A Grip on Sports: The NCAA agrees to shell out $2 billion or so for … well, what exactly? No one knows for sure

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Want to have some simple guidelines to live your life? We have you covered. Every time you need to make a decision, monumental or mundane, just ask yourself one question. What would the NCAA do? And then do the exact opposite.

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• If that piece of advice seems too far removed from your current circumstances, we can offer an alternative. Just substitute the soon-to-be ripped apart Pac-12. A little more local and a shorter history of mistakes to document, one of which we will delve into a bit later. For now, though, let us examine the most-recent NCAA misstep. It’s a doozy. Off the South Rim of the Grand Canyon of a doozy.

The organization that has outlived its usefulness by about a couple decades is still hell-bent on destroying itself. At least it seems that way after what happened this week. And all the major players, including the Power 5 conferences, are helping in any way they can.

Those conferences, including the Pac-12, voted to accept a settlement in the House v. NCAA antitrust case that will cost around $2 billion. And gives everyone not even 2-cents worth of clarity or certainty.

Heck, it doesn’t even include settling all the current antitrust cases the NCAA is currently facing, nor does it preclude others from suing down the road. What the heck? Why then, is the NCAA, and its members schools, doing this? To avoid the possibility of an even bigger bill down the road. And, maybe, to show Congress how inept it is so it will handle the problem with some sort of legislative bailout – think Chrysler or TARP or New York City, with or without the money involved.

The NCAA certainly has entered enough ineptitude into evidence already. Now its adding more.

You’ll read a lot about this settlement over the next few weeks. The cost. The impact on your favorite school. The ways it could shape the future. But the bottom line is the only certainty in this matter is more change is coming. A spinning wheel of choices that won’t stop until the entire landscape is altered.

A wheel of misfortune. And mistakes. With the NCAA’s bureaucracy trying to survive.

• We all know the historic Pac-12 did not survive. It’s about to exit stage-left. Done in by so many miscalculations and missteps, we can’t count them. Or recount them here. But even as the long-running show is about to go dark, mistakes still abound.

The conference is holding its baseball tournament in Las Vegas. Nine teams were invited. They were divided into three pools. Played a round-robin within those pools to determine four semifinalists. OK, that seems silly on its face, as the nuns taught us years ago four into nine won’t go, but we will accept the concept.

What we can’t accept is how the four semifinalists are chosen. The three pool winners, sure. But the highest-seeded team held the tiebreaker for the fourth spot. For the top seed, what happened in Vegas really didn’t matter, which seems like a great marketing slogan but a stupid way to hold a tournament.

In fact, after regular season champion Arizona won its opener Wednesday night, it was already in the semis. And could determine who else was in. Which is exactly what happened. The Wildcats lost to sixth-seed California, eliminating second seed Oregon State – the biggest threat to winning the final tourney.

If the conference wanted to reward the regular season champ, it should have given it an automatic berth into the semifinals. Then add one more team to the tournament, have the remaining nine face-off in pools and the three winners move on.

Simple. Easy. Which probably eliminated it from consideration early on.

• It’s Friday and we usually spend the day helping you plot out your weekend TV viewing. That doesn’t take much doing on this holiday-weekend-kickoff morning.

The NBA conference finals are on. Same with the NHL. The Indy 500 is Sunday, pretty much all day. The Mariners play all weekend in Washington, D.C.

There is golf and the WNBA. Local soccer. And the French Open begins.

There you go. You’re covered. Now get outside. Putter in the yard. Walk a trail. Barbecue. Visit family. Prep for summer. Enjoy your holiday. And remember why we celebrate.

