A Grip on Sports: The Big Sky preseason poll reflects the reality of FCS football and our thirst for the sport’s arrival

A GRIP ON SPORTS • One of the prettiest sights amid July’s heat is when the hostas flower. But they aren’t the only perennial blooms of summer. Conference football polls blossom as well, and not just among the royal gardens of the sport.

•••••••

• Everyone from Bloomington to Seattle anticipates the Big Ten’s football poll. Ditto for Gainesville to College Station for the SEC. But around these parts there is a smaller, no-less-dedicated fan base which spends early July waiting for the prognostications concerning the Big Sky Conference.

And they had just one question this year. After Montana State and Montana, who will be picked third?

They found out Monday. And the choice, UC Davis, shows just how interesting the upcoming football season could be.

How’s that again? The Bobcats are defending conference and FCS champions. Though they suffered losses, their recent track record shows the have capable replacements waiting and can fill in other holes with transfers. They are, and should be, the overwhelming favorite.

And Montana, despite a changeover at head coach (a trading of Bobbys, from Hauck to Kennedy), have inherent advantages (see stadium, Washington-Grizzly) and are a safe choice for second.

After that? Everyone has potential, good and bad.

Take UC Davis, which earned two coaches’ votes for first place as well as two from the media. Last season the Aggies had one of the better quarterbacks in the conference. The league’s Freshman of the Year, Caden Pinnick. He was a difference maker as they reached the FCS quarterfinals. Now he is in Pullman, a not-unexpected consequence of success, NIL and the portal. And yet, there is enough left at California’s best agricultural school for the other coaches and the media voters to expect a high finish.

In fact, the Aggies seemed to have separated themselves a bit from the other 10 schools, new quarterback or not. The gap between Davis and the media’s fourth-place pick, Idaho State, is the largest in the poll.

The local schools? The coaches have Idaho sixth, the media have the Vandals seventh. Eastern Washington finished eighth in both.

It’s hard to argue the placement. Then again, after the top three, it might be hard to argue any placement for any of the remaining schools. Except maybe newcomer Utah Tech, which struggled mightily in its final season in the United Athletic Conference – 2-10 overall, 1-7 in conference – and seems destined for a similar finish in its new digs. Unless Portland State, which has been the default last-place pick most recent seasons, can’t find its footing again under new coach Chris Fisk.

There are new coaches at Cal Poly and Weber State too. And new rosters everywhere, the consequence of the pronounced elevator-like modern nature of FCS rosters. The conference’s better players move up to the FBS level and are replaced, in many cases, by FBS players seeking a new floor.

Add it up and the uncertainty of the season a little more than a month away may make every voter look a little foolish before the snow starts to fall on Homestake Pass. And we’ve seen that happen in August.

• If the Mariners go on a Boston Red Sox-like run the rest of this month, someone should send Terry Francona a Hosta bouquet. Or roses.

The key bat for Seattle between now and October? Cal Raleigh, of course. The argument could be made if Raleigh was having a season even in the same zip code as his last one, the M’s wouldn’t be hovering around .500. They wouldn’t be in a nip-and-tuck battle with the Rangers in the A.L. West.

But the reality is Raleigh hasn’t been himself. Even his previously worst self. This season is the aberration of his career. And yet, an average Cal Raleigh from here on out would make a difference as wide as his backside in their fortunes.

Which is where Francona comes in.

First base was open last night as Francona’s Reds trailed the M’s by three runs in the seventh. There were runners on second and third. Cincinnati had lefty Caleb Ferguson on the mound ready to face left-handed hitting Dom Canzone. Seemed like a good matchup.

Not for Francona. He saw the switch-hitting Raleigh on deck. Looked at his numbers. Saw he was hitless again. He walked Canzone. Ya, intentionally.

Ferguson threw one pitch.

If anything is going to propel Raleigh into a hot stretch, it was the disrespect. Or the sound of the bat. Or the result. Monday’s game-sealing grand slam to left field was vintage Raleigh, circa 2025. A hanging breaking ball lifted majestically into the night air and landing beyond the T-Mobile wall.

Put the date in your memory. Remember it was Raleigh’s 10th home run of the season. That he was hitting .162 when Francona made the decision to attack him. And see what the catcher’s numbers are when the season ends.

•••

WSU: July is a pivotal month for high school juniors and their basketball recruiting. The NCAA holds two recruiting weekends and offers abound. Monday, Cougar coach David Riley heard something from Bothell High’s Jaylen McLaughlin. He wanted to be in Pullman in 2027. Greg Woods has this story on McLaughlin’s decision. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner has his thoughts in the Mercury News on what SEC commissioner Greg Sankey had to say as that conference’s media days opened. … A big part of the talk was about the Protect College Sports Act. … John Canzano has some Pac-12 thoughts in his Monday mailbag. … Fresno State has figured out a way to give its offensive linemen a boost before the Boise State game. … Who are the top 10 players for Colorado State? … Elsewhere in the West, how stable is Washington at each position entering the football season? … Will Arizona be one the Big-12’s better teams? … Arizona State has to plug a couple holes in its schedule down the road. … In basketball news, LeBron James paid tribute to the USC staffers that saved his son Bronny a few years ago.

Gonzaga: Greg Lee is back today with another women’s basketball story. Today’s main subject? Last season’s breakout star, Lauren Whittaker, who put together one of the best freshmen seasons in school history. … The Zags revealed their Pac-12 logoed uniforms yesterday.

EWU and Idaho: Of course there is a story in the S-R about the Big Sky football polls. Dan Thompson wrote it. We linked above. And here too. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the only other story we could find on the conference’s poll was from Missoula. … There is also a story on the Idaho State defense.  

World Cup: There were flaws in the expanded tournament. Certainly. But there were also some great successes. And some incredible images.

Seahawks: We linked this Seattle Times story yesterday. It is on the S-R site today. We link it again. … The team put safety Nick Emmanwori on the physically unable to perform list before training camp opens this week. … Remember, Seattle is on “Hard Knocks” this season. We wonder if the new owners might be around.

Mariners: We linked the game story from the 8-0 victory above. And here as well. … Eugenio Suarez returned again, this time with the Reds. And the M’s fans welcomed him back warmly. … The M’s need a healthy Brendan Donovan down the stretch. … Same with Julio Rodriguez, who left Monday’s game with a hamstring issue.

Storm: There were good performances, sure. But Seattle lost once more. It is a WNBA-worst 6-22 on the season.

•••       

• We once read a quote from Alan Page, the former Vikings’ Hall of Fame defensive lineman. He opined that people forget pain. And that’s why women have a second child or people run second marathons. He’s right. We had forgotten how painful it is to deal with July’s humidity in the South. There was a reminder for us Monday as we tried to take an early evening walk. Until later …

•••

• Photos: The Spokesman-Review, Getty Images, Tribune News Service