Settling For Third?

After hearing professional billboard driver NASCAR's Dale Earnheart Jr. tell Sportscenter that he was "focued on tops 3s and top 5s," Rex Hoggard wonders if the PGA Tour's FedEx Cup will reward mediocrity:

Not sure if PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem watches SportsCenter; he feels more like a CNBC "Squawk on the Street" kind of guy, but if so "Little E's" comment must have reverberated from the walls of the commish's Ponte Vedra Beach abode like a phone call from Greg Norman.

The Tour has made no secret of the fact it modeled its FedEx Cup competition for 2007 after NASCAR's "Chase for the Cup" series. Nothing wrong with that. Imitation is the best form of flattery and all that.

The Tour wanted its season to build to a crescendo, and they concluded the best way to get there was a year-long points race that ends with a four-event Championship Series. Other than the unavoidable, "sixth-," "seventh-," "eighth-" and "ninth-" majors debate that this will obviously spark, the FedEx Cup holds some promise. Promise that the final month of the season will be more than a collection of silly season wannabes and big-player cash grabs.

But Earnhardt's comment about top 3s and the such raises a particularly concerning flag. For No. 8, top 3s and top 5s are worth all-important points that assure him a ticket into NASCAR's lucrative season-ending races. Last season, you see, Earnhardt and Jeff Gordon – another member of NASCAR's ruling class – didn't qualify for that circuit's big finish.

You be the judge. Check out the FedEx Cup standings compiled by reader MacDuff, with this points system.