A Grip on Sports: We can’t say sports used to be better but we are sure all of them used to be different – and a lot cheaper

A GRIP ON SPORTS • There are a lot of sentences one can start with “It used to be …” A prime example? My dad and the price of candy bars when he was a kid. For the record, he said they were a nickel. Ya, sure. Anyhow, to prove the point, let’s see how many notes we can start with the phrase. I’ll go first.

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• It used to be the college basketball season didn’t begin until the football regular season ended. Heck, as recently as 30 years ago – I know, ancient history – the Cougars’ first hoops contest was a week after the Apple Cup.

This year it came three months after.

Wait, that’s got nothing to do with schedule creep, which is the point here. That’s due to conference realignment, which is a subject I’ll cover in a minute. When WSU used to be in the same conference with its Seattle brother.

The Cougs final regular season football game in 2025? That would be Nov. 29 in Pullman. Against Oregon State.

By then David Riley’s team will have played six games. Basically one-sixth of its schedule.

• It used to be college conferences made sense.

When Stanford University is playing an early November conference football game in Chapel Hill, N.C., that’s proof enough the plane has flown. Way too far, actually.

Nothing about the Big Ten, the ACC and the Big 12’s makeup makes sense for anyone. Except one group. Maybe.

• It used to be the bean counters were not in charge of college athletics. Either it was guys in well-tailored blazers or those in ratty letterman sweaters that last fit in 1947.

Those days are gone. When your football coach has a $50 million buyout in his contract and no one blinks twice about paying it, it’s obvious money is king. Scratch that. The pursuit of money is king.

Has to be, right? Wossamotta U. has to pay for those cross-country flights somehow.

• It used to be the Seahawks were always in the discussion for a Super Bowl berth. You know, back in the Golden Age when Pete Carroll prowled the sidelines of CenturyLink Field in white Nikes. And actually looked engaged.

Carroll is long gone, spending his time, like many folks our age, in Las Vegas, hoping for one last big win. A young whippersnapper – it used to be whippersnapper was a word everyone from Spanky to his gang used – named Mike Macdonald is now in charge. And I don’t think he even chews gum.

But his defense, like Carroll’s from those ancient times, is chewing up the NFL. Not as much as his offense, though.

• It used to be the Mariners would develop an outstanding closer and then trade them to help cut salary. “Hey, you take Robinson Cano and his god-awful contract and we’ll throw in Edwin Diaz. And a $20 million check. All you have to do is give us Jarred Kelenic. He’s going to be great.”

These days? The defending American League West champions – it used to be that was something I thought I would never type – exercised their option Monday on Anthony Munoz, keeping the righthander and his career-high 38 saves in Seattle another year. And, surprisingly enough, the contract Munoz signed in 2022 includes two more option years for the M’s.

• It used to be Sam Darnold was a can’t miss quarterback prospect from USC. Now he just can’t miss.

The former Jet, Panther, 49er and Viking hit his first 17 passes Sunday against the Commanders. He threw four touchdown passes before his first incompletion. He led the offense to a 38-point performance that has folks from Portland to Portland talking about the Hawks as Super Bowl contenders again.

• It used to be the Gonzaga men made a Sweet Sixteen run every season.

That ended in 2024 with a second-round loss to NCAA runner-up Houston.

But there is a good chance that was an aberration supplied by a woeful under seed for the Zags. This year, with a new roster featuring a veteran duo inside, the potential of another Final Four run seems real.

Why? Mark Few’s best teams played defense. Not just “defense,” but lockdown, about as good as it gets nationally, defense. Want proof?

When the Bulldogs made the NCAA final for the first time in 2017, Ken Pomeroy’s analytics ranked them No. 1 in defensive efficiency. In 2021, when they emerged from the Covid bubble as the second-best team once more, he had them at No. 11.

Last season, with the sixth-best offense, they were just 29th in his defensive ratings. And eight regular season losses ensued, their most since 2011.

• Now it’s your turn to play the game. Go ahead. Come up with something starting with “It used to be …” What’s that? I thought you said “It used to be this column was interesting.”

That’s just mean. True, but mean.

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WSU: I attended a wedding this summer with former Cougar Isaac Jones, though to be more precise, Kim and I were in attendance to honor a former player of ours and so was Jones. Anyhow, at the time Jones was a member of the Sacramento Kings. It looks as if that is no longer true. Jones is going to be let go. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his weekly bowl projections for the group. He still has the Cougars going bowling, even after their loss in Corvallis over the weekend. Why? Because all they have to do is hold serve at home and they have six wins. … It used to be the only polls that mattered were the ones the wire services were in charge of. And by wire services I mean, ah heck, Google it. Anyhow, the College Football Playoff committee released their rankings of the SEC, er, Power Four schools last night and those rankings will be featured on ESPN from here on out. Wilner has his thoughts on the first group, as does John Canzano. And others. From everywhere. As if it matters. … Stewart Mandel has his weekly mailbag in The Athletic. … It looks as if the carriage dispute between Disney (including ESPN) and YouTube might last a while. … Utah (and BYU) are both ranked in the CFP. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the committee matched them against each other? … If Arizona State is to return to the playoffs, it will have to keep winning.

• Here are the rest of the (current, old and future) Pac-12 games this week, listed chronologically. All are on Saturday unless noted. The schedule below also includes any game in which finding news turned out to be nearly impossible.

– Northwestern at No. 20 USC (6 p.m. Friday, Fox): The Trojans would like to get their offense clicking again.  

