A Grip on Sports: We’re not even going to feign interest is the games of former Pac-12 members – unless we have someone to root against

A GRIP ON SPORTS • No college football today. Just a smattering of games next Saturday. Then, boom. The most impactful season in our lifetime – and that’s a long time folks – begins in earnest as August exits the stage. We can wait. Heck, we wish we could go back a few years and ensure none of the changes we will see ever happened. We can’t. We can only lament them. And move on.

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• Or can we? Move on, we mean? Not sure. We noticed a change in our habits last season. In years past, the best games of the weekend, no matter who was playing, usually drew our interest.

Georgia hosting – as if this would have ever happened in the SEC, but suspended your disbelief for a minute if you can – Alabama? We were going to spend three, three-and-a-half hours of our Saturday watching. But last year, with the looming destruction of the place we called home for six decades plus? We just didn’t care about college football as much.

Maybe we would tune in for a few minutes to see how well Michigan was stealing signs. Or spend a segment between commercials waiting for Texas to throw an interception. But just sit down and watch and out-of-area game from start to finish? No chance.

We checked each Saturday which Pac-12 games were on and when. We watched the Cougars, of course. We were paid to do that but even if we weren’t, we would have spent our most-important currency, time. And UCLA whenever we could, just so we were able to converse intelligently with our sister about what happened. Maybe even the USC game, hoping Lincoln Riley would show some glimmer of acumen, giving us hope after Caleb Williams left the Trojans could compete in the Big Ten. Sorry, fans of Troy. Not sure it ever happened.

But the breakup was already being felt around here. We found ourselves more interested in Oregon State than Oregon – or Washington or Arizona or any other turncoat school.

Now what do we do?

Well, we’ll be watching Washington State when we can. However, this football season falls in a tough time for us. Our time will be spent not just in the Northwest but also in California, as Kim’s mother is more and more on our radar. That’s important, certainly, but it is also important to determine if her cable package includes The CW. If not, we may have to splurge.

We’ll also try to keep up on the Beavers. After all, they held fast when every major conference in the nation made the pilgrimage to Corvallis with boatloads of money. OK, that didn’t happen, but we like to imagine it did. Heck, you know those roads being rebuilt in downtown Pullman? The ones with the construction disrupting are favorite route through the Rome of the Palouse? We have this fantasy the SEC is paying for it, trying to entice the Cougars into abandoning their Pac-12 roots and to improve the once-mighty conference’s struggling football fortunes.

Not going to happen, folks. Washington State is Pac-12 through and through. There is no way the Cougs would abandon their athletes to non-stop cross-country travel and multiple football games with kickoff at the ungodly hour of 8 p.m. in Tuscaloosa. No matter how many new roads or piles of cash are dangled.

At least that’s how we go to sleep at night, imagining such things are true.

It works. Better than a pill. Then again, we’ve always been a sucker for well-plotted fiction. It’s has to be better than reality, right?

• If you are wondering, the reality is the Pac-12 nonconference season begins in two weeks. Washington State hosts the Big Sky’s Portland State at noon. Not sure Gesa Field will be full, but it should be. If only there were beer sales throughout the stadium, we would guarantee it.

The Beavers begin their season right after, hosting Idaho State at 3:30 p.m. Both games will be on The CW.

Those other, former, members of the Pac-12 club? We won’t be watching. Not when Utah hosts Southern Utah on the preceeding Thursday. Not Stanford’s home game with TCU that Friday. Not when UCLA plays at Hawaii on Saturday. And certainly not USC’s opener with LSU from Las Vegas on Sunday night. Well, maybe that last one. After all, both teams are easy to root against.

We win no matter who loses.

