A Grip on Sports: Can it be true? Can NFL Sundays actually be better when the Hawks are on at night?

A GRIP ON SPORTS • This is not said often enough. NFL Sundays are better when the home team, in our case the Seattle Seahawks, don’t play during the day. That frees us up for seven hours or so of NFL RedZone. Now, if it were just possible – it isn’t – to only move from the Laz-e-Boy when Scott Hanson’s voice disappears off the screen.

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• Just kidding, of course. But the conceit is worth contemplating. That is how life-changing the highlight show has become. How quickly it has burrowed its way into our consciousness. Our NFL Sundays. Even when the Seahawks have a game in either the 10 a.m. or 1 p.m. window, it’s easy to get sedentary during the other one, watching the minutes tick by as Hanson describes the action from Jacksonville or Jersey or just about anywhere.

This week, what with Green Bay visiting the Emerald City for a night game (5:20, NBC) featuring 73 shots of the Space Needle and a flying fish, the entire NFL Sunday is free. How glorious.

Unless every game is like Thursday night’s Amazon product. It seems appropriate, somehow, less than two weeks before Christmas, someone Grinched our delivery of Christmas cheer – and offense – from the front porch.

What a silly, stupid game. Everyone watching felt sort of like De’Vondre Campbell Sr., the San Francisco linebacker who just up and left the game in the third quarter. Now, none of those watching were being paid to compete, as Campbell was (though he won’t be starting as soon today). But they were stuck nonetheless. If they wanted to watch (somewhat) professional football.

The viewers, including those Seahawk fans who understood their team’s playoff hopes would be better served by San Francisco winning, were actually paying for the privilege of watching. In a game that matched offensive “geniuses,” head coaches Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay, the final score was 12-6. Wow.

At least we can be assured Sunday night’s matchup in Seattle between the Packers and the Hawks will be more exciting than that. Heck, we might even get a play in the end zone in which one official signals an interception and another a touchdown. It has happened before.

But that’s for Sunday night. For the time between now and then?

College football’s postseason mode is in gear, what with the FCS playoffs ongoing. It starts tonight, with Idaho in Bozeman for the second time this fall, facing the FCS’ top-seed, Montana State, in a quarterfinal matchup (6, ESPN).

The best contest Saturday, as we all take a breath before the CFP and bowl games, isn’t of the playoff variety. Army. Navy. The two-oldest service academies’ annual hate-fest is on CBS at noon.

However, Saturday carries more of a basketball vibe. The highlight? Intersectional matchups that even in this day and age are not conference games. The best, probably, is eighth-ranked Gonzaga’s matchup with two-time defending NCAA champ (and 18th-ranked) UConn (5 p.m., Fox). So good, in fact, it’s being played in Madison Square Garden, just another example of how the sport’s scheduling mode for the men has morphed.

Another example? No. 24 UCLA vs. Arizona. In Phoenix (noon, ESPN2). No longer a conference game, it is also no longer a home game for either school. Heck, No. 13 Oklahoma and in-state rival Oklahoma State (5, ESPNU), weirdly a nonconference game, are playing off-campus. In OKC, sure, but off-campus

There are throwbacks, though. Louisville is playing fifth-ranked Kentucky in Lexington (2:15, ESPN) and North Carolina State is in Lawrence to face No. 10 Kansas (12:15, ESPN).

However, if you want to watch No. 9 Florida face Arizona State in Atlanta or Washington State (hosting Missouri State at 2 p.m.) on Saturday or Idaho’s home game vs. UC San Diego (4) or even the WSU women hosting Saint Martin’s that day (noon), you have to be an ESPN+ subscriber.

At least Saturday’s local matchup between the Gonzaga and Eastern Washington women is on SWX (2 p.m.)

