A Grip on Sports: This could be a weekend of chaos in college football if what happened here today is replicated in any way

A GRIP ON SPORTS • My dad used to say, often, no one wants to hear about the labor pains, they just want to see the baby. His homespun humor left its mark. I always ask how labor went. And I’m always willing to share my own. I guess it’s the contrarian in me. Sorry pops.

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• And, boy, were there labor pains today. Got up early. Real early. Just because there is a lot to cover on a Friday that kicks off a weekend like this one.

Worked for two hours. Straight. Wrote almost the entire column. Covered today’s college football games. Tomorrow’s. Had a whole theme going, built around Occam’s Razor. Simple.

I was just about to move on. To Sunday. The Seahawks in Atlanta. A 10 a.m. game on Fox. Barbecue on our menu. Probably.

But I needed another cup of coffee. That meant saving my work – I use Word to write – and heading downstairs. Pop another K cup in, brew the thing and head back to the office.

Open the document, which I had saved at least three or four times throughout the process, and finish up.

Except all my work from this morning was not in the file. Not one bit. All the deletions from my template, the great lede paragraph, the pithy comments about James Madison fans, the Cougar Closeness Correlation to explain picks (North Texas, Eric Morris and a 59-10 September game led the way), gone. All of it.

I searched the Interweb for a solution. Tried everything AI said to do. Nothing. For some unknown reason the Word file I was working failed to save to the hard drive at any time.

It’s as if the work all just disappeared into the Upside Down or something.

I can’t replicate it. And let me tell you, it wasn’t just Pulitzer worthy, I’m pretty sure it was Nobel-Peace-Prize worthy.

Oh, well. Here, in a nutshell (due to time limitations), is what it said:

• Tonight there are a couple football games worth watching. The aforementioned North Texas, 24th in the CFP rankings, vs. No. 20 Tulane in the American Conference title game (5, ABC), the Mountain West championship between UNLV and Boise State (also 5, Fox) and the Sun Belt matchup, Troy and No. 25 James Madison (4, ESPN).

• The main college feast is served Saturday, with the early game (No. 11 BYU vs. fourth-ranked Texas Tech for the Big 12 title, 9 a.m., ABC) the key one for the College Football Playoff seeding. Well, that one and the ACC showdown pitting unranked Duke and No. 17 Virginia (5 p.m., ABC). If the Blue Devils win the game, chaos is the winner come CFP announcement time.

The game pitting the two best teams? That would either be the SEC championship – No. 3 Georgia vs. No. 9 Alabama (1 p.m., ABC) – if college football just means more to you or the Big Ten title game – second-ranked Indiana vs. top-ranked Ohio State (5, Fox) – if you are among the rest of us not in that category.

• The other televised battles I had already covered? The three Big Sky schools in the FCS playoffs are in action Saturday, with Montana and Montana State on ESPN+ at 11 a.m. and UC Davis hosting Rhode Island on ESPN2 at 7 p.m.

• As for college hoops this weekend, the 11th-ranked Zags have a key showdown with No. 18 Kentucky tonight in Nashville – ya, the site seems weird to me too. That one tips at 4 Spokane time on ESPN2. There are more games, sure, but we do not have the time to delve into them.

• All that left was Sunday’s NFL schedule. The most-important game, of course, features the Seahawks. They are in Atlanta to face the beat-up Falcons, quarterbacked by the most-expensive backup in the league, Kirk Cousins. It kicks at 10 a.m. on Fox. Guess we will be having barbecue for lunch. Are McRibs still available?