– Colorado at West Virginia (9 a.m., TNT): Freshman Julian Lewis will start at quarterback for the Buffs in what should be a stern test.

– No. 6 Oregon at Iowa (12:30 p.m., CBS): The Ducks are lower in the CFP rankings than the polls. … Running back Noah Whittington has finally burst onto the scene as a senior. … This is a big game for the Hawkeyes too.

– Kansas at Arizona (12:30, ESPN2): The Wildcats have a reliable receiver.

– No. 24 Washington at Wisconsin (1:30, Big Ten): A Husky detailed this week his journey back from MCL surgery.

– Stanford at North Carolina (1:30, The CW): It is so college football 2025 that the Tar Heels win a game and US Weekly does another story on the head coach’s girlfriend.

– Texas State at Louisiana (2, ESPN+): This is a must-win for both schools.

– California at No. 14 Louisville (4, ESPN2): The Cardinals were ranked 15th by the CFP committee.

– Nevada at Utah State (4:30, CBS Sports): The Wolf Pack is 1-7 as it heads into Logan.

– Nebraska at UCLA (6, Fox): The Bruins are getting healthy, which isn’t something the Huskers can say.

– Sam Houston at Oregon State (7, The CW): Mike Riley won’t have to recuse himself from any discussions held by his CFP selection committee. … It is Senior Night in Corvallis and, no, we don’t mean Riley will be attendance.

– San Diego State at Hawaii (8, CBS Sports): The Warriors will try to snap the Aztecs’ six-game winning streak.

• In basketball news, the Oregon men, still without point guard Jackson Shelstad, survived visiting Hawaii on a last-second shot. … The Colorado backcourt knows it has to make plays. … The Bay Area schools, men and women, posted a bunch of blowouts Tuesday. … Stanford’s men handled Portland State. … Arizona State defeated what will soon be another Big Sky school, Southern Utah. … I knew Koa Peat was good. But Rui Hachimura-as-a-junior good? That’s a surprise. … San Diego State opened with a home blowout of Long Beach State last night. … Utah State’s win Monday was keyed by newcomers. … Texas State is going to have a long last season before it enters the Pac-12 if Monday’s loss is a harbinger. … The USC women won easily over New Mexico State. … Colorado State, with an Indiana transfer front and center, topped Weber State.

Gonzaga: Yes, Texas Southern shouldn’t be confused with Texas. Or Texas A&M. Or even Texas State. But the way GU defended Monday bodes well for the future. Theo Lawson shares all the numbers and more in this rewind of the opener. … What is it people under the age of 50 say? Re-upping? We are reupping our links to The Zags Basketball Insiders Podcast, which is back for another year. Jim Meehan and Richard Fox posted a long season-opening one Monday. You can listen here.

EWU: Dan Thompson has weekly Big Sky notebook in today’s S-R. It seems as if the conference is a little top heavy in football this season. Montana (ranked second nationally), Montana State (third) and UC Davis (11th) are the only schools left in the top 25. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the Montana women, led by Lake City’s Avery Waddington’s 20 points, won their opener. … Montana State rolled over Carroll in Bozeman. … New Mexico handled Northern Arizona. … Weber State just couldn’t hit from outside in a season-opening loss. … Hawaii topped visiting Portland State. … The Northern Arizona men lost to Drake last night. … Sacramento State opened its new arena, and the Mike Bibby era, with an easy win. … Montana State was a couple plays short of an upset at Colorado on Monday. … The Big Sky football race has begun to sift itself out. … Cal Poly has dropped out with its four-game losing streak.

Idaho: The Vandals regained some momentum last Friday with their 35-32 overtime win at then-23rd-ranked Northern Arizona. Will it last? UC Davis is in Moscow this Saturday, coming off a surprising home loss to Idaho State. Peter Harriman takes a look at the matchup.

Preps: There were a couple of football games Tuesday night featuring GSL schools. Yep, the playoffs, or at least the play-in games, have started. Dave Nichols was at U-Hi as the Titans earned a State berth for the first since 2012 with an 18-13 win over Walla Walla. … Cheryl Nichols has a roundup of the rest of Tuesday’s action. … Former Ferris High standout Andrew Kittredge is headed back to Baltimore. The Cubs traded him to the Orioles on Tuesday.

Chiefs: I’m not sure how Dave did it, but he also has this story on Spokane’s 8-2 loss to visiting Kamloops at the Arena.

Mariners: We mentioned the Munoz contract news above. And linked the story. We link it again here.

Seahawks: It used to be the Hawks’ deals for receivers were sure to lead to a Super Bowl title. OK. One time. Percy Harvin. But that bodes well – if you want it to – for the Tuesday deal with New Orleans which brought speedster Rashid Shaheed to Seattle. Except Harvin was an offseason deal. And he didn’t play much his first year. Or his second. But he had some big moments in the Super Bowl run. … Some folks think pretty highly of the Hawks’ deal. And of the team itself. One of them is our friend Jim Moore.

Kraken: Maybe missing a little time can be a good thing.

Bloomsday: We admit we’ve missed a few of Nina Culver’s stories on the folks who have run all 49 Bloomsdays. They sort of slip by. But we found the one for today, on Linn Simpson, a recently retired attorney in town.

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• By the way, you want to know how much a candy bar costs these days? A lot more than a nickel, that’s for sure. And they used to be a lot bigger. Until later …