What time is the right time?

• You know why I’m asking these questions, right? Eastern Washington plays a 7:30 game this week at Portland State. On a Friday night. Is that OK with you? It certainly isn’t with me, and it has nothing to do with tradition or newspaper deadlines or whatever. OK, I have to admit, those things do have something to do with it. College football was created as a Saturday afternoon sport. A way for college students to have something to break up their monotonous life of studying, going to class and learning how to handle adult beverages. (Yes, it was even that way in the 1920s when college football was right up there with baseball, boxing and horse racing as America’s favorite sports and students wore raccoon coats.) But that started to change 50 years ago and really went off the tracks in the past 20 years, as cable and satellite television developed such an incredible desire for programming, college football has become a nearly every-day, and every-time-slot, sport. That’s the reality. But is it right? Should college students be expected to play games in the morning – this Saturday’s Cougar game will start at 10 a.m., according to the WSU players’ internal clocks – or at night? Should fans be expected to face long drives to and from games in darkness and freezing conditions? It’s been obvious college football CEOs have ceded control of their sport to television entities a long time ago. They have talked about “partnering” with ESPN, Fox, ABC, CBS and the like for years but it is not a partnership. The television folks are dictators, the Big Brothers of college athletics, and everyone else plays the role of Winston Smith. They think they have some control but they don’t. How else can you explain a 7:30 start for a Nov. 29th Apple Cup game in Pullman? Martin Stadium’s seats are going to be like sitting on big blocks of ice. The field itself is going to be so frozen it will feel like playing in a parking lot for the poor players. And the drive to and from the West Side, Tri-Cities or Spokane? There’s a decent chance it will be akin to an Apolo Ohno workout. A 7:30 game this time of year at LSU is probably fine. After all, when was the last time central Louisiana felt the sting of a November ice or snow storm? Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Tempe, Houston, Miami. All decent spots for night games in late fall. Not that big of deal. But Pullman, Corvallis, Eugene, those cities are miles and miles from the homes of their fan bases, possibly necessitating a white-knuckle drive either to or from the game. OK, I get it. Even if the game started at 1 p.m. or 2 p.m. the drive could be pretty tough. It gets dark at 4 p.m. this time of year. But tell me you would feel safer at midnight driving a two-lane road instead of 6 p.m. and I’ll duck as your nose grows. The watch-in-person fan has become irrelevant in college football these days. It’s all about the living-room cheerleader and the barstool-sitting viewer. Those are the people who matter. The eyeballs that count.

• By the way, I’m boycotting any story about the college football playoffs which uses the “if they win out” term. After my rant the other day, I feel I am obligated to stay consistent. After all, I have a very small mind.

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• WSU: It’s going to be warm in Tempe. Well, warmer than here. The predicted high of 70 will probably feel like 85 to the Cougar players, so they went back into the heated practice bubble yesterday. Jacob Thorpe has an abbreviated practice report as well as some game notes and a morning post on the blog (the link to the Andrew Furney story is the best). … Jacob also has his Pac-12 power rankings and a Pac-12 notebook . … We found this look at WSU in an Arizona paper, as well as another conference-wide football notebook . … The most interesting Pac-12 basketball game yesterday was a low-scoring loss .

• Gonzaga: Jim Meehan was filling in for the vacationing Tom Clouse at the GU women’s game with Idaho State yesterday, a choppy, physical affair in which I heard a college women’s coach drop more F-bombs than my high school football coach. Seton Sobolewski’s language and demeanor seemed a little over-the-top to me. … Jesse Tinsley has this photo report from the game. … Jim also had a blog post yesterday looking back at the win over SMU and an advance of tonight’s game with St. Joseph’s. … BYU rolled past Arkansas-Little Rock 91-62 last night. … USD faces Florida A&M tonight.

• EWU: The Eastern women ran over Wichita State 85-58 as Mead’s Jade Redmon posted a triple-double, the first in the program’s history.

• Idaho: New Idaho correspondent Sean Kramer put together a day-after post on the Vandals’ win over South Dakota State.

• Chiefs: The Silvertips played three games in three nights over the weekend.

• Seahawks: With the injuries up front on both sides of the ball, the Hawks made a couple of roster moves yesterday. One of the players they signed is familiar, center Lemuel Jeanpierre (pictured). The other, Travian Robertson, isn’t. … What’s up with the Seattle passing game ? … The Hawks have a tough road to return to the playoffs and it starts this week with a home game against the division-leading Arizona Cardinals. … The TV ratings last week were just fine.

• Mariners: The M’s will have a new manager in Tacoma. His name is familiar to baseball fans. Brewers fans, for sure. … Ryan Divish has some thoughts on a few nuggets of offseason news and how it affects the Mariners.

• Sounders: The prolonged break due to national team matches allowed the Sounders and Galaxy to get healthy . … How was the USMNT’s year? It was good , according to Clint Dempsey.

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• Sore. That’s the only way I can describe my jaw this morning. Luckily, my fingers were not affected or I would have been able to rant in (digital) print. Lucky for me. Maybe not for you. Until later …