A Grip on Sports: This is the time to be optimistic about football even as pessimism abounds concerning the Pac-12’s future

A GRIP ON SPORTS • August is a transition month for sports. Out with the heat of summer, in with the heat of fall – even if the season doesn’t begin before the fall sports season do.

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• High school football begins in Washington next week. The predicted triple-digit temps will be there to greet anyone brave enough to don pads and spend the fall months bouncing around the football field. Other prep sports will follow in short order, though if you’ve been cruising around town in the mornings or early evenings, you’ve probably already witnessed packs of cross country runners covering miles together before they official begin training.

That’s for just down the road, of course. The pros in the NFL and their lesser-paid counterparts on college campuses have already begun. Their training has been covered in detail in these parts. Everyone, from the lowliest NFL franchise to the highest reaches of academia, are poised for their “best season ever.” It’s impossible, sure, but that’s the joy of August. It’s a bit of spring in late summer.

The flowers this time of year, however, come in the prose emitting from training camps. “Best shape” is a term we read a lot. “Improved chemistry” is right up there. “He looks like a different player” is a dark-horse candidate for phrase of the year.

By the time the leaves begin to fall, we’ll know which team is going to endure and which will wilt, of course. Heck, well before then. But for now, for a couple more weeks, optimism is the starting quarterback, hope flanked out wide to one side with anticipation set up on the other.

Let them run. Let them show their wares. It’s OK to dream.

• And it’s OK to wake up in the middle of the night, screaming, what with the nightmare that is West Coast college football these days.

In a couple weeks we’ll get out of bed and there will be games to watch. First up? Navy at Notre Dame. Perfect. A game that epitomizes the importance of tradition in the game. A series that dates back about a hundred years. A ritual. A right of passage. Another Irish rout. After all, nothing says college football than one of the haves steamrolling one of the have-nots.

And how have the Irish been able to stay among the haves? TV money. Notre Dame parlayed its national fanbase and interest into a lucrative NBC contract years ago, riding that wave to unending relevance even as an independent in a conference-dependent world.

Money can buy college football happiness. And lead to success. It’s a truism that is only becoming truer. Money doesn’t ensure success, true, but the lack of it ensures the other thing. As three of the Pac-4 schools are about to find out. Stanford? It has a $36 billion endowment, which means the Cardinal have money available even without money, in the current athletic sense.

Which has led us to a thought, as we pass along all these columns and stories about the Pac’s future. Why doesn’t Stanford just bankroll a new West Coast conference itself? Heck, start a new TV network. Broadcast college sports some of the time, let the Hoover Institute spew out whatever it wants for a few hours each day and hire Simon Cowell to team with the Tree to judge a college version of American Idol, featuring bands from around the nation.

We jest, of course, but we also have a point.

The schools that remain on the West Coast without a conference home have to think creatively. Turn over the planning of what’s ahead to the art school instructors or the theoretical physics professors. Those faculty members are all about coming up with new ideas, new ways of looking at things.

After all, the status quo hasn’t been kind. Not recently. Maybe a new wave will carry them to success. It certainly couldn’t be worse.

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WSU: Fresh blood is needed. Why, you ask? Because the old guard came up with the hare-brained idea the Pac-12, a Manny Machado-like league, was worth Shohei Ohtani money. Sorry. Not happening. Even the Mets wouldn’t go for that – and ESPN isn’t the Mets. Jon Wilner shares that info, also delves into who is in charge of the decimated conference and, in the Mercury News, estimates what a rebuilt one would earn in the marketplace. … Elsewhere in the Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano shares the news Andrew Luck’s dad, Oliver, is serving as consultant to the four schools. … Those four school are dealing with a recruiting mess. … There are four schools who don’t want Stanford and California in the ACC. Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and North Carolina State all are adamant the West Coast isn’t the best coast for the ACC. … Washington will have to introduce itself to the Big Ten. After all, it’s not like the Huskies have played in a dozen Rose Bowls against the conference over the years. (Only 11 of their 14 appearances have been against the Big Ten, if you are wondering.) … The president of Oregon State told the school its future is with the Pac-12, which has to be rebuilt. … Oregon is headed elsewhere but this season is about the players. … Colorado will rely on freshmen to some degree. … Utah would like to get back to the days of defensive dominance up front. … Chip Kelly’s plan is brilliant. That’s why it will never happen. … Arizona State has mined local talent. … An Arizona receiver is underrated. … The Wildcats are in Israel not just to play basketball. … The conference upheaval threatens the nation’s Olympic movement.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, the Maui fires’ impact reach all the way to Montana. … High-profile folks have passed through Bozeman recently.

Indians: Hillsboro rolled to an 11-6 victory Friday night at Avista.

Mariners: There was no way this year’s M’s were winning 14 consecutive games. At least that was what we thought. After last night’s blowout 9-2 victory over the A.L. East-leading Orioles, they are more than halfway there. Eight straight, if you are keeping track at home – and we know you are. They are also within a half-game of the final wild-card spot. … J.P. Crawford is on the I.L. with concussion symptoms. … It’s Felix Hernandez’s weekend and those who have known him the longest are probably the happiest.

Seahawks: Did the first exhibition game help the Hawks figure out the eventual 53-man roster? … Cade Johnson is out of the hospital and in concussion protocol. … Drew Lock is a lock to make the team. But he has to do more to play.

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• A nice walk, a great meal, a decadent dessert and the best company in the world. Pretty cool anniversary celebration. We’ve decided to make a weekend of it. And, Kent, 44 is the year of Snoopy. Until later …