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WSU: Greg Woods took some time Thursday to try to determine which bowl the Cougars will end up visiting. Basically, it’s anyone’s guess. … There was news from Pullman yesterday as well. Greg tells us backup quarterback Jaxon Potter, who started their first three games, has decided to enter the transfer portal. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has more thoughts in the Mercury News on JaMarcus Shephard and the Oregon State head coaching position. … He also has some insight on BYU’s investment in its head coach and what that means for the Big 12. … Of course, Wilner has his game picks. So does John Canzano. … Jedd Fisch has delivered in one way for the Huskies. He has improved the school’s recruiting rankings. … California made it official. Current Oregon defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi is the Bears new head coach, though he won’t be in charge of the prep for Dec. 24’s Hawaii Bowl. … Speaking of the Ducks, it sure seems as if they hope to finish fifth in the CFP rankings. Last year a bye didn’t work out well for them. … Colorado has a new offensive coordinator. The Buffs poached a Big Sky head coach. … Boise State is aiming for its sixth, and final, Mountain West title. UNLV would just like to beat the Broncos once. … Fresno State’s recruiting class has some notable players.

• In basketball news, the Colorado and Colorado State men meet tonight in Fort Collins. … Arizona State collides with Oklahoma as well. … Arizona and Auburn will meet Saturday. In Tucson. On campus. How quaint. … San Diego State really needed the win over Utah Valley. … Utah State lost for the first time this season. … The Colorado State women fell to Utah at home.

Gonzaga: Kentucky was expected to be good. Really good. Top 10 good. The Wildcats have been, well, OK. But that makes tonight’s game important to them as well, resume-wise. Theo Lawson looks at that in this preview. He also passes along the key matchup. … Jim Meehan talked with a beat writer from the Lexington newspaper and shares what they chatted about. … The women hosted Grand Canyon last night in the Kennel. I can’t pass along the first postgame report I received, as Kim gave it to me last night verbally. But I can share Greg Lee’s game story. They both mentioned turnovers prominently. There was a reason. …Former GU star Rui Hachimura had a role Thursday night in a L.A. Laker win that came with a disclaimer. He hit the game winning shot. But LeBron James, who assisted on it, passed up a chance to extend his record 1,297 regular-season-game streak of scoring in double digits.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, before we get to the playoff stories, a thought on Sacramento State coach Brennan Marion leaving the Hornets and heading to Colorado as the offensive coordinator. If anything ever showed why the transfer portal was needed, this is it. One year. Big promises. Big changes. And off to another job. … Montana State tries to keep it simple on defense. … Weber State signed 16 players this week. Though the Wildcats don’t have a coach. … In basketball news, the Idaho State women got back on the winning track. … The Northern Arizona men lost at home for the first time in a while. … Portland State picked up a win Wednesday at South Dakota.

Preps: Medical Lake High School played a boys’ basketball game last night. I don’t know the score. But I do know the result. A win for everyone involved, from the players to the fans to all of us. All because the community know Owen Pitts had a night he’ll never forget. It’s way too complicated to summarize in a couple sentences, as it is more than just basketball. Read Elena Perry’s story. It may make you happy or sad. Maybe both. But it’s worth your time. … The West Valley girls’ soccer team won the State 2A title recently. The 1-0 title-game victory capped an undefeated season. Not just undefeated, an unscored-upon season. Dave Nichols has this story on the Eagles’ unprecedented success. … We can also pass along a roundup of Thursday night’s local basketball action.

Seahawks: The Hawks’ defensive line is really good. But just where does it rank among the franchise’s all-time best d-lines? Bob Condotta tries to answer that. … DeMarcus Lawrence is a big part of the line’s success. And the defense as a whole. … The Athletic has some thoughts on postseason awards. A lot of Seahawks are mentioned. … One of them is Jaxon Smith-Njigba, whose record-breaking season seemed destined to happen. … Safety Julian Love has already earned an honor.

Mariners: We linked this story on the M’s looking for more relievers when it ran in the Times. It is on the S-R site today. … The offseason just got a little better.

Kraken: The result in Edmonton last night was awful for Seattle. As in a 9-4 defeat awful.

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• My fingers actually hurt. Two of them anyway. Age? Maybe. Or more than three hours almost nonstop – if I had not stopped maybe I would not have lost my work – pounding away at the keyboard will do that to you no matter the age. I think. Of such things my memory does not work well. You know, labor pains. Nobody ever wants to hear about those. Until later …