A Grip on Sports: The games aren’t for a while yet but the Seahawks start prepping for the upcoming season today in Seattle

A GRIP ON SPORTS • It’s over. The longest stretch of the year. The time between the Super Bowl and the beginning of the NFL year. Yep, today, the Seahawks open training camp. And the 2023-24 season begins. It’s about darn time.

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• It would be perfect if the Hawks were doing what they did oh so many years ago, holding the first part of camp in Cheney. After all, it’s going to be a flawless day with a steadily hotter week ahead. Textbook conditions to prepare the athletes for the long grind ahead.

But those dreamy days are gone. The Seahawks have a training center in Renton. (The facility is sponsored by a local hospital and everything). They use it. Fan access and interaction with the players is controlled. It’s as professional as professional gets. And a far cry from the days of yore, when one could drive out to Eastern Washington University on a whim, find a place to park and wander around watching Chuck Knox grind his teeth and prepare the team to grind down the AFC competition.

The grind remains, though Pete Carroll’s practices have a much different vibe. A Seattle vibe, actually, as opposed to the rural one Knox’s teams had in the 1980s. Which makes the training camp site much more appropriate.

Lucrative too. And that trumps all these days.

• One element of professional football the college game lacks is a sense that everyone, including the Seahawks, has a shot at success. There are at least one or two surprise teams in the NFL each year, as the league’s rules aimed at leveling the playing field do their job. That’s not the case among the NFL’s feeder programs, aka our nation’s academic institutions.

How many of you think the school you root for has a legitimate shot at winning the national title? At making the playoffs? Unless you root for about a dozen schools, you’re lying. As good as, say, Oregon or Penn State is every season, neither school (or others of their ilk) have a chance to win the title this year.

And for a great majority of the NCAA’s 133 Division I football programs, there is even less hope. Heck, for most, even winning their conference is a near-impossibility.

There is a pyramid in the game, with the top schools rarely changing. Money, prestige, a self-perpetuating recruiting pipeline, all are part of the rewards high-end programs have developed in the past decade or two. And the more success they have, the more they ensure future success, especially financially.

Breaking the code isn’t hard. Breaking into the club is.

• We’ve been contemplating the M’s near-future a lot lately. And have come up with a fatalistic view of what will happen between now and 3 p.m. PDT August 1.

A six-game winning streak. A team, seemingly, on the cusp of the playoff chase. A desperate need for one more bat. An ill-begotten trade of one of the young arms. A veteran hitter who, instead of supplying a spark to the offense, struggles out of the gate. A post-trade-deadline slump that throws the team from the postseason carousel. A sad, slow march to mediocrity in late August and September.

And the young arm? He wins the 2025 National League Cy Young Award.

• That nightmare was balanced, however, by a post-taco-night dream. A similar trade is made. A veteran hitter acquired. A rejuvenated clubhouse and offense. A long winning streak. A wild-card berth. A first-round upset. A five-game divisional victory. A surprising A.L. title. A World Series win over the just-as-surprising late-charging Padres. A parade. A Shohei Ohtani off-season signing. A dynasty begins.

The dream to end all dreams.  

Man, we’ve got to lay off the spicy food. It does something to our mind.

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Gonzaga: Purdue, as it did with almost everyone until the opening-round of the NCAA Tournament, pushed GU around in Portland last season. The Zags won’t have to wait long for a rematch, though, as the two were announced as opening-round foes in Maui this season. Jim Meehan has more in this story. … We linked Theo Lawson’s story yesterday about a valuable recruit visiting the Bulldogs. We do so again today because it is that important.

WSU: Around the Pac-12 and the nation, once again there are rumors floating around about Colorado and the Big 12. Enough, actually, that Jon Wilner addressed some of the underlying reasons in a Mercury News column. He points out the two forces at work in Boulder. … We also have a football story from Colorado. … Oregon is giving football coach Dan Lanning an extension already. … Can Oregon State break into the upper ranks of the game this season? … Arizona State has yet to decide on a starting quarterback. … Can Arizona’s defense get to the level of its offense? … We’ve had to share a lot of stories over the past decade or so of basketball players collapsing on the court after heart-related issues. Luckily, most of them include a second chapter, after the player is treated. For the second consecutive year, it happened at USC, this time to Bronny James, LeBron’s son. As one would expect, James’ collapse and revival led to a bunch of stories on the event. … Oregon’s women have reached into the Seattle prep ranks for an assistant basketball coach. 

EWU: Former Eagle (and Shadle Park High Highlander) Tanner Groves had a chance to run with Oklahoma City Thunder summer league squad this month. He told Theo the experience was valuable and helped him prepare for what’s next, a season in Greece. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, we have more stories to pass along based on reporting from the media day, including a couple from Montana State. … There is also one from Northern Arizona.

Indians: Spokane opened a series in Eugene last night with a 7-1 loss. Dave Nichols has all the information in this story.

Mariners: If the M’s do reach the postseason, last night’s rally from a four-run, eighth-inning deficit to a 9-7 victory over the Twins might just be noted as the turning point. … The ball from Cade Marlowe’s first big league hit has a special place in its future. … You can start making your spring training plans.

Seahawks: We have shared all the roster rankings with you recently, with links to their spots in the Seattle Times. The last ranking, 10-to-1, we can also share. Bob Condotta’s story ran in the S-R this morning. … The Hawks first-round receiver draft pick is healthy for training camp. … Veteran pass rusher Uchenna Nwosu is richer heading to camp. … The day before camp opens included a bunch of financially oriented moves. John Schneider likes to have some roster flexibility during camp.

Storm: A huge lead was not enough for Seattle to hold off New York. Its losing streak extended to 10 games.

Kraken: The team wants to keep the entire coaching staff together but that may be a challenge.

World Cup: There is a history of outstanding matches between the U.S. and the Netherlands. Will tonight’s be another? It’s a key match for both in their group.

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• The time between the end of the NFL season and the beginning of the next seems long in some regards and short in others. In number of days, it’s pretty large, though the ending point seems hard to pin down. Is it the start of training camp, the first exhibition or the season opener? Besides, the stretch includes so many elements, from the draft to minicamps to OTAs, there is really no “off” in the offseason. Still, when the teams actually start ramping up for games seems like a big deal. And is. Until later …