A Grip on Sports: On this alliterative food day, let’s see if we can’t come up with a full-meal deal for the Pac-12 that includes more than one added ingredient

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What is the most important ingredient in your tacos on Tuesdays? Or any day, for that matter? The protein? The salsa? The tortilla? Decisions, decisions. The Pac-12 leadership is also facing a buffet of decisions as June winds down, though the key one seems to have been made.

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• The one the conference announced Monday morning, CBS as its main TV partner, isn’t it, actually. It’s crucial, sure, just as picking the right tortilla is for tonight’s dinner. But not as big a deal as the protein. In the Pac-12’s case, that would be its football membership.

We all know the conference must have eight football-playing members when it starts up anew in the fall of 2026. But that’s just an NCAA-mandated minimum, not a ceiling. And the more intermittent steps are released – or leak out – it seems clearer eight shouldn’t be the final number. Though it may have to be for a while.

Eight football playing schools are one too few. Unless two schools play twice in a season – an unfortunate happenstance Washington State and Oregon State have to endure this fall – that leaves each school in the reconstituted conference having to find five nonconference contests. That’s expensive, especially if, say, WSU wants to have at least six home games every season.

With seven conference opponents, every-other year features three home league games. Finding, and paying, three schools to come to the Palouse is not going to come cheap. It’s part of why the old Pac-12 – and half the current Power Four – had or have a nine-game conference schedule.

With the CBS deal in place, the Pac-12 has a cornerstone for its media presence. But every broadcast partner it recruits will have the same request: As much good content as possible. League games, in the marquee sports of football or hoops, have a better chance of fulfilling the “good” part of that sentence – mainly because the Pac-12 schools only control home games.

Washington State vs. Mississippi is an excellent matchup. A decent draw. But getting Ole Miss to travel to Pullman is a non-starter – and not just because Lane Kiffin has USC flashbacks. This year’s matchup in Oxford will be on the SEC Network, controlled, in part, by ESPN. That’s not changing, no matter how many football schools are in the new Pac-12.

But one less nonconference payout means more money available per game. And a better chance to entice a higher-profile opponent to the Northwest.

• The mandated eighth school seems to be Texas State, the San Marcos-based (between Austin and San Antonio) school with higher aspirations than the Sun Belt Conference can supply. If the amount of smoke is any indication – at it is – then it is a done-deal, only waiting for the Pac-12 to finish up its media announcements.

Another addition in time for the 2026 conference unveiling? Unlikely. Which is probably just fine with Gonzaga, currently the only non-football school included in the rebuild of the West Coast’s best conference. A nine-team basketball conference means 16 conference games, if everyone plays a home-and-home. That leaves plenty of opportunity for made-for-TV-and-NET-boosting nonconference games for the Zags. Heck, if the conference goes with the traditional travel-partner setup, Gonzaga would have at least two opportunities for high-profile weekend matchups in the middle of the conference season.

We could envision a week in which the Zags play at Texas State on a Wednesday night and at Baylor on Saturday morning. That’s good for the Zags, even with the Pac-12 featuring more high-end programs than the WCC. Of their 15 possible out-of-conference dates, the Bulldogs could still schedule their usual half-dozen or so home wins, one or two high-profile Spokane opponents and have space for a multi-team event and handful of one-offs either at a neutral site, on the road or in a TV studio.

It’s a win-win for Mark Few’s program in its yearly quest for the best ranking – and higher NCAA seed – possible.

• Another reason Gonzaga wouldn’t be sad if the Pac-12 capped its total at nine? None of the other viable candidates – Memphis isn’t one of them at this point – offer much in the way of basketball upside. Texas State was 16-16 last season. Finished 198th in the NET rankings, 36 spots below Loyola Marymount, not what anyone would call a national power but still the fifth-best of schools who will call the West Coast Conference home in 2026.

Only one new Pac-12 member – Fresno State at 278 – had a lower NET last season than Texas State. Three WCC schools did.

With the rebuilt conference having five schools in the NET top 75 last year (including Gonzaga), there is potential for everyone to come out of conference with a deeper resume than either the Mountain West or WCC could provide.

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WSU: Jim Meehan ran point yesterday with the S-R’s coverage of the CBS deal. … We linked the CBS news from the Pac-12 yesterday morning. Analysis? That had yet to come. So we have it today, from Jon Wilner in the S-R, more from him in the Mercury News, and thoughts from John Canzano on his Substack. … Canzano also posted his usual Monday mailbag. … The NBA draft is tomorrow night. When will Cedric Coward hear his name called? These mock drafts have some guesses but that’s always what they are, guesses, after the first one or two picks. And if there are trades? Everything changes. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, the NCAA changed its rules to align with the House settlement. … Washington’s June enrollees add to the Huskies’ football depth. … The contract extension for Oregon’s athletic director received the needed approval. … Recruiting never stops. At Colorado, that’s a given. … The same is true at Utah. And at Arizona. … The TV deal? Just about every incoming Mountain West school is covered in stories about Boise State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State. … In basketball news, a legacy is slated to play for the Husky men and that means Brandon Roy Jr. will also be wearing his dad’s retired jersey number. … A young Colorado player is trying to fit in. … Draft news? We can pass along stories from Stanford, Arizona and Colorado State. … Arizona not only signed baseball coach Chip Hale to an extension, the Wildcats also made it clear they have a plan for continued success. … Oregon State baseball has always had one and will survive more-than-a-dozen portal defections. 

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, recruiting never stops, especially of in-state athletes. At least not for Montana football.

Indians: Dave Nichols took advantage of Spokane’s usual Northwest League off day and filled the void with this interesting story on Aidan Longwell, the Indians’ first baseman who also was a standout high school quarterback at a school with tradition as long as anyone’s. One line in the story stood out to me, as Longwell expressed his feeling you can’t play pro baseball while playing quarterback in college. That’s true to some extent. But Todd Helton and Adam Dunn and others did it. It may well be a lot tougher these days.

Hoopfest: The countdown to Hooptown’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony continues with Dave Boling highlighting the long list of accomplishments for 6-foot-and-under legend JR Camel.

Seahawks: We linked this Jayson Jenks story a while back when it ran on The Athletic’s website. It ran on the S-R’s today and we pass it along again. It outlines the relationship Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright built in Seattle. … How does the NFC West break down?

Mariners: The M’s won 11-2 in Minnesota on Monday. Bryan Woo was exceptional again. Julio Rodriguez got them going with a two-run dinger. And Cal Raleigh hit his MLB-leading 32nd of the season. … Raleigh for MVP? Why not? Other than that one guy in New York, sure, Raleigh’s a frontrunner. But Aaron Judge, for many reasons including his uniform, has to be the favorite. … The M’s moved a couple prospects out of Everett. 

Sonics: The playoff injuries not only robbed us of watching the best compete in this season’s tournament but may cost three stars all of the next season as well.

Sounders: The narrow path the Sounders had for getting into the Club World Cup knockout round? Turns out even if they had defeated Paris Saint-Germain by three goals, they would not have made it. Besides, PSG handled Seattle 2-0. … The other group member to move on? Botafago, despite its 1-0 loss to Atlético Madrid. … Cristian Roldan played well throughout the tournament. Could he be moving on?

Storm: Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are back. That means Lexie Hull is in her home state as well.

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• Wouldn’t it be nice if the Pac-12 could entice Memphis State to join? And then add Saint Mary’s? What a basketball conference that would be. And the football folks would have eight league games. It may cut into the nonconference basketball games but those two programs are good enough it’s not a big deal. But it’s not going to happen. Until later …