A Grip on Sports: If you think money is the root of all realignment evil, you would be right – and some day soon it will engulf everything

A GRIP ON SPORTS • How can this be? It’s Aug. 4. It’s hot. The air is brown. The sky is a hazy shade of summer. And all that we can talk about is whether the West Coast’s premier athletic conference is swirling the drain. For so many reasons, that doesn’t feel right.

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• It’s history. Not the conference. That’s still somewhat up in the air, though its future could be decided as early as today. What’s happening is historic. And, more than likely, just another step in the complete reworking of another America’s beloved institutions, college athletics.

No one is going to argue, after way-too-many years of a hidebound adherence to outmoded orthodoxy, college athletics needed changes. Society changed, college sports didn’t. Until it did. And now that change, like a wind-borne wildfire, is just picking up speed and destroying everything in its path.

The Pac-12? About to be torched by flames fueled by the money needed to compete in 2023 and the conditions put on those who are doling it out.

But you know all that. In the past few years, you’ve been prepared. Sparks and embers, maybe, but enough to make you immune to the smoke. Until this week. In this region.

Up until now, the furniture had been singed. The walls seared. A fixture or two charred. But by this time next week, the entire Pac-12 house may have burned down. It will have to be rebuilt. Or declared a total loss and razed. Maybe someone will pave it and put up a parking lot.

UCLA and USC supplied the catalyst. Or maybe it was Larry Scott and his failed vision of a Pac-16 that burned a path from the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico. Whatever. The coals have been glowing for a while. Colorado provided the most recent kindling. Arizona is torching a hole in the floor, trying to make it big enough the school in Tempe falls in too. Oregon and Washington have heard the smoke alarms and are ready to flee, wooed by the Big Ten.

Enough already. What’s sad is no one seems to be thinking about what’s next for all these, supposedly, academic institutions. Not just next year. That’s the beginning. The rebuild will take longer than that. Five, 10, 20 years from now.

Well, that’s not exactly true. Jake Dickert is doing it.

Washington State’s football coach forcefully addressed the firestorm of changes after practice yesterday, telling the assembled media: “The old question – how long would it take TV money to destroy college football? Maybe we’re here. Maybe we’re here.”

He’s right. And he’s also right about how, down the road, people will pine for what was.

“We’ll look back at college football in 20 years and be like, ‘What are we doing? What are we doing?’ ” he added.

Nostalgic thinking? Maybe not.

CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd posted a story Tuesday that seems to have been overwhelmed in all the angst about the Pac-12’s possible incineration and another reshaping of the landscape. In it, he reported there are equity groups who are intrigued about the idea of buying a college conference. Not controlling one, as Fox’s and ESPN’s wallets do now, but actually paying schools to join, making it worth their while and then reaping the profits.

Think that couldn’t happen? Wait, we have to stop laughing.

If the past 40 years have shown us anything, it’s shown the Gordon Gekkos of the world are winning. Greed actually may not be good but it is dominant. In all aspects. College athletics isn’t immune. Heck, it may be a petri dish of new, untapped markets for acquisitions. And avarice.

For that to happen, a market has to be in disarray. Check. People with enough money have to be intrigued. Check. And they have to have a workable plan. OK, that one is still in process. But we’re betting they will come up with one soon. And it will work – at making them even more money.

Keeping college sports as we’ve known and loved it? Not so much. That house has already burned to the ground.

