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Here’s how good are the NFL playoffs. The Green Bay-Giant epic, played in the deep freeze of Lambeau two weeks ago, is the best game of the bunch, but not by a longshot. It wasn’t an easy decision, even though New York’s overtime victory is one of the best games I’ve ever seen. Here are the 10 playoff games so far, ranked in order:

10. New York 24, Tampa Bay 14: The Buccaners scored first, but Eli Manning took the Giants on two second-quarter touchdown drives, then New York sealed the game with a 92-yard TD drive in the fourth quarter.

9. Green Bay 42, Seattle 20: Ryan Grant fumbled twice in the opening minutes, giving the Seahawks two quick touchdowns, but Green Bay came back with a flurry — four first-half touchdowns, and Brett Favre was magnificent in a winter wonderland game, completing 18 of 23.

8. San Diego 17, Tennessee 6: The Chargers didn’t score for the longest time, trailing 6-0 at halftime. Finally, San Diego began to dominate and put away the game on LaDainian Tomlinson’s TD with 8:45 left.

7. New England 21, San Diego 12: The Chargers played tough and made Tom Brady look human, with three interceptions. But San Diego kept kicking field goals; the Patriots scored touchdowns.

6. Seattle 35, Washington 14: Not a bad game. Not bad at all. The Seahawks led 13-0 after three quarters, the Redskins took a 14-13 lead, then Seattle scored the last 22 points, including two interception returns for touchdowns in the final 5:38.

5. New England 31, Jacksonville 20: The Jaguars played a near-perfect game, yet were only tied 14-14 at halftime. Trouble was, Tom Brady played a near perfect game throughout, completing 26 of 28 passes and causing the rest of the league to know that beating New England required 60 minutes of flawless football.

4. New York 21, Dallas 17: The Giant defense held the Cowboys to a lone field goal in the second half, and R.W. McQuarters came up big, with a punt return that set up the go-ahead touchdown and a game-ending interception of Tony Romo in the final seconds.

3. San Diego 28, Indianapolis 24: The crippled Chargers staged a huge upset with big play after big play, then two big defensive stops in the waning minutes, turning back Peyton Manning twice on fourth down deep in San Diego territory. 

2. Jacksonville 31, Pittsburgh 29: A magnificent game, in which the Steelers rallied from a 28-10 deficit with 19 fourth-quarter points, then the Jags came back on David Garrard’s fourth-down quarterback draw in the final two minutes, setting up Josh Scobee’s winning field goal. A game for the ages.

1. New York 23, Green Bay 20: Below zero weather, Old Man Winner Brett Favre against upstart Eli Manning, the greatest uniforms on Earth, teams hitting hard enough to knock your teeth out in Florida, much less in frozen Wisconsin. Two missed field goals, followed in overtime by the goat-turned-hero nailing the longest opposing kick in Green Bay’s ancient history. Football doesn’t get any better than this.

Look at these games, then tell me how college football is better than the pros. And no, it wouldn’t be different if college had a playoff system. College football’s games that do carry clout — the Big Bowl, the conference title games that serve as defacto playoff games — don’t carry the drama of the NFL.

My first Super Bowl Media Day came on familiar territory. I was in Glendale, Ariz., just four weeks ago for the Fiesta Bowl. University of Phoenix Stadium looks rather different now. Oh, the stadium seems the same, but the grounds have been transformed. The entire stadium grounds are fenced off, and the northern parking lot has been transformed into a virtual amusement park, including a Ferris wheel. I suspect this place will be nuts come Sunday.

Inside the stadium definitely was nuts Tuesday. Media Day has become more a media carnival than actual interview session. Here’s what I saw.

* The star of the show, without a doubt, was the girl from Mexico City who came prepared to coax a proposal from Tom Brady. She wore a mini-skirt wedding dress, with red high heels. Her camera crew was in tow. I’m told she went after Eli Manning, too, but I can’t personally vouch for that.

What’s she doing at the Super Bowl? At Media Day? Helping create the circus. The NFL loves this kind of stuff. Loves turning the Super Bowl into something much much more than a football game.

* Some blond gal from The Tonight Show — sorry, Jay Leno, I’m not a regular watcher — went around interviewing people asking silly questions. She chased Bill Belichick, who was very cordial and cooperative with mainstream sportswriters but didn’t seem in the mood for nonsense, so it’s a good thing she missed him. She also got the brushoff from Tedy Bruschi, the New England linebacker who in real life is not an imposing physical specimen. Bruschi just kept on walking to his station and didn’t stop for silliness. At one point, the bimbo did what most carnival acts do at Media day. Interview each other. She and Entertainment Tonight’s Kevin Frazier stuck microphones in each other’s faces and asked and answered questions.

