Some observations from four different sports:

— Pro football. With the NFL verifying that 2021 will feature a 17-game season, the schedule-tweaking will take some extra time.

Circumstantially, AFC teams get the extra home game this season – it reverses next year – hosting NFC squads from the corresponding division that finished in the same position. For the Bills, that means entertaining NFC East winner Washington.

Thus, Buffalo’s slate at newly renamed Highmark Stadium will feature AFC East foes New England, Miami and the Jets plus Washington, Atlanta, Carolina, Houston, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh.

The Bills’ road opposition will be its three division rivals, plus both Super Bowl teams – Tampa Bay and Kansas City – Jacksonville, New Orleans and Tennessee.

And, as with last year, due to Covid-19, the schedule will be released AFTER the draft.

This year’s stuffily named Selection Meeting is set for April 29-May 1 in Cleveland but, due to the complication of a 17th game, the NFL won’t release the 2021 schedule until Thursday, May 13, with social media and team sites getting first shot at 7:30 p.m. and the NFL Network revealing it at 8 o’clock.

— College basketball. I NEVER, EVER remember rooting for UCLA in men’s hoops.

But this season is different.

Tonight, in CBS-TV’s Final Four doubleheader from Indianapolis, at 5 o’clock, No. 1 South seed Baylor faces Midwest second-seed Houston. Then, at 8:30, undefeated Gonzaga (30-0), the top seed not only in the West but also the entire bracket, meets East 11th seed UCLA.

Oddsmakers favor Baylor by five points while the Zags, who have won every game but one this season by double figures – an 87-82 victory over West Virginia in early December – are giving 14 to the Bruins.

But, this year, I view UCLA as if it were the Bonnies. Three seasons ago, St. Bonaventure beat the Bruins, 65-58, in an NCAA First Four meeting of 11 seeds at Dayton to advance to the next round.

This year, UCLA beat Michigan State in that First Four match-up of 11 seeds, then went on to dispatch sixth-seeded Brigham Young, 14-seed Abilene Christian, No. 2 seed Alabama and No. 1 seed Michigan to make the Final Four.

I have absolutely nothing against Gonzaga, a seemingly clean program that doesn’t play in a power conference. But there’s also the realization of what my emotional state would be were the Bonnies playing the Zags tonight.

At very least, I’d take those 14 points.

— Major League Baseball. I watched the season-opener between the Yankees and Blue Jays Thursday afternoon as the game went to extra innings.

Then there was the “Oh, yeah” moment in the top of the 10th when Toronto opened the inning with a runner at second. I’d forgotten that rule, which I hated – except for girls softball where it’s perfect in a matchup of outstanding pitchers – had been continued to this season by MLB.

Sure enough, that Jays runner scored and it became the winning run.

Then, watching the Dodgers/Rockies game which followed, my memory was jogged that the designated hitter rule mandated for the National League in 2020’s Covid-shortened season didn’t carry over.

There was L.A. ace Clayton Kershaw getting roughed up by Colorado in an 8-5 loss, but he talked manager Dave Roberts into giving him one more inning so he could get another at-bat. Sure enough, Kershaw logged a second hit and raised his career opening day batting average to .391.

It also reminded me how much I’ve always enjoyed the NL’s managerial machinations of having a pitcher in the batting order.

— Pro hockey. The other day, with the Sabres in the midst of their record-setting 18-game losing streak (yeah, two of those losses were in overtime when Buffalo did, in fact, get a point), a respected NHL writer with a national reputation concluded the team wasn’t as bad as it was playing.

Sure enough, after a 3-2 defeat and 4-3 loss in overtime, the Sabres ended their streak with a 6-1 victory over Philadelphia followed by a 3-2 overtime loss to the Rangers Thursday night, setting up tonight’s rematch at KeyBank Center.

You could make the case that Buffalo is razor-close to being on a four-game win streak.

And, in fairness, their league-worst 7-23-6 record includes 13 one-goal defeats, four in overtime, two in shootouts.

Just sayin’.

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)