A Guide to the Best Sports TV Weekend Ever (Until the Next One)

Sometime this summer, you made the big move.

Maybe you were lured in by the big Memorial Day sales. Perhaps you were able to hold out until the Fourth of July. Or maybe, just maybe, you lasted all the way to Labor Day.

One way or another, you broke down and got one of those special, spiffy big screen televisions with all the bells and whistles. And this is precisely the weekend you bought it for.

Simply put, if you can't find something spectacular on the sports menu to watch between Friday and Sunday, well, that's your fault.

All times listed are EDT.

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-- Start with Friday's women's semifinals at the U.S. Open (CBS, 12:30 p.m.), with defending champion Kim Clijsters meeting former champion Venus Williams. That's a semifinal, not a championship match. Top seed Caroline Wozniacki faces Vera Zvonareva in the first semi Friday, following the men's doubles championship.

-- Friday's women's semifinal winners meet Saturday in prime-time at 8 p.m. Earlier in the day (noon), Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will headline the men's semifinals on the way to the men's title match Sunday (approx. 4 p.m.).

-- There are no fewer than five heavyweight college football meetings on tap Saturday, starting with Georgia, playing without stud receiver A.J. Green, meeting South Carolina in an early season SEC East showdown (ESPN2, noon).

-- Later, Michigan and Notre Dame tangle in South Bend (NBC, 3:30 p.m.), while Miami (Fla.) and Ohio State meet in Columbus (ESPN, 3:30 p.m.) and Florida State and Oklahoma go at it in Norman (ABC/ESPN 2, 3:30 p.m.).

-- In the evening (ESPN, 7 p.m.), Penn State takes Robert Bolden, a true freshman quarterback, into Tuscaloosa to meet defending national champion Alabama, which will be without Heisman Trophy winner Mark Ingram, who is recuperating from knee surgery.

-- The baseball pennant races rage on with the St. Louis-Atlanta series, which draws two national exposures, one on FOX Saturday at 4 p.m. and the other on ESPN Sunday at 8 p.m. Perhaps the most drama-filled series of the weekend has San Diego trying to hold off San Francisco, with Saturday's game drawing regional coverage on FOX, also at 4 p.m.

-- Golf and NASCAR head down the home stretch of their respective seasons. Tiger Woods will need to finish in the top five of the BMW Championship (NBC, Saturday, noon; Sunday, 2 p.m.) in order to advance in the FedEx Cup playoffs, while the NASCAR Sprint Cup race moves to Richmond, Va. for a prime time race (ABC, 7:45 p.m.).

-- There's even high quality basketball on tap this weekend, as the United States men's national team meets Lithuania in the semifinals of the FIBA world championship Saturday (ESPN Classic, noon). And the WNBA Finals begin Sunday (ABC, 3 p.m.) with the Seattle Storm hosting the Atlanta Dream.

-- As if this weren't enough, it's Opening Weekend in the NFL. FOX will have the first doubleheader of the season. Though most of the country will see the Carolina-New York Giants game at 1 p.m., the most intriguing game in the early FOX window is the Atlanta-Pittsburgh contest. At 4:15, most of the country will see the Green Bay-Philadelphia game.

-- Meanwhile, CBS, which packs six games into the 1 p.m. window, features Cincinnati-New England and Indianapolis-Houston in its one and only time slot, a policy dictated by the U.S. Open men's final. The Sunday night game pits Dallas against Washington (NBC, 8:15 p.m.).

Yep, by Monday morning, you're gonna feel like a genius.