Grip on Sports: If you want a sneak preview of Gonzaga’s first-round opponent, you have to get off work early today

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Here’s a simple guess that’s bound to be correct: Today’s NCAA First Four game between Fairleigh Dickinson and Prairie View A&M will have the highest ratings in Spokane of any play-in game ever. Read on.

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• It’s one thing to have two teams from conferences that gain the national spotlight only on this week every year, but it’s quite another for the winner of this afternoon’s game (3:30 on TruTV) to be playing the local obsession two days later.

It will probably be playing on more Spokane-area television sets than “Rachael Ray,” just because no one wants to walk into work Wednesday and not know who Darnell Edge or Gary Blackston is.

When someone ask if you think the Zags can handle Prairie View’s defense, you better be ready to talk about turnover ratio, right? Or you’ll look like that rube Harold in accounting.

Or if FDU wins thanks to a long-range barrage (the Knights shoot better than 40 percent beyond the arc), you want to be able to harken back to 2010 and Gonzaga’s once susceptible 3-point defense if you want to have the Zag-fan bona fides that Jackie in human resources does.

• Thanks ESPN. It was nice to know early on yesterday the Gonzaga women were headed to Corvallis for their NCAA Tournament game. No waiting until 4 p.m., our time, for the news – or any type of party. Nope. Someone hit the wrong button and the brackets were splashed all over ESPNU for a while. Enough time for everyone to take screenshots and the surprise to be lost.

Then the self-proclaimed WorldWide Leader added another layer of poor choice to the cake by moving up its selection show to 2 p.m. and putting it on ESPN2. So every college in America that had a party planned had to either move it up two hours – easy thing to do, right, on a work day? – or wait until the rebroadcast on ESPN at the normal time. Sort of ruins the surprise, doesn’t it?

The Zags waited and the players pretended to be surprised, sort of like Uncle Billy at last year’s surprise 57th birthday soiree.

• College football is about as close to a professional sport as one can get without actually paying the players a salary.

That point was driven home again yesterday when Washington State quarterback Connor Neville announced on social media he was transferring and would be eligible to play this fall. He doesn’t have to sit out because, basically, the Cougars didn’t have room for him anymore.

The NCAA has loosened the transfer rules the past few years and one segment of players who have become free agents are those who are no longer needed at their former school. It seems as if Neville, the sophomore from Wilsonville High in Oregon, checks off that box.

That’s the downside of taking transfers in. There are only so many scholarships available and the transfer’s has to come from somewhere. The presumption is – WSU hasn’t announced anything and probably will never talk about the particulars on the record – Gage Gubrud’s decision to head south meant Neville had to head out of town.

What is it that old saying? Something about a door closing and window opening? It seems as if Neville, who never saw the field for the Cougars, is living it.

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Gonzaga: You want Bulldog coverage? We have it for you, from the men and the women. Where to start? How about with the women’s “celebration,” which editor Rob Curley writes about. My guess is, by the time the jumping around occurred, the GU staff already had texted video breakdowns of Arkansas Little Rock to their players. Jim Allen has more on the early reveal and how it affected the team. … Jim also has a story on the 21-10 Trojans. … Colin Mulvany was at the watch party and has this photo report. … The men fund out their seeding Sunday, and they found out their final regular season ranking yesterday. Jim Meehan has that story while Theo Lawson has his poll thoughts and votes. … Jim has four other stories from a crowded day. He looks at the Zags’ health (it’s good), Rui Hachimura’s latest award (first-team All-America) and finalist appearance (Naismith player of the year), and guard Geno Crandall (he’s connected to the NCAA Tournament pretty well). … Jim also spoke to Larry Weir for the latest Press Box pod. … Theo has another story on local connections to the tournament. … Finally, John Blanchette takes a look at the two teams vying to play GU, along with other things, in his column. … Here is one bracket Gonzaga fans hope is right. … Around the WCC, the BYU women are thrilled to be a seven seed. … The USF men were not thrilled to by snubbed by the NIT, so the Dons will not play in the postseason.

WSU: Theo has a story on Neville’s decision. … Around the Pac-12, Oregon State decided to cancel its party after the early bracket reveal. … Oregon is happy to be a No. 2 seed and playing in the Portland Region. … On the men’s side, Washington is still playing and there are goals still to reach. … Arizona State has set a high bar under Bobby Hurley. … Three teams are in the tournament, but can any win? … USC’s season can’t be termed anything buy a disappointment. … UCLA has an uncertain future. … There is football news from Arizona, Colorado, Washington and Oregon.

Mariners: By the time we are back here, the M’s will have opened their season in Japan against the A’s. But they will not have made decisions on their two veterans.

Seahawks: If you had any doubt who Earl Thomas was aiming his middle finger at as he left in a Seahawk uniform for the last time, doubt no longer. … Former Packer and Raider receiver Jordy Nelson reportedly is visiting Seattle. So is Aaron Lynch.

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• TruTV is so used to being ignored all year, the network has put together a pretty funny social media campaign to remind people how to watch this week. As we said yesterday, if you have Comcast in Spokane, as we do, it’s on 49 in regular definition and 705 in high definition. We will be watching. And then have a short story on what to expect from Thursday’s first-round opponent. … By the way, I was so excited about UC Irvine yesterday, I made an error about the California selections, one I fixed when a reader brought it to my attention. Until later …