A Grip on Sports: The Pac-12’s move to keep all football games in-house seems to be only an incremental step

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Anything happen on Friday? Other than the Pac-12 following the Big Ten’s lead and eliminating fall nonconference athletic events? Or the conference’s commissioner coming down with a COVID-19 case? Or college athletic budgets everywhere taking a huge hit? Other than that, it was a quiet day.

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• The cat decided this morning was a good day to wake me up with the sun. After all, she couldn’t have me hogging the covers, right? But she did me a favor. For the first time in weeks and weeks – dare I say months? – there were way too many stories to read and digest. It was almost as if the pandemic had disappeared – that was predicted somewhere a while ago, right? – and sports pages were overflowing again.

Except this morning they were like the septic tank in the front yard. The overflow smelled putrid.

Canceled games. Postponements. Budget issues. Hold-your-nose bad crud. All due to an invisible virus. Well, except the professional soccer match in Orlando last night, but we will get to that later.

For now, let’s discuss what is going on in the coronavirus world. Mainly because it seems to be the coronavirus’ world. Well, the coronavirus’ nation at least.

Like my retirement account – what can I say, I have a good financial advisor – cases continue to rise, locally and nationally. And with them comes consequences, especially for college football.

The Pac-12 made its expected move to conference-only games, a move that smells like it may be incremental. And one that cut the feet out from under some FCS schools in the West, especially in budgetary ways.

Why incremental? To answer that, let’s go back to a week in March when the NCAA announced its basketball tournament would go on, only without fans. Many of us breathed a sigh of relief, as our worries the tournament would be canceled seemed assuaged. Then a few days later, boom. No tournament at all.

The moves the Power 5 conferences are making currently seem analogous, though the timeline may be extended quite a bit. Over the next few weeks their football schedules will evolve, with the Big 12, ACC and, finally, the SEC accepting the inevitable and eliminating nonconference games.

But by then the Pac-12 and Big Ten will probably be ready to move on. Sometime in August, if the virus’ numbers don’t level out and start to fall, the conferences will either cancel everything or announce a switch to spring. The latter seems radical. It is radical, actually. Except it also is the only chance. The only chance to save a season of the sport that supports almost every college athletic budget from Seattle to Miami.

The intellectuals in New Haven and Boston realized this already, with the Ivy League announcing earlier this week most fall sports would be held after the first of the year, if possible.

Football (and some other high-interaction sports) doesn’t seem all that safe without some form of reliable treatment or a vaccine. There is no way to create a bubble for college athletes. A certain number will get sick. Some may faces lifelong medical issues because of it. Others may die. It is a big risk to take, especially in the face of rising numbers and growing peril.

And, in the end, it will be too big a risk to take.

• Ask Larry Scott. The Pac-12’s commissioner, the guy who leads the conference through thick and, mainly, thin, has COVID-19. The conference announced his health status last night, once again highlighting the difference between the guy who leads the league and the athletes who support it.

After all, if he were a football player at Washington State or Oregon or elsewhere, we wouldn’t know he’s battling the disease. Heck, we wouldn’t even know if anyone in the conference office had it.

• Before Scott exited the stage for a while – he’s at home currently, supposedly working and trying to beat the bug the way most who get it do – he was able to announce the conference-wide financials for the last fiscal year.

The amount of money each Pac-12 school received grew incrementally. That’s the good news. It’s also the baseline schools will be using as they deal with a current fiscal year that will include a huge revenue shortfall, even if football somehow finds a way to appear on campus. Utah announced yesterday it has cut $8 million from its budget already, a pretty good size chunk considering the Utes’ overall numbers. And they won’t be the last school to slice and dice.

It makes me wonder. Would it be better for the schools’ budgets if there were an 11- or 10-game football schedule in the fall without fans or, say, an eight-game schedule in the spring with fans in the stands? The latter seems to be, financially, the better option.

• There are no good financial options for FCS schools. Many of them depend on guarantee games with their FBS counterparts to pay the bills. When a Pac-12 school cancels a game with, say, Montana State, that puts a high six-figure hole in the Big Sky schools’ budget.