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WSU: Jon Wilner presents more evidence of the Pac-12’s mismanagement today in the S-R, as he shares the 2023 revenue figures. Read his column. The idea a conference could bring in record revenues and hand out less money than the year before seems inconceivable. And not just in “The Princess Bride” sense. … Of course we are going to pass along any story we find about Steve Gleason’s book. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, we linked a bunch of NCAA House settlement stories above. From a multitude of sources. Here, we link Wilner’s San Jose Mercury News story on the conference voting to accept the agreement. … We also pass along the newspaper’s recruiting roundup for the week. … How does the average football program keep its roster somewhat intact in this day and age? … Speaking of rosters, Washington is nearly complete, though it may still have holes. The Huskies have added another quarterback. … Colorado is still adding. No surprise there. … A UCLA player is the face of NIL. … Tara VanDerveer cleaned out her office after 38 years coaching Stanford. A reporter tagged along. … The Oregon State women continue to add players. … At the baseball tournament, the four semifinalists are Arizona, USC, California and Stanford. Oregon State will wait for the NCAA bid that is coming. Oregon will wonder. … The NCAA softball Super Regionals opened Thursday, with sixth-seed UCLA routing 11th-seeded Georgia 8-0 in Los Angeles. … Stanford and Arizona open their weekends against LSU and Oklahoma State, respectively, today. The Wildcats are on the road, the Cardinal at home. … Finally, Arizona State officially has a new athletic director. It was the president’s choice, his only choice it seems, since the beginning of the process.

Gonzaga: The Zags are still alive in the WCC’s baseball tournament this morning but will have to come through the loser’s bracket to win the automatic NCAA berth. Regular season champion USD sent them there with a 10-7 loss.

Idaho: The Vandals are entering the 21st Century with a NIL collective that has a 19th Century name. The 1889 Collective just formed and its plan is to help Idaho retain some athletes it has been losing and attract some that might have gone elsewhere. Peter Harriman has more in this story. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, Sacramento State is looking for a new men’s basketball coach.

Preps: It’s the last weekend of high school sports for the year in Washington, with the State track tournaments underway. Greg Lee has this roundup of the larger schools’ meet in Tacoma, including East Valley’s Logan Hofstee winning the 2A 1,600 race. … The softball tournaments are also underway and we can pass along this roundup. … Dave Nichols has a preview of the State tennis tournaments.

Indians: Spokane moved back into first place with a 9-3 win over host Eugene last night. Dave has the game story. … Elsewhere in the Northwest League, Tri-City defeated host Everett twice, winning the regularly scheduled game 9-6 and the makeup of a May 21 rainout 4-2. … Hillsboro moved over .500 with a 2-0 win over visiting Vancouver.

Seahawks: One of the more interesting aspects of Mike Macdonald’s first offseason in charge concerns the secondary. How will the defensive-minded coach retool the talented group? Bob Condotta delves into that process through the lens of this week’s OTAs. … Geno Smith feels the new offense will fit his skill set.

Storm: Nika Muhl has her visa issues behind her and is back in the game.

Mariners: The M’s left New York with a split, after losing Thursday day finale 5-0. Once again the offense was MIA. … Moving Julio Rodriguez from second to sixth in the order made no difference whatsoever. … After 50-games, the M’s deserve a decent grade. There have been more positives than negatives. … Dylan Moore has been one of the positives. … Yes, we know the Mariners need another bat. Everyone knows, including anyone Jerry Dipoto tries to trade with.

Kraken: The conference finals are in full swing. Edmonton, Canada’s last hope, defeated Dallas in double-overtime to take a 1-0 lead in the West.  

Reign: Seattle is back at it tonight against Washington. … Emma Hayes takes over the USWMNT, knowing full well the team isn’t as dominate as it once was. Will the fans understand as she rebuilds the lineup heading into the Paris Olympics?

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• Our plan for the weekend? A lot of it will be dictated by the weather. Today should be somewhat nice, but Saturday and Sunday are kind of dicey, as is the usual case in Spokane for Memorial Day weekend. Monday should be, if the National Weather Service has it right, near perfect. We have a to-do list a mile long, including yard work, deck sitting, napping, shopping, car washing, surgery prep and more. You know, the usual. Until later …