The only question was, who was more made up? Frazier, before going on camera, got a makeshift makeover from a makeup artist, standing in the middle of 300 players and media members.

* The international press corps was well represented. A record 4,786 media credentials were issued for the game, and it wouldn’t surprise me if 1,000 were from outside the US of A. I knew this day was going to be different when, 10 minutes before the Patriots arrived, I went to Wes Welker’s station, and a TV crew from Denmark already was there. Amazing.

The internationals’ favorite topic is soccer. They love to talk soccer with any football player willing to address the subject. That doesn’t work with Michael Strahan, but someone like Welker, amiable and who grew up playing soccer in Oklahoma City, well, they were right at home. And Giants kicker Lawrence Tynes? Oh my lord. Tynes lived in Scotland until he was 10, so he was surrounded by people from the BBC and all over Europe. Talking soccer. It would drive you nuts.

* The most popular player, of course, was Brady, but Randy Moss and Eli Manning were bombarded, too. Some players were sat on small podiums with microphones and speakers. Up in the stands, chatting with writers, New England owner Robert Kraft stopped himself and said, “Randy Moss can really let it fly. I’m hearing his whole interview.”

* Not to be picky, but the Patriots were late. They were supposed to start at 10 a.m. Arizona time; they didn’t get started until about 10:05. And the Giants were early. Eli Manning started talking 10 minutes before tipoff and still was talking 70 minutes later, when New York’s session concluded. To his credit, Belichick stayed after, too, and finished up a few questions.

* Glendale’s stadium is cold. It was cold for the media day of the Oklahoma-Boise State Fiesta Bowl, it was cold for the OU-West Virginia Fiesta Bowl and it was cold Tuesday. The roof was opened, but it’s not balmy in Phoenix this time of year. When I landed at Sky Harbor airport about 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the temperature was 46. In the stadium later that morning, it was probably 10 a.m., but that’s still chilly, in a concrete stadium.

“Someone turn the heat on,” Patriot tailback Laurence Maroney yelled to no one in particular. “This is a new stadium. I know they’ve got heat.”

* Speaking of heat, look no further than Super Bowl Media Day to confirm the notion that the NFL and sex are closely aligned. There are a ton of press-credentialed women walking around in short skirts and low-cut tops; a good many are from Latin America. I don’t know what that means, but it makes for an interesting mix with all the balding 50somethings from New York and Boston with their shirttails hanging out.

* Some guy from a Spanish-speaking broadcast crew carried around a giant hand puppet while doing interviews, and another of the same genre walked around in a wizard’s costume. No one really batted an eye.

* Celebrity media were out in full force. Steve Mariucci and Deion Sanders with the NFL Network. John Salley with Fox Sports Net.

* But my favorite character from the day was the bomb dog. Super Bowl security would make an Israeli airport proud. First, you must have your Super Bowl week media credential to even get in the grounds, and you can’t get that at the stadium. It comes from the Media Center downtown. At the stadium, your credential puts you in line for a patdown, then you leave your bags off to the side, where they are searched and sniffed by a bomb dog, while you go through a metal detector. Impressive. My theory on security is this: if you’re going to have it, make it good. Don’t go through the motions.

Before I filed my column Monday night, I had received two emails from Bedlam basketball fans. An OSU fan wanted me to address the OU fans who chanted “OSU sucks!” near the end of the game. An OU fan wanted me to address the cheap-shot fouls he thought the Cowboys committed.

Let me be perfectly clear. I am against crowds that chant coarse language and I am against cheap shots. So what did we see Monday night?

Well, the crowd did chant “OSU sucks!” and I’m still waiting for the college president, or coach, who will do something about this ridiculous trend in college sports. All someone has to do is take over the P.A., say cut it out and cut it out now, and glare a little. The crowd will back down. It is classless to chant obscenities or words you don’t want your 8-year-old using, and if you don’t mind your 8-year-old saying suck, then shame on you.

As for the cheap-shot fouls, I saw only one. Martavius Adams’ takedown of Taylor Griffin on a block-out was foolish — and OSU got its comeupance. Adams was whistled for a flagrant foul, which meant Griffin got two free throws and OU got the ball, even though it had just scored. The foul provided OU with a four-point possession; think a four-point possession is big in a 64-61 final? Silly play by Adams.

