taking on Ike this weekend, as they don’t consider the Chicago Cubs to be much competition. Anyway, the Astros won their 13th of 14 games last night, defeating the Pittsburgh Pirates 7-4.

With the win, the Astros passed the St. Louis Cardinals and moved into third place in the NL Central. And with the win, the Astros also passed the Cardinals in the wild card standings. The Astros and Philadelphia Phillies are tied for second in the wild card chase, with both teams sitting four games behind the Milwaukee Brewers. But with only 16 games remaining in the season, time is quickly running down.

Okay, as of this writing, here is what we know about the status of various college and professional sporting events that are scheduled to be played in Houston and Texas this weekend.

The Houston Cougars have moved their game against Air Force from U.H.’s Robertson Stadium to SMU’s stadium in Dallas. The game will still kickoff at 2:30, and it will still be televised on CBS College.

The University of Texas has postponed its game with Arkansas scheduled for Saturday afternoon in Austin. The game will instead be played on September 27th, which is an open date for both team – the Cougars can’t use this option because they don’t have an off day in common with Air Force. TCU will still play Stanford on Saturday, but the time of the game has been changed to noon. Baylor is scheduled to host Stanford in Waco, but no decisions have yet been made about this game.

David Dalati of 790 The Sports Animal is reporting, based on an interview with Ed Wade, that the Chicago Cubs will be flying to Houston for this weekend's scheduled series with the Astros.

And seeing as how our buddy Ike is currently supposed to hit on Friday night/Saturday morning, the current thinking -- though not yet official -- is that Friday night's game will, instead, be played Friday afternoon. I'm guessing that if Ike actually does wipe out Houston, then Saturday's game will be cancelled, and that instead games will be attempted on either Sunday or Monday.

And, of course, we'll give you more info as we get it. -- John Royal

It was just announced on 790 KBME -- the radio home of the Houston Cougars -- that Saturday's game with Air Force, scheduled for Roberston Stadium on the University of Houston campus, will be played.

In Dallas. But they do not yet have a stadium location, or a game time.

Since the game is scheduled for a national broadcast on CBS College TV, then I would anticipate that they will still kick-off at the originally scheduled time of 2:30. As for the stadium, I would guess that Texas Stadium is a possibility, as is the Cotton Bowl, as is SMU's home stadium. TCU has a home game, so that stadium is definitely out.

I'll let you know more when I hear. -- John Royal

According to the Chicago Tribune, MLB will be announcing today the contigency plans for this weekend's series at Minute Maid Park between the Astros and the Chicago Cubs. And it's noted that, since both teams have Monday off, a doubleheader could be played here on Monday to make up games that would possibly be cancelled. But that brings up the question of whether MLB really wants to fly a team into the heart of a possible hurricane, then have the team ride out the hurricane in a hotel.

For you Texans fans hoping that Ike will force the cancellation of this weekend's scheduled loss to the Baltimore Ravens, think again. The NFL is monitoring the situation, and will make an announcement later this week as to when and where the game will be played.

I would expect the announcement to come sometime tomorrow so that teams will not have to scramble for travel arrangements. If Ike continues on its present course, I would expect Sunday's 3:00 game at Reliant Stadium to go off as scheduled. But if it should start tracking north again, I would expect the NFL to probably move the game to Monday night, and move it to a different location.

As you probably discovered yesterday, I’m not much for this whole Ultimate Fight thing. But thanks to John Heffron, I think I’ve found some cage fighting I can believe in. And you can watch the championship bout right here:

I was at the Astros game last night. Where were the rest of you? Where were all of you people who packed the stadium for game after game back in June and July when the Astros sucked? You see, I’m one of those people who think that if the team sucks for an extended amount of time, then it’s okay for you not to go to the game. But I’m also one of those who think that if the team is actually winning, then you really should be packing the stadium, even if the Astros are playing the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Though, I have to say, seeing as how most of the people around me were interested in anything but last night’s game, then maybe it’s a good thing you guys decided to stay home. It’s amazing how all of you complain about the costs of concessions, yet whenever the beer guy comes down the aisle, you all have to buy something. Have any of you ever heard of actually watching the game?

I wrote earlier about Vince Young's injury on Sunday, and about Young apparently quitting on the team just before he was injured. It now appears that, at least for a couple of hours last night, the Tennessee Titans were concerned that Vince Young may have been trying to quit on himself.

Permanently.

It's a strange story, of which many of the details are just now becoming available. But it seems as if the Titans were contacted by a close friend of Young who told them that he had left his house in an emotionally distraught condition, and that he had left his cellphone so that he could not be contacted. The Titans, acting on these concerns, called the Nashville police and asked to watch for Young's SUV. The Nashville police, echoing the concern of the Titans, put out an alert on Young.

I’ve got a breaking news flash for those of you who haven’t checked out the Chron today. Houston Texans running back Ahman Green is injured. Yeah, I know, it’s shocking. Green has always been one of those ironmen of football. But apparently he hurt his ankle during the game on Sunday.

The Houston Astros are actually going to do it, aren’t they? They’re actually going to catch the Milwaukee Brewers and grab the wild card. The reality’s coming. And I’ve got to come to grips with this.

You look at the stats, and you see that the Astros’ record should be under five hundred. You look at the team and you see rejects like David Newhan, Geoff Blum and Jose Castillo getting start after start. You see a game like last night, with Alberto Arias making his first ever major league start while making his first MLB appearance in years, and you see him getting the win. You see Mark Saccomanno, the 28-year old making his first ever major league appearance. You see him hitting a home run in his first ever major league at bat. And you see Jose Valverde nailing down the 3-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates while at the same time the Brewers are blowing a 4-2 lead to the Cincinnati Reds, ultimately losing 5-4 and letting the Astros move to within five games with 18 games left in the season.

10. Ask the Hooters girl to change the channel to that cute Meg Ryan movie on TNT.

9. Bring the wife and kids.

8. Leave the brass knuckles in the car.

7. Shout out to everybody that maybe John McCain was right about ultimate fighting being a “human cockfight.”

6. Say to that big muscled guy at the next table that Michael Vick treated his dogs better than they treat the guys in the octagon.

1. USC Trojans (1-0): The Trojans had the week off, but they were so dominating in their week one victory over Virginia that I’m keeping them in this spot. They play this week against Ohio State, so hopefully the Trojans will put Ohio State out of our misery for the rest of this season.

2. Oklahoma Sooners (2-0): Did whatever they wanted, when they wanted, to the Cincinnati Bearcats in Saturday’s 52-26 victory. How much longer until they put the Longhorns out of our misery for this season?

3. Missouri Tigers (2-0): Roared past South East Missouri State 52-3. The Tigers are the class of the Big 12 North.

I didn't include this little highlight in the college football weekly review because I felt it deserved a post all its own. And let's just say that, no matter how boring the UT/UTEP game ended up being on Saturday night, at least one guy really seemed to get off on the action. Of course, that had nothing to do with the action on the field.

Somehow, I have the feeling that there's a director and producer and a couple of commentators at ESPN who are getting into a spot of trouble today. -- John Royal