As if Eastern Washington and Idaho can afford another nearly million-dollar hit.

The Vandals have already lost their Washington State game and the $550,000 that goes with it. The one at Temple (with probably a smaller guarantee, at least after expenses) is still on the schedule but has to be tenuous at best.

The Eagles are scheduled to open September at Florida, a guarantee game the athletic department’s budget badly needs. Whether that $750,000 check will ever be in the mail certainly isn’t clear.

• Sat for a while last night and watched a bit of the Sounders’ match. It seemed a little sluggish, sort of like a preseason contest. Wait, that’s what it was. After all, the team hadn’t played in more than three months and its first game back was being held in a semi-tropical setting. Some of the players looked as if they were playing in combat boots, not soccer ones.

I checked. The high temperature today in Orlando is expected to be 89 degrees, with 79 percent humidity. In Seattle? A high of 72 with 81 percent humidity. According to the Weather Channel, it will feel like 57 in Seattle and 97 in Orlando. Quite a difference.

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WSU: On the bright side, Nick Rolovich waved the social media flag this week, meaning another 2021 recruit had committed. Theo Lawson has the news a Texas linebacker has decided Pullman is the place to be. … Theo also delved into the Pac-12’s decision concern out-of-conference games and how it will impact Washington State’s schedule. … Around the Pac-12 and college sports, the conference’s decision concerning football is covered in depth up and down the West Coast. There are stories from Seattle to San Jose, from Salt Lake City to Tucson, from Portland to Phoenix. Heck, there are even stories in Los Angeles newspapers. It’s a pretty big deal. As is the future of the sport this fall. … The improved financials were pored over in a lot of places as well. … Scott’s illness didn’t receive as much ink, partly because the conference made its announcement later last night. … Oregon State is losing a big-time matchup but its athletic director would still like to play in the fall. … Here’s some happy news: Colorado has picked its latest Ralphie. … USC’s testing has been reassuring. … In basketball news, Oregon coach Dana Altman is giving some money back. … Bobby Hurley believes Arizona State will be versatile.

EWU and Idaho: Larry Weir wanted to talk FCS football yesterday. So he talked with one of the most informed people in the realm, Stats’ Craig Haley. The conversation is included in the latest Press Box podcast. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the conference commissioner is only 50/50 on whether football happens in the fall. Then again, everything is 50/50. It either happens or it doesn’t. … Losing the Utah game will put a hole in Montana State’s budget. … Northern Arizona won’t be playing Arizona State. … Weber State’s players seem to be safe. As long as they don’t drive. … Montana is in a wait-and-see mode.

Hoopfest and Bloomsday: The Spokane Marathon isn’t the largest community race in the area, but it might have provided a peek into the future. The 2020 edition, scheduled for October, will not be run. The organizers canceled it yesterday and moved on to 2021. Next up are decisions for Hoopfest (scheduled for late August) and Bloomsday (late September). Arielle Dreher and Adam Shanks combined on this story, which includes more information.

Seahawks: The Quinton Dunbar case has taken an odd turn with a New York Daily News story outlining an alleged cover up and witness tampering. The cornerback’s lawyers are denying the allegations.

Mariners: The M’s played an intrasquad game yesterday. Despite two home runs from Kyle Lewis, it went six innings and ended in a tie. It seems like a golden opportunity lost. With new rules in place for extra-inning games, it would have made sense to practice them. Maybe later. … Julio Rodriguez is back but he’s taking it slowly. … Daniel Vogelbach has some goals for this season. … The virus has derailed a Northwest couple’s ballpark journey.

Sounders: The scoreless draw was pretty entertaining for the first 30 minutes or so. Than after that is settled into the type of match that leads to a Simpsons parody. … San Jose’s coach had a different perspective.

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• You know, I’ve never been to the Blue Mountains. Well, other than cutting through them on Interstate 84 en route to Boise, I mean. We’ve lived in the Pacific Northwest for 37 years and have yet to see one of Washington’s signature areas. Kim and I plan to rectify that failing next week. Don’t worry. We are also planning to pack our own food, drinks and other essentials. It should be a contact-less day trip. Other than getting within six feet of Mother Nature, of course. Until later …