A Grip on Sports: The rebuilt Pac-12 will be OK in football and good in basketball but baseball is the sport in which it could really shine
A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s raining up and down the West Coast on the late-April Wednesday, including around the Inland Northwest. Which makes it a great time to examine one aspect of the re-formed Pac-12. After all, there won’t be many baseball games played today to skew the numbers.
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• Before the Pac-12 as it had been constituted for decades dissolved a couple years ago, baseball was the sport the conference dominated more than any.
Members of the conference (at one point or another) won 29 NCAA Division I titles, starting in 1947 when California grabbed the first one. Even though the SEC wrested away the title of the best conference in the nation long before the Pac-12 imploded, that number is still the gold standard. By a few nuggets.
So why wouldn’t the latest iteration of the West Coast’s premier conference pour resources into the sport, and keep the reputation alive? Mainly because money is tight and football is king. And demands a king’s ransom. It will be paid. Even if men’s basketball will begin this fall with more teams, headlined by Gonzaga and supported by San Diego State and Utah State, that sport a respected national reputation.
But neither sport is better positioned to shine than baseball.
And, as the younger generation loves to say, we have receipts to share. Well, OK, I’m not at all sure that’s how they would put it in their umpteenth text chain but there are numbers available to back up my contention the new Pac-12 will be the third best conference in the country. Right from the start.
The NCAA actually posts an RPI for baseball. Like a lot of numbers the organization uses to pick tournament teams, it may or may not be all that accurate. But it works as a way to compare conferences.
And, if next year’s Pac-12 schools are pulled out and bundled together like the Power Four and the rest, the conference shines bright this season.
At the top of the list, of course, is three-time NCAA champion Oregon State, in the midst of its second season as an independent. The Beavers are 12th today in RPI, though that’s lower than they’ve been at times this season.
Gonzaga, boasting Division I’s longest winning streak (11) after Tuesday night’s 16-8 win in Pullman, is 35th. Newcomer Texas State, competing for the final year in the Sun Belt, is right behind the Zags at 36th.
That’s three schools in the top 40. Which, by raw numbers, may not seem that impressive. But considering there will only be seven Pac-12 baseball-playing schools next season – Dallas Baptist will be an affiliated member, joining WSU, San Diego State and Fresno State – the percentage of Pac-12 members among the nation’s top 40 stands at 42.9.
How does that compare with other conferences?
No one compares to the SEC. The “It-just-means-more” conference shows it most in baseball, with 12 of its 16 schools ranked in the RPI’s top 40. That’s 75%, which would seem justified to be labeled “whopping.” But after that, the other conferences are pretty much just plain burgers.
The ACC, with its southern tilt? Seven of 16 schools. Just above the Pac, at 43.8%. The Big 12, covering the lower Midwest for the most part? Four of 14, 38.6%. And the Big Ten, the most-northern of the major conferences? Five of 17, 29.4%.
OK, so the Big Ten does have the top-ranked school. That just happens to be one of three former Pac-12 institutions in the conference, UCLA. And with USC at 15 and Oregon at 27, the Big Ten relies on its West Coast arm for baseball more than any of its Power Four peers.
All the numbers mean is the Pac-12 has an opening. It’s well positioned to kick off next season with a splash. Outside of Oregon State, sure, it won’t be easy to host one of the 16 opening regionals, but if traditionally strong Fresno State (NCAA champion in 2008 but 285 in RPI this season) and San Diego State (126) can regain even a modicum of their past glory, the schools’ RPI should be helped, not hindered, when they get to get to conference play.
And that usually translates into more NCAA berths.
