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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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Change may be coming to BCS

A GRIP ON SPORTS

It was pretty obvious no one was real enamored of Alabama and Louisiana State meeting again in the BCS championship game. Heck, nearly two-thirds of the readers here would rather have watched LSU and Oklahoma State play. Well, it seems as if you are not alone. The BCS commissioners aren't all that thrilled with their system anymore either. Read on.

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• Those commissioners met in New Orleans on Tuesday to talk about the future of the BCS. See, the television contract is getting ready to expire in a couple years and, bottom line, the commissioners want to maximize revenue. So they held a meeting and threw every idea on the table, supposedly. The Mountain West Conference commissioner proposed a 16-team playoff, the status-quo was defended. According to the LA Times' Chris Dufresne, it looks as if the commissioners will ultimately come up with a solution that is somewhere in between the two. And please hardly anybody. ... So what would you like to see? I culled through the stories and came up with a few options, which I put together on the poll question above. Myself, I've always been a proponent of a full playoff, with either 16 or eight teams, using the bigger bowls in a rotation for the quarterfinals and semifinals. The other bowls would still be played and mean exactly what they mean now: Another game and a chance for fans to spend some early winter time in a warm city.

• Gonzaga: We'll have another poll question tomorrow concerning Thursday's big game between the Zags and St. Mary's. The Gaels have already won the first showdown between the West Coast Conference's big three, defeating BYU at home. Now they get GU at home. Which means, of course, their final two key games will be on the road, thanks to the convoluted WCC nine-school schedule. The Gaels enter Thursday's 8 p.m. game (ESPN2) with a different mindset, according to coach Randy Bennett. ... The Bulldogs and Gaels are 2-3 in this survey. ... The Gonzaga women will host USF and St. Mary's this weekend sporting a national ranking. Jess Brown looks at the Zags at the beginning of her weekly college women's notebook.

• Washington State: It looks as if the Cougars and coach Mike Leach have filled out their coaching staff, plucking Jeff Choate from Boise State to be the linebackers coach. Choate is a St. Maries native, coached at Post Falls High and helped me last fall breaking down the importance of speed in the college game. After talking with him for about a half-hour, I was impressed with not only his knowledge, but his ability to ignore the stupidity of my questions and turn them into an intelligent answer. This is a good hire for the Cougars. ... As we mentioned on Twitter yesterday, WSU quarterback Marshall Lobbestael was named to play in the Casino del Sol College All-Star Game next Monday in Tucson. This is the game Leach played a part in founding and promoting. ... As Tuesday's are media days, Christian Caple has this post with Ken Bone's comments on his calls. ... The big news this week around the Pac-12 seems to be the basketball defections and dismissals at Arizona State, where the Sun Devils, in Keala King, lost their eighth player with eligibility remaining since 2008. Despite the loss, ASU will have more players available this week than last, when it split in LA. ... Oregon State is still dealing with the four-overtime home defeat to Stanford. ... Colorado is atop the Pac-12 but the Buffs still have a lot to prove, starting this week when they play at Cal and Stanford. Coach Tad Boyle has a lot to say in this interview. ... Arizona has to deal with its turnover problem, while UCLA wants to get to the foul line more. ... The Huskies played Seattle U. last night in the run up to Sunday's game with the Cougars, winning 91-83. ... We will finish with a few football links, one from ESPN.com's Ted Miller on the bowl season, one from UCLA about its new strength coach and one from Salt Lake City on Utah's season.

• Eastern Washington: Jim Allen put together this blog post yesterday concerning the Eagles' upcoming week. ... Weber State's Damian Lillard was the national player of the week.

• Preps: The power in local high school girls' basketball resides in Veradale right now, with Central Valley sporting a 10-0 record after defeating district rival U-Hi 64-48 on Tuesday. Greg Lee has this story. The Bears will visit defending state 4A champion Lewis and Clark on Saturday and we'll be there. ...  Lee's Thursday prep page feature is on Newport's Jake Wiley, Montana-bound after having a strong summer of basketball.

• Chiefs: Jess covers her other beat with this feature and blog post on Spokane coach Don Nachbaur, who is closing in on 500 career wins.

• Running: One last link today. It's to a feature on two Spokane-area women who will be running in the upcoming Olympic marathon trial in Houston. They have been committed to running for a long time.

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• That's all we have this morning. We'll be on the radio with 700 ESPN again today, so listen to us here from 3 to 6 p.m. Until later ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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