Believe it or not, the playoffs are already here.

(Sorry, WNBA fans. This isn't about your playoffs. I'm sure both of you are enjoying the games.)

Today marks the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup in NASCAR, the first of a 10-race series of races that will separate the top 12 drivers in the season-long points standings.

Next weekend, the PGA Tour will crown its third FedEx Cup champion when the top 30 players in the points standings congregate in Atlanta for the Tour Championship.

Thanks to football, hardly anyone will notice what happens with either playoff chase.

All of the other major sports have to recognize that when September rolls around, football is king. With hundreds of thousands of fans packing football stadiums for college games on Saturdays and NFL games on Sunday and millions more watching those games at home, it doesn't leave many eyeballs for those other sports.

Outside of someone pulling a Serena Williams, the chances of those events getting much time on SportsCenter is miniscule.

(Bad move by the U.S. Open for scheduling its finals up against the first week of the NFL season. The only thing that saved the men's final was the fact it was moved to Monday. They should move that tournament up a week to avoid the NFL and make Labor Day weekend their own.)

Major League Baseball is saved somewhat by the fact that it has games every day of the week. It's still a part of our sports conscience. NASCAR and golf happen only on the weekends -- the same time as football.

The concepts created by NASCAR and the PGA sound good enough: Start a playoff system to create interest in your sport as it butts heads with the behemoth known as football season. They had to do something to stir up interest.

Both of those systems are a bit flawed.

There's a chance that Tiger Woods, who won the first FedEx Cup in 2007, doesn't win the $10 million prize this year. It would be hard to convince any golf fan that Woods, who has six wins and 13 top-10 finishes in 16 starts this season, wasn't the best golfer on the PGA Tour -- despite being major-less -- again this season.

In the NASCAR chase, Mark Martin -- thanks to his four wins this year -- wound up going from 10th to first in the points standings when they were reset prior to today's first Chase race in New Hampshire.

Historically, a driver who has shown consistency during the season has been rewarded with the title.

The core fans of both sports will surely enjoy their playoffs -- even the WNBA folks.

The rest of us will be obsessed with football.

-- dobrien@whig.com/221-3365