The other fouls in question? Not cheap. Marcus Dove twice drew the ire of the OU crowd for hard fouls, once on Blake Griffin and once on Tony Crocker, the latter at the end of the game. But you’d better foul Griffin hard if you want him to feel it, and Dove, not Griffin, is the one who crashed to the court on that play. And the final foul came in desperation, with 2.9 seconds left in the game.

So I saw one cheap shot, and it turned out glorious for OU. I heard the crowd chant and longed for someone to stand up and do something about it.

Tomorrow I fly to Phoenix for Super Bowl media day. I expect disorganized chaos. I’ve never been to a Super Bowl media day, when literally thousands of journalists, some legit, some not, descend on the stadium along with each team.

The questions asked are classic. It was at a Super Bowl media day that the Redskins’ Doug Williams was asked, “How long have you been a black quarterback?”

My goals for the day are simple. Spend some time with Wes Welker (good luck), R.W. McQuarters (probably workable) and Brad Seely (should be no problem). The latter is New England’s special-teams coach and was Pat Jones’ offensive line coach at OSU in 1988, when Barry Sanders ran wild. Plus I hope to chat with both kickers.

You’ve got to go in with a plan, otherwise you’ll be avalanached.

I’m coming home Tuesday night, then flying back to Phoenix for the game on Sunday. Flights to Phoenix are reasonable if you buy them in advance. Hotels for the game are not. It would be cheaper to fly to Phoenix every morning, then fly home each night, than to stay in Arizona for the week. That’s madness.

I’ve never covered a Super Bowl. I’m looking forward to the game. Media day, not so much. I’m afraid someone will ask Wes Welker how long he’s been short, or Eli Manning how long he’s been Peyton’s brother, or Michael Strahan how long he’s had a gap in his teeth.

Blake Griffin’s performance Saturday in Waco, Texas, was nothing short of amazing: 17 points, 15 rebounds in his first game after suffering a knee sprain and almost three weeks earlier than some projections on his return.

Griffin didn’t look exactly like his old self. The explosiveness wasn’t always there. But the toughness was. When the Sooners squandered a 16-point lead and trailed late in the game, they went inside two straight possessions to Griffin, and he responded with baskets.

OU’s season thus looks much better now. Of course, OSU’s looks much worse, after a 59-56 home loss to Texas A&M. The Sooners and Cowboys changed neighborhoods in the Big 12 race Saturday. The Sooners solidified themselves in the middle of the pack. The Cowboys tumbled to the bottom of the league.

Remember how we rank Big 12 hoops. A point for a road victory, a point lost for a home defeat. Using that system, the standings look like this:

Plus two: Kansas, Kansas State

Plus one: Texas, Baylor

Even: Oklahoma, Iowa State, Texas Tech, Missouri, Texas A&M

Minus two: Oklahoma State, Colorado, Nebraska.

That’s sobering news for the Cowboys. They are lumped in with Colorado and Nebraska, with two home defeats. Kansas still comes to Gallagher-Iba Arena, and there’s that two-year road losing streak. It’s a bleak year for Cowboy basketball.

Meanwhile, OU’s win at Baylor gives the Sooners hope. A&M’s stumble means fourth place is up for grabs — KU, K-State and Texas seem safe bets for the top three. OU, A&M, Baylor, even Missouri could contend for fourth. Finish 9-7 in the league, and a fifth-place finish and an NCAA Tournament bid is likely. Finish fourth, which means probably 10-6, and a team absolutely will be in the NCAAs.

It appears to be another NFL off-season when the league’s franchises say no Buddy Ryan’s boys. I keep waiting for one of the Ryan brothers to be promoted to NFL head coach. They certainly seem to have earned their stripes.

The Ryans turned around the defenses of the Bedlam rivals in the late 1990s. Rob coached at OSU in 1997-98, and his pressure defense ignited the Cowboys’ excellent 1997 season. Rex joined John Blake’s staff in 1998, and the Sooners immediately began playing big-time defense, though Ryan was purged along with Blake after the ‘98 season.

Both Ryan brothers ended up in the NFL and have done well.

Rex has been a superb defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens and has interviewed for some head-coaching jobs, notably in Atlanta and Baltimore.  New Baltimore coach John Harbaugh said he wanted to keep Ryan as the Raven coordinator, should no other team hire away Ryan, but nothing has occurred yet.