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WSU: We’re about 92% sure the Cougars will have settled on a couple running backs to get the majority of the carries by the opener. After reading Greg Woods’ story on the S-R site this morning, we also have a pretty good idea of who they will be. … We have a tendency to listen to games on the radio when we can. There will be a new voice in the Martin Stadium home booth this season, as Matt Chazanow has left for North Carolina State. The replacement? Washington State graduate Chris King, who has been the voice of Idaho football since 2021 and basketball since 2013. Peter Harriman has more in this story.  … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, we linked this Gardner Minshew story yesterday. It is available on the S-R site today. … Is the ACC going to break up? Doesn’t look as if anything will happen before the 2025 season. … Hey, recruiting never stops. As we say. Jon Wilner passes along a West Coast summary for football and we have stories from Oregon and USC as well. … Wilner also has his usual mailbag in the Mercury News. … There is a new fan favorite for Oregon State. And it looks as if a lot of people want to watch him and the rest of the Beavers at Reser Stadium … The numbers stories on the Oregonian website continue. The paper is at No. 15 for Oregon State and Oregon. … Washington’s new running backs coach focuses on love as part of his training methods. … Oregon practiced again yesterday. There are some notes to pass along. … Colorado also practiced, but the Buffs held it at night – in Denver. … No one is sure who will be Utah’s starting running back. … The Utes have an impactful transfer. … Arizona State will have a new uniform and a new defense. … Arizona has a quarterback that is drawing comparisons to NFL players. … In the Mountain West, San Jose State is still deciding who will be its starting quarterback. … Utah State plans to honor a former player. … Was the Aggies’ quarterback really offered $600,000 in NIL funds to transfer? … There is a freshman to watch for Wyoming. … There have been injuries for San Diego State’s receivers, which allows others their chances. … Boise State is making improvements to its stadium. … New Mexico’s tight ends are inexperienced but talented. … In basketball news, we have coverage of a recruit in the Gonzaga section just below. He also has Arizona in his top five.

Gonzaga: We’ve said it before. (Earlier today even.) We say it again. Recruiting, especially of the best high school players, never stops. A highly sought-after forward in the 2025 class, Nikolas Khamenia from Southern California, has the Zags in his final five schools. Jim Meehan has more. … Will Khamenia be attending Kraziness in the Kennel again? No announcement on that – he’s attended the last two – but we do have a date for the event. Jim’s story passes along the news it will be Oct. 5 at 3 p.m.

EWU and Idaho: Around the Big Sky, how will Montana State’s special teams be this season? … The Idaho State two-deep is still up in the air. … Sacramento State hopes its defense comes together. … Portland State has appointed captains. … In basketball news, a former Bobcat was honored recently. … Colorado coach Tad Boyle is headed to the Northern Colorado athletic hall of fame. He has some thoughts on the honor. … In women’s soccer, Montana opened with a shutout win. … Northern Colorado couldn’t keep up with Air Force. … Idaho State and Colorado State played a scoreless draw.

Indians: Remember yesterday when we wrote the game was not competitive as Spokane won in a rout? Well, Friday’s game was not competitive either, though this time it was Vancouver who ran away 10-1. Colton Clark was at Avista and has this game story. … Elsewhere in the NWL, Eugene rallied late and edged Hillsboro 3-2. … Everett held off visiting Tri-City 6-4.

Olympics: We have more to pass along on the Jordan Chiles front, including the Court for Arbitration in Sports feigning indignity because the New York Times reported the head of the CAS panel’s conflict of interest, saying it alleged bias when there was none. Just because Hamid Gharavi represented the Romanian government in other arbitration hearings, he wasn’t biased. According to the CAS. No way money would color judgement. As if. … We agree with this sentiment.

Mariners: Tomorrow we will focus on the M’s. Maybe. Couldn’t this morning. Too angry after the give-away 5-3 loss in Pittsburgh. But we do have one question. Have the Mariners ever put a second baseman on the field that is worse defensively than Jorge Polanco? Asking for a pitching staff. … OK, another question. Why were the Pirates helmets and their ugly-as-piles-of-coal-slag City Connect uniform tops two different shades of yellow? … The bats all looked different on what’s called players’ weekend. Cal Raleigh had an interesting one.

Seahawks: The second exhibition game of the preseason is today (4 p.m., Fox 28) against the Titans in Tennessee. Are you going to watch? Here are five things to look for if you do. … The tight ends are worth keeping an eye on. … The joint practices were regular-season intense.

Sounders: Seattle returns to Leagues Cup play with a home quarterfinal match against nemesis LAFC.

Storm: Seattle started the WNBA stretch run Friday in Atlanta. Started well. Had a double-digit second-half lead. And lost, 83-81 to the Dream.  

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• We woke up early this morning, greeted with the sound of a broken sprinkler. We spent a few hours in the yard yesterday weeding and didn’t notice a thing. We certainly did at 4:30 in the morning. Fountain-like sounds as the plume of water tickled the branches of the crabapple tree hovering over it. Great. More yard work today. Until later …