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WSU: Let’s start with the on-the-field stuff. Yes, Dickert had his realignment say, and Greg Woods wrote about it (we also linked the story above). But the football? Greg has that covered too, starting with this story about Toni Pole, oops, that’s the older brother, the one we covered back in the day. Greg’s story is on Esa Pole, who is no longer a legacy. He’s a leader. … Greg also has this story on kicker Dean Janikowski named to a prestigious award watch list. … There was an addition to the men’s basketball staff this week as well as some schedule news. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, we can get to the realignment news. Jon Wilner actually brings math into the Big Ten vs. Pac-12 equation, and wonders if there is enough money in Fox’s coffers to add the four rumored schools. … John Canzano writes about Oregon’s place in the saga. … Larry Stone sees us as at the lifeboat stage of the discussion. … Washington held a special Regents meeting via Zoom last night (or was it Microsoft Teams?) Anyhow, nothing was decided as far as we know. Christian Caple set the stage. … Arizona and Arizona State, run by the same Board of Regents, also discussed changing conferences. It seems as if the Sun Devils and president Michael Crow are hesitant. … Maybe the travel they and UA face is part of the reason. … The Pac-12 changes will impact schools from everywhere. … The Big Ten presidents are now only interested in Washington and Oregon. Cal and Stanford? Yesterday’s news. Or maybe the Bay Area schools would rather just stay put. With Oregon State and Washington, maybe even Utah, a new Pac-12 could be built. Right? We’ll see. … Oregon is set to jump according to one report. That would destroy the rivalry with Oregon State. … The future should be decided soon. … On the field, a Washington player lost weight and gained quickness. … Oregon State’s new quarterback was impressive on the first day of camp. … The Ducks have a new architect of their offense. … With all the new faces, Colorado’s camp includes everyone getting on the same page. … Utah’s wide receiver group needs more juice. … USC seems to have found just that. … UCLA has it from a pass rusher. … We can pass along another story on former Lewis and Clark High receiver Xavier Guillory, who is now playing at Arizona State. … In basketball news, UCLA landed a big with a big upside for the upcoming season. … In more mundane news, California poached San Jose State’s radio voice.

EWU: Preseason camp began in Cheney yesterday, with the Eagles voicing the desire to resurrect the championship form of old. Dan Thompson sweated with the rest of those in attendance before writing this story. … The Eagles have a player starring for Denmark’s national basketball team. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Montana State starts practice with a new punter/kicker. … Weber State’s camp rolled on. … A UC Davis player is on an award watch list.

Indians: An injury to the starting pitcher. Another loss, this one 7-3 at Everett. Dave Nichols has all the details.

Seahawks: OK, here’s something we didn’t know about Abe Lucas, brought to us by Liam Ryan via Dave Boling: “He’s kind of a deer magnet … I think he’s hit two deer.” … Huh? But we really love what Dave added to the discussion in his column: “To be clear, he hit them with his car, not with a chop block or crack-back, which would draw a penalty.” That made us laugh. … The middle of the defensive line is almost Hydra-like. … The nickel back is a surprise. … Geno Smith won’t face charges from a suspected 2022 DUI arrest. … Camp is filled with news, including injuries

Mariners: To be honest, this is what we would rather be writing about. The M’s are five games over .500. Beginning to look like, dare we say it, contenders. Last night’s win came courtesy of Cade Marlowe, whose third attempt at reaching a 100-miles-per-hour fastball up in the zone worked. Worked well enough for a ninth-inning grand slam and a come-from-behind 5-3 victory. It was maybe the most-important win of the season. … Shohei Ohtani was nearly unhittable until he had to leave the mound due to leg cramps. He still hit a late home run though. … Andres Munoz closed out the win, filling a role he’s assumed with Paul Sewald’s trade.

Kraken: Looking ahead, which forward will lead the team in points this season?

Golf: The PGA schedule for next year is out and the big news is it won’t start this calendar year. That’s a change.

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• Friday’s are usually about looking ahead to the weekend’s TV schedule. We didn’t have the space above to do that. We can off an abridged version here, with the late Saturday night (in these parts) World Cup match between the U.S. and Sweden the main attraction. It begins at 11 p.m. on Fox. … The Mariners’ series in Anaheim continues, with night games today and Saturday and then a day game Sunday. All are on Root. … Other than the rest of the World Cup games on Fox and FS1, the usual auto racing, baseball and golf, we don’t have that much to highlight. Until later …