Grip on Sports: No matter what gets in your eyes, it’s easy to see what will happen tonight
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It may be hard to see in the Bay Area right now due to the local fires, but the smoke shouldn’t derail Washington State’s game tonight in Berkeley. Or obscure what went on yesterday at Pac-12 headquarters in San Francisco. Read on.
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• The Pac-12 could easily change its self-proclaimed moniker as “the conference of champions” to “the conference of late-night football games” and be just as accurate.
I’m not sure it would roll off Bill Walton’s tongue as easily, or as often, but it’s just as true. The Cougars have another late kick tonight against overmatched California, allowing most everyone over the age of 30 to begin their weekend watching Luke Falk doing his best to emulate his hero, Tom Brady. Those under the age of 30 may be watching from pub somewhere, with the football game in the background as other games play out on the dance floor.
There is a chance this is one of those mysterious trap games, like “catch the snipe” or something, but more than likely the Cougars will be too good on both sides of the ball for Cal, bad air-quality or not.
(As we have learned here in the Inland Northwest, air quality can change quickly, especially the particulate count. When we got up this morning, we checked the count from Berkeley. It was 154, unhealthy but playable. An hour later it had dropped to 126, unhealthy for sensitive groups but much better. There are usually afternoon breezes in the area, so the smoke shouldn’t derail tonight’s kickoff.)
• There has been some talk this week about expanding the playoffs in college football, with Mike Leach advocating a 64-team scenario – again. His comments kickstarted some discussion, and then some backlash.
The Times’ Matt Calkins doesn’t think an expanded playoff is a good thing, as it would devalue the regular season and hurt the institutions that are the bowl games.
I’m not sure I agree with his concerns. It seems simple to meld the current bowl games into a, say, 16-team playoff with a rotating system of the games used for the eight first-round games. Meanwhile, there is no reason not to keep the other bowls, making them the equivalent of the NIT or CBI.
The Boca Raton Bowl or the Bad Boy Mowers Gasparilla Bowl – yes, there is such a thing this year – would be better off being a first-round game every third year and then being part of the consolation prizes the other two than they are under the current system.
As for the regular season, there is only about a dozen teams in the NCAA right now whose hope for playing for a national title isn’t stymied by one loss. Alabama and a couple other SEC folks, Clemson, a couple of Big Ten teams, Oklahoma, a couple Pac-12 schools, all can lose once and still get in. Otherwise, a loss eliminates most schools from any chance of getting in the playoffs. Are their regular seasons immaterial? Nope.
• You probably are intimately aware of the FBI’s on-going investigation of college basketball recruiting. We won’t bore you with more details.
And you may be aware NCAA president Mark Emmert announced a committee to look into the situation. Was anything more predictable? Maybe. It was easy to predict the NCAA would screw it up.
Not just the NCAA, but the Pac-12 as well. The conference announced yesterday it has put together a committee to look into the problem as well.
Where Emmert and Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott swung and missed is on the makeup of the groups. They consist of all the usual suspects. Administrators, former head coaches, long-retired players. Everyone, it seems, except the people who have been in the trenches the past five or 10 years, when the graft and sleaze have grown to gigantic proportions.
How about enlisting someone from Nike or UnderArmour, getting one of the apparel companies involved? After all, they seem to be supplying the dirty money. And add someone who runs summer tournaments, guys who have been watching over the game for years and have a good idea how the underground economy works? Or a representative from a group of summer coaches, usually referred to with the label of AAU but often encompassing other organizations as well?
In other words, add a little cultural, economic and viewpoint diversity. Instead of just looking top down, add some folks who know what’s actually happening on the streets in the spring and summer.
It might help.
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WSU: Our Theo Lawson headed down to the Bay Area a day early this week to attend the basketball media day, which is nice quirk of the schedule. He has a story on the media poll – Washington State was picked last again – and a notebook that begins with the scandal fallout. Theo also has video of Ernie Kent’s appearance. … Tyler Tjomsland was also there and has some photographs attached to Theo’s story. … As for the football game tonight, Theo checked the air quality, picked the Cougars to win and explains why. If Isaac Dotson can’t go, they will have to do it with three redshirt freshmen, Jahad Woods, Justus Rogers and Dillon Sherman, manning the inside linebacker positions, as Nate DeRider is reportedly out for the season (the story is behind a pay wall). Expect California to run a lot of misdirection plays to get the youngsters out of position. … Jeff Tuel is no longer in football. … That would be the decision of Beau Baldwin, who has defeated the Cougars before. … It’s a little early for this, isn’t it? … Hey, WSU has a good defense. Isn’t that odd? … A Cougar recruit is switching positions. … Though the air quality shouldn’t delay the game, it is a good talking point. So is Cal’s schedule. And the Bears’ lackluster passing game.
Elsewhere in the Pac-12, it looks as if everyone expects Washington State to win. After all, they are near the top of every conference power ranking and Cal isn’t. … This is a great feature in the L.A. Daily News. It covers all the games on TV. … Washington travels to Arizona State this week and Chris Petersen talked about it. … Funny, Stanford and Oregon used to be exact opposite in offensive approach. That’s not the case anymore. … Colorado has a waiver from the NCAA concerning its off day. The Buffs shouldn’t need it after getting back from Oregon State, which will play for interim coach Cory Hall this week. … The winner of this week’s Utah at USC matchup will control the Pac-12 South again. Actually, if USC wins, they have an iron-grip on the division. … We felt we needed to follow-up on this USC story. … Arizona hosts UCLA in a battle of brothers.
Gonzaga: The women’s volleyball team actually lost a conference match.
EWU: If you have pined for another story about Cooper Kupp or his family, Jim Allen has you covered. … Jim also held a live chat yesterday. … Once again the Eagles have a player on the first team Big Sky preseason all-conference basketball team. … Around the Big Sky, Northern Arizona’s defense has improved. … UC Davis is off to a good start but the schedule gets tougher. … Idaho State is at Sacramento State on Saturday. … Montana is athletic in the back of its defense. … The preseason basketball MVP plays in Bozeman.
Idaho: The Vandals’ kicking game is a group effort, as Peter Harriman explains in this story.
Preps: The football weekend kicked off last night at Joe Albi, with Dave Nichols covering Mt. Spokane’s easy win over Rogers. … There are also roundups from volleyball, slowpitch softball and girls’ soccer.
Chiefs: Everett’s long road trip continues.
Seahawks: It’s a quiet week due to the bye, but there are stories to pass along. Some just aren’t about this year’s team.
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• Did you watch baseball last night? Replay is really a good thing in the sport, isn’t it? I’m sure you could tell if Anthony Rizzo’s tag stayed on the leg throughout the key play, right? I couldn’t. It would have taken a camera from right above the players to be 100 percent sure – and that might not have been enough. But the guys in New York decided they knew. And a game may have been decided. Along with a manager’s and a franchise’s future. Until later …