Rob has been the Oakland Raiders defensive coordinator and produced an excellent unit in 2006, despite the Raiders’ 2-14 record. The Raider defense slipped in 2007 — how any coaches in Oakland prosper is beyond me — and head coach Lane Kiffin tried to push out Ryan, who wanted to go and join the Jets as defensive coordinator. But Raider owner Al Davis stepped in and refused to let Ryan out of his contract. Now Davis appears to be trying to push out Kiffin. Maybe that’s the best ticket for the Ryans; become head coach for Al Davis. Not that that’s a long-term solution for the Ryans.

An OSU fan engaged me in some dialogue about the Cowboy basketball job. How good is it? It’s an excellent question, and one of my favorite topics, discussing the status of various jobs in college football and basketball.

A couple of years ago, I ranked the best college basketball jobs in America. Here’s how I listed them:

1. Kentucky: Four UK coaches (Rupp, Hall, Pitino, Smith) have won NCAA titles.

2. Duke: Blue Devils were a power even before Krzyzewski.

3. North Carolina: Three UNC coaches (McGuire, Smith, Williams) have won NCAA titles.

4. Kansas: Great stability. Only 6 coaches since 1919.

5. Michigan State: Stole the mantle from arch-foe Michigan.

6. Indiana: Facilities need upgrade, but mighty passion.

7. Arizona: One question: great job or great coach (Lute Olson)?

8. Syracuse: Flagship school of Eastern hoops.

9. UCLA: Big winner, but lots of coaching turnover.

10. Connecticut: Same question as Arizona.

11. Louisville: Attracts quality — Denny Crum & Rick Pitino.

12. Maryland: Never became UCLA of the East, but quite strong.

13. Illinois: Strange, 3 coaches since Lou Henson.

14. Florida: Little tradition but gaining steam.

15. Texas: Lacks passion but not resources.

16. Ohio State: Texas North — should be even better.

17. Arkansas: OU beware — Hogs fell after 2 great coaches.

18. Purdue: Three Final Four coaches since ’69.

19. Oklahoma State: Same question as Connecticut.

20. Oklahoma: Two straight coaches (before Capel) have thrived.

21. Cincinnati: Is there life after Bob Huggins?

22. Villanova: Not a huge budget.

23. Utah: Under-appreciated job.

24. Stanford: Duke West and Duke Light.

25. North Carolina State: Two coaches won NCAA titles at Little Brother.

Now that I look at the list, a couple of obvious omissions prevail. First, Memphis. The Tigers are ranked No. 1 now, and it’s a long-standing power. Gene Bartow and Dana Kirk both coached Memphis to the Final Four, and John Calipari might do it this year. Memphis moves ahead of OSU and OU.  Maybe somewhere around 13-15. And Georgetown belongs on the list, too. John Thompson turned the Hoyas into a household name; Georgetown still packs a punch. I would put Georgetown somewhere around 20 or so. And the Big East is full of programs that could contend for the bottom of this top 25. Marquette, West Virginia, Pitt. Throw in the ACC, too: Boston College, Wake Forest.

If I redid the list, I think the Cowboys and Sooners probably would fall into the 24-25 range. Move Memphis and Georgetown ahead of them, and probably Marquette and Boston College, too.  Something like that.

Coacheshotseat.com is a fun website. During the college football season, it ranks coaches’ job security, trying to figure out who might be staying and who might be going. It’s not to be taken seriously; the website has no credibility, I don’t even know who runs it. It’s for amusement only. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Now the website has issued its final grades for each Division I-A coach. Which again means nothing but is nothing but interesting. Here are some grades:

Bob Stoops: C. “Very average with all that talent.” Well, I don’t know what kind of scale they’re using, but I’ve never thought highly of C’s. I don’t see how you can give Stoops a C. He won a conference that included four top-10 teams. He pulled a stinker in the Fiesta Bowl, but a C is too low. Mack Brown was given a B; Stoops, with a new quarterback, beat Texas and its veteran quarterback and won the Big 12 South.

Mike Gundy: C. “18-19 in three seasons at OSU. Mediocre is the word.” No argument on the record or its description, but I didn’t know we were judging more than this year. In 2007, Gundy went 7-6 against one of the nation’s toughest schedules. The non-conference was a D (2-2, with two automatic victories) but OSU was 4-4 in the Big 12, which is B territory. And the bowl rout of Indiana was a B+ (Hoosiers weren’t good enough to warrant an A). Overall, I’d say probably B- for Gundy.