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WSU: Worried about the future? Well, Greg Woods keeps you up-to-date every day with his transfer tracker. … And Jon Wilner talked with Pac-12 commissioner Teresa Gould about a possible conference title game in football down the road. Hope neither raises your anxiety level. … Jaylen Wells has stepped right in at Memphis and improved the Grizzlies’ defense. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, it is awards season (or week, to be more precise). The Heisman will be announced Saturday. Last night ESPN showed the rest of college football’s honors being handed out. The big winners? The Heisman frontrunners, Mr. Do-Everything Travis Hunter of Colorado and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. We are willing to bet the house on Hunter winning the top award. … The Law of Unexpected Consequences vs. the NCAA has resulted in everyone who isn’t on scholarship losing their chance to play. That’s the gist of the House settlement and its upcoming roster limits. … OK, back to the action. John Canzano has already made his picks even with the first CFP games a week away. … A hire across the continent will have a big impact on the Washington coaching staff. … The Huskies are already dipping into the portal for offensive linemen. … Oregon may lose some depth before they play in the Rose Bowl. Yep, the portal deadlines could play havoc with CFP schools. … The Ducks’ Dillon Gabriel is in New York for the Heisman ceremony. … How is Oregon State doing with the portal? … Why did Kyle Whittingham stick around? The Utah coach may have contemplated retiring but when he decided against it, the Utes’ portal recruiting efforts hit top speed quickly. … Was the conference switch worth it for the Cal and Stanford football programs? No. … Lincoln Riley doesn’t feel USC’s receiving room leaving mostly en masse for the portal is that big a deal. … The Trojans’ punter was named the best in the nation. He had a lot more opportunities to prove it than Trojan fans would have liked. … Arizona State’s results have pingponged in coach Kenny Dillingham’s first two seasons. … The best player Arizona has will be in the NFL draft. … Among the future Pac-12 members in the Mountain West, Boise State plucked a quarterback from the portal before its CFP run this season. Former USC recruit Malachi Nelson is reportedly off to the portal again after not playing much. … You will see stories like this one concerning Colorado State a lot between now and bowl games. … San Diego State is losing its freshman starting quarterback. … Though UNLV isn’t currently on the conference’s expansion list, the news from Las Vegas is still important. The Rebels followed a recently successful script in hiring a former SEC head coach, Dan Mullen, to lead their football program. … In basketball news, though Cal and Stanford are in the ACC, that doesn’t change their rivalry much. But in women’s hoop, there could be a huge change tonight. … Oregon is dealing with injuries again. … The San Diego State men will immediately improve the rebuilt Pac-12’s basketball cachet.

Gonzaga: What do most college athletes do during finals’ week when they need to take a break? In our experience, work on their game. No matter what it is. At GU, “The Game” (capital letters required) is basketball. And shooting, specifically beyond the arc, was probably the study-break of choice this week. Why? The Zags have been a little off recently, as Jim Meehan details in this story. The World’s Most Famous Arena (capital letters and New York snobbery required) welcomes the Bulldogs from Gonzaga and the University of Connecticut on Saturday night.

Idaho: Seven fanbases – everyone left in the FCS playoffs except those who root for top-seed Montana State – will be pulling for the Vandals tonight. As Peter Harriman tells us, to reverse the 38-7 regular season result, UI will have to be stouter up front against the host Bobcats. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the FCS title game is headed to Nashville in the near future. … The Montana senior class had a few highlights during its time in Missoula. … The UC Davis quarterback thought about quitting football. He is glad he did not. … In basketball news, the Sacramento State men host local rivals UC Davis tomorrow.

Preps: Dave Nichols didn’t have to take a long drive to take in the best girls’ basketball game Friday night. He dropped in on Coeur d’Alene hosting Deer Park. Won by the Stags 75-56 in a game they led 31-4 after a quarter. … He also has a roundup of other hoop action. … Madison McCord offers a wrestling notebook, leading with Libby Roberts’ tournament win in Ohio.

Chiefs and Indians: Brett Sports, which owns each of Spokane’s minor league franchises, is slimming down. Not here, but outside the area. Dave returns with this story on the company’s sale of two minor league baseball teams in a deal that included the Mariners’ Modesto franchise.  

Seahawks: One thing we don’t expect to see Sunday night? Kenneth Walker III playing. He missed practice again Thursday. … The Coby Bryant story we passed along yesterday? It is in the S-R today. … Who wins Sunday night? … Marshawn Lynch shared some Christmas cheer at Seahawk practice. … The defense has a new nickname? We didn’t know. … The best coach in NFL history is ready to embark on a new challenge. Bill Belichick is officially North Carolina’s leader.

Mariners: Skeptical? Worried? Anxious? If those words describe how you feel about the M’s improving their roster, you are not alone. … Seattle has the third pick in the draft next year. Who is on the radar?

Kraken: If you haven’t been paying attention, Seattle has won four of six games. The Kraken handled Boston 5-1 at home last night.

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• One more reminder. No column tomorrow. We’ll be back Sunday. Keep safe on the roads today, will you? After all, it snowed, they are slick and it is Friday the 13th. Yuck. Until later …