A Grip on Sports: It’s a Saturday in college football season. That’s all. That’s the headline. Oh, and the Pac-12 is coming along down the road

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Saturdays in September (and October and most of November) are usually reserved for college football. So why not just accept that? We do.

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• We could concentrate on the baseball season winding down. Or the NFL games coming up Sunday. Heck, we could talk about how Tampa Bay’s nickname aptly describes its offensive attack better than and other pro team. But we won’t. Instead we will stay laser-focused on college football. The SEC begins playing today. The Pac-12 is trying to figure out how to begin playing in early November. And Taylor Rochestie, one of my favorite basketball players to cover, is waving the Cougar flag on GameDay. See, even basketball stories have a football tinge.

Before we go to far, however, I want to draw your attention to Gordon Monson’s column in this morning’s Salt Lake Tribune.

Monson takes an outlier view. One that we agree with. He feels the Pac-12’s slow, deliberate, seemingly-late-to-the-party decision to play football this year was actually the right way to handle it.

“Some people want to give the Pac-12 all kinds of grief for waiting until this week to proceed,” he writes. “And they want to give other leagues — the SEC, the ACC, the Big 12 — credit for their strength and courage and boldness in planning on playing weeks ago, not letting a little thing like the coronavirus get in the way of a big thing like college football.

“What a load that is.

“Those leagues’ decisions were more callous and cavalier and careless, foolish even, as they powered on in an environment that was still too unstable to reasonably conquer.

“It was unreasonable.”

He’s right about all that. The decision to stop and wait for circumstances to become more favorable, for testing to become more available, for the virus’ threats to become more treatable, all of that was the right thing to do.

He goes on to give props to the conference for just about everything. We can’t go that far.

One of the most important line items on a manager’s to-do list is preparing for eventualities. In that regard, the Pac-12 leadership team failed miserably the past month.

When the conference began negotiating with Quidel Corp. about rapid testing, a possibility the leadership knew (or should have known) would be a game-changer (Larry Scott’s term, not ours), it should have let the athletic directors know – and told them to prepare for the changes it might bring.

Failing that – and make no mistake, there was a failure there – as soon as the testing plan was announced, the schools should have been made aware the conference could make a turnaround on football. That would have allowed a ramp-up in preparation. The schools in areas with restrictive rules could have begun a dialogue on what it would take to ease those restrictions. The schools with more lax health guidelines could have began moving forward. In that way, when the ball started rolling toward playing in the fall, everyone, from the athletic director to the third-string left outside linebacker, would have been more prepared.

As it was, the announcements a week or so ago caught many by surprise. The conference had for so long been adamant nothing was happening until the first of the year, many were caught off-guard.

Sure, you can wonder if some school administrations and coaches were too trusting, too naïve, that they should have been ready whenever a decision came, but that’s putting the blame in the wrong spots.

The Pac-12 CEOs’ wait-and-see attitude was correct. It isn’t best for the players to be playing right now. Almost two-dozen canceled games around the nation – thus far – attest to that. But if there ever was a glimmer of an idea the schedule could start sooner, the conference office should have been ready. And the conference’s schools should have been informed.

That way, instead of the day after making the sharp left turn, the Pac-12, collectively, wouldn’t look so lost, as if they have no idea what’s ahead.

It’s almost as if the people in charge can’t read a road map. Or anyone ever thought to grab one.

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WSU: Around the Pac-12 and college sports, with the future a bit clearer, each school, including Washington, is trying to figure out what’s next. … Oregon State seems ready no matter what it is. … Nope. Oregon doesn’t look to be getting its best player back. … USC isn’t sure if it will have two players who opted out. The Trojans wanted a fall season all along. … Karl Dorrell can’t wait to get started at Colorado. But there are some issues in Boulder. … Utah’s financial issues haven’t gone away. Neither have Arizona’s. … UCLA is making a change in how it reports COVID-19 cases. … Arizona State’s players competed – with video games. … Despite personnel losses, Arizona’s Kevin Sumlin is optimistic. Just once, maybe someday we will hear a college coach say he’s pessimistic. … In basketball news, the next step is putting together non-conference and conference schedules. … UCLA is trying.

EWU and Idaho: Larry Weir talked with Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill for the latest Press Box podcast.

Preps: There were a few high school football games in the area, the main one pitting city rivals Coeur d’Alene and Lake City. Dave Nichols was at the non-league game and has this coverage.

Mariners: The M’s are no longer in the postseason hunt. (When have I been able to write that before? Oh yes, every year since 2001.) But they did get a well-pitched game from Yusei Kikuchi before losing 3-1 in 10 innings. … In roster news, the Mariners picked up former WSU reliever Ian Hamilton after he was released by the White Sox.

Seahawks: Get this. Due to injuries on the defensive front, the Hawks may have to rely on rookies this Sunday against the Cowboys. Oh, the horror. … No one can say when Josh Gordon might be allowed to play again. … How about we start tweeting “let DK cook?” Sound good?

Sounders: Raul Ruidiaz, one of the team’s crucial pieces, will miss Seattle’s next match. He was suspended for “violent conduct.” The conduct in question only netted him a yellow in the Portland match. Weird.

Storm: A game away from another WNBA Finals appearance, the Storm is trying to stay in the moment.

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• Do you know the Spokane area went 47 days without rain? I do, mainly because my water bill reflected it. But boy, we made up for it yesterday. Including right in the middle of me barbecuing dinner. I am so thankful the first thing my dad did for me 35 years ago when we bought this house was plant a tree that shades our deck. This time of year, its well-trimmed canopy keeps the house cool and the deck somewhat dry. Papa Joe’s gift just keeps on giving, almost a decade after his passing. Of course, if it ever falls over in a windstorm, he’ll get all the blame for the damage. That’s the way it works, right? Until later …