Todd Graham: A. “A great first season at Tulsa for Graham.” Well, I don’t know about great. The Hurricane won the C-USA West and routed overmatched Bowling Green in the GMAC Bowl. And they did beat BYU. So I guess the more I think about it, A is proper. Maybe A-, since Tulsa did lose twice to Central Florida and once at UTEP.

Steve Kragthorpe: C. Huh? Take over a team that finished in the top-10, returns a stud quarterback, in an easy conference, go 6-6 and get a C? Kragthorpe was in the D-F range, I’d say.

Mark Mangino & Gary Pinkel: A’s for both. I agree. Two excellent coaching jobs.

Well, we could go on all day. Like I said, it’s a fun website. Check it out.

The state’s biggest college basketball game of the week, at least before Sunday, is not on television. Oklahoma State’s women at Texas.

OU-Texas Tech tonight in Norman is on KWTV, but that’s a sidelight to the Big 12’s big game. Can the Cowgirls, 4-0 in the Big 12, keep winning? No reason to think they can’t, after winning at Texas A&M last Saturday. Alas, radio and the Internet are the only ways to follow the action from Austin tonight.

That’s how far Kurt Budke and Andrea Riley have taken this program. From 0-16 two years ago to demands for more televised games now. Two years ago, the idea that OSU women’s basketball needed more TV time would have been rejected by all but the parents of the players. Now, the Cowgirls have upstaged Courtney Paris and Sherri Coale in a remarkably short amount of time. Can they keep this wild ride going? I wish we could watch for ourselves tonight.

Some OSU fans are upset this morning that I referred to Boone Pickens as the OSU “owner.” I don’t know why. I’ve done it before. And it is an accurate analogy.

OSU’s athletic department is modeled, by accident or design I don’t know, after a major-league franchise. The Cowboys have an owner who funds the operation. They have a general manager (athletic director) Mike Holder who runs the department and answers to the owner. Then they have all kinds of other employees, from marketing to linebacking, who do their jobs.

OSU fans want to know how that’s different from the Gaylords, who own the Oklahoman, giving money to OU athletics, which they have over the years in significant totals, though not as much as Pickens. Here’s the difference, and it applies to almost every other major benefactor I know of, although there could be exceptions.

No one else has immersed themselves in the decision-making like Pickens has at OSU. Pickens has his hand-picked man, Holder, in place as athletic director. He sits in on discussions about a variety of issues, from where to play games to how to deal with player discipline issues. That doesn’t happen with most big boosters, not that anyone else qualifies as booster in Pickens’ class. Not even Phil Knight, much less the Gaylords or Texas’ Tom Hicks or any other big donor, has drawn the national attention that Pickens has, because of his donations (over $200 million headed toward $300 million) and his involvement.

Pickens himself told this story in September. He said he was talking to Florida coach Urban Meyer and asked Meyer what Pickens personally could do, in addition to finances, to help the OSU football program. Meyer told Pickens to be at every game and let the team see him.

Interesting, I thought. I don’t know why Russell Okung and Dez Bryant would get a charge from seeing Pickens, but Urban Meyer thought so, and Pickens agreed with him. That’s why Pickens said he has made it a point to be at every game, home and road, and not be incognito.

That’s the prime example of the owner/team relationship in major-league sports. That’s why I call Pickens the OSU owner. And I’ve never said it’s a bad thing. I’ve always said that Pickens’ money is absolutely essential to OSU athletics, that without his donations, the Cowboys would be hard-pressed to compete with the schools they are asked to compete against.

Is that a little unseemly? No doubt. But this isn’t a perfect world. In a perfect world, Texas’ athletic budget wouldn’t be $70 million more than Iowa State’s. OU’s athletic budget wouldn’t be $30 million more than OSU’s. But the world’s not perfect. Big donations help to make for the uneven playing field, and Pickens’ donations help to level it back.

This is nothing new in academia. Some big donors want a say in how things are run on college campuses. The difference in Pickens is twofold: 1. It’s athletics, so the magnification is much brighter; and 2. His involvement is more comprehensive. To his credit, Pickens doesn’t hide his status.

He’s the owner. He’s proud of it. You might not like it, you might not like people pointing it out, but OSU really doesn’t have a better option.