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WSU: Yes, football is king. And the first spring of Kirby Moore’s reign is still progressing. Tuesday, the rebuilt linebacking corps took its turn in the spotlight, as Greg Woods shares in this story from Pullman. … Yesterday we shared our thoughts on Jon Haarlow as the full-time Cougar athletic director. And the most-important scoreboard for his team will be how much money it can raise. Jon Wilner has his thoughts today. And he has a different emphasis. He focuses on Haarlow’s working relationship with President Betsy Cantwell. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, The Athletic’s football writer, Stewart Mandel, has a mailbag today. He even touches on, gasp, academics. … Washington held its 10th spring practice and the cornerbacks were the focus. Of the coverage, not the practice. … Don’t think Oregon State isn’t still looking for transfers even as summer beckons. … Oregon will play its spring game Saturday. … A former Stanford quarterback was named the starter at Florida State. No, not Andrew Luck. He’s out of eligibility (we think) and running the school’s program. … Colorado has a player Deion Sanders knows has to be on the field. Where? That’s still to be decided. … UCLA is trying to identify playmakers as spring wears on. … Arizona State is trying to identify its top receivers. … Arizona’s defense has been having its days, including yesterday. … Boise State coach Spencer Danielson signed a contract extension and said he’s in for the long haul with the Broncos. … Fresno State’s coaching pay is an issue. … San Diego State has a running back who is making impressions everywhere. … Lots of schools will have players drafted. We found stories about USC, Utah, Arizona State and Arizona.
• In basketball news, could the Oregon men attract one of the nation’s top recruits? … Utah still needs to make more portal additions. … One addition we thought might not happen? Paulius Murauskas following Randy Bennett to Arizona State. During the Gonzaga matchups, the two never seemed to see eye-to-eye. And that’s not because Bennett is short. … An Arizona player is doing a good thing. …Colorado State picked up a guard in the portal. … The Washington women attracted another player from the portal.
Gonzaga: Adam Miller transferred from Arizona State to Spokane this time last year with the expectation he would play his last season in college wearing the GU uniform. After all, his season with the Zags was his fifth full one in the sport. But, as Theo Lawson shares in this story, there are reports Miller entered the transfer portal before it closed Tuesday night. He seems to be hoping for a change in eligibility status that would allow him to play one more season and earn another NIL paycheck. … Theo’s Pac-12 transfer portal tracker has his name added.
Preps: The best scholar/athletes in the Greater Spokane League were honored Tuesday in an annual luncheon in the Spokane Valley. Dave Nichols was there and has this coverage, which also lists the honorees from each school. … Dave stuck around and put together the daily roundup as well.
EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, Northern Colorado’s men added a transfer from just down the road in Boulder. … Football recruiting never stops, even when a class has been announced. At least at Montana. … The Portland State women have finished out their roster. … Utah Tech has filled its vacant head coaching position. … We had a baseball top to today’s column, so we thought it would be OK to link this story on Northern Colorado’s recent 21-inning game. The Bears won on a controversial walk-off balk.
Indians: And, of course, Dave has a summary of Spokane’s latest loss, this one 5-2 to open a series at Everett.
Mariners: Speaking of latest losses, the M’s posted theirs last night as well. The offense was listless against a suspect A’s pitching staff and Seattle fell 5-2. Cal Raleigh did hit another home run last night and seems to be emerging from his early season troubles. … Former Gonzaga star Casey Legumina struggled Monday night. Tuesday the M’s designated the righthander for assignment and brought up another reliever from Tacoma. … We had to ask the folks on X the other night who the new kid in the booth was. Turns out it is former Mariner player Ryon Healy. Hope his analysis is better than his educational choices (Crespi High, one of our high school’s main rivals, and Oregon, everyone in the Northwest’s rivals).
Seahawks: We linked this Matt Calkins’ column about the Hawks’ draft yesterday on the Times’ site. It is on the S-R’s today, so we link it again. … You want to watch the Hawks pick four times in three days (or maybe more in fewer days, if they trade down)? Here is how.
Storm: Positionless basketball can work. The Storm will see if it can work for them this season.
Reign: The last original player has decided to retire.
World Cup: If you are reading this, it is probably already too late to join an electronic queue for the last release of over-priced tickets. But we thought we should link this story anyway. … Speaking of over-priced, we just happened to look last month at hotel prices in the Seattle area during World Cup matches. And almost dropped our coffee cup. My goodness are they high. Turns out they may be dropping. No one is biting at the price-gouging numbers. All over the country.
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• If you are wondering why the Pac-12 had to add Dallas Baptist to its baseball roster for next season, blame the weather. Utah State, Colorado State and Boise State do not have baseball programs. Boise State did for a while but for some reason decided to pull the plug after only a few years. Until later …