A Grip on Sports: Before you rail about a player leaving your favorite college football program, send a few cross words towards the real culprits

A GRIP ON SPORTS • I’m not a conspiracy buff. No grassy knoll. No alien drones. No faked moon landing. Not for me. Except, well, the NCAA’s recent actions concerning name, image and likeness and the transfer portal make it hard not to believe, at the least, backroom machinations have been in play.

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• What has this to do with John Mateer, you ask? Why isn’t this guy bloviating about the biggest Inland Northwest news event since Ryan Leaf declared for the NFL draft? To that, I say, he is. Just not in the way you might have expected.

By now, all of you know the Cougar quarterback who burst on the local scene in September, passing and running all over just about everyone they played, and igniting the school’s best start since the early part of the century, will not be in Pullman next season. Even as he stays within the college football ecosystem. Just in some other part of the swamp.

Devastating news for Washington State’s already devastated football program. But old news already. Sort of expected news, too, since rumors began circulating Mateer was being offered as much a $3 million to enter the transfer portal and pick someone else from behind the NIL curtain.

Even though the Cougar Collective, the booster group fighting the good fight, figured out a way to collect more than $1 million to keep him around.

It wasn’t enough. Turns out the group brought a knife – a really nice, sure, one with a jewel-encrusted blade – to what’s morphed into a tank battle. And WSU’s offer got rolled over. For that, blame must be laid. Right on the steps of the NCAA’s headquarters in Indianapolis.

You know, the organization created by colleges and universities to police their athletic departments. An organization that is charged with protecting the student-athletes’ interests and leveling the playing field. In the almost 120 years of its existence, it has failed at all of that – and has been an utter and complete catastrophe for the better part of 40 years.

As the world evolved, the NCAA bureaucracy refused to modernize. As courts began to tell the body it needed surgery, it put on a band-aid. Hundreds and hundreds of band-aids. Finally, the Supreme Court in ruling on the Alston case, handed the NCAA an ultimatum. Change. Everything. Your rules don’t work in the modern world.

Pretty simple. Except the NCAA, under Mark Emmert’s “leadership,” decided the best course of action was to throw up its collective arms and demand Congress fix it instead. Maybe an anti-trust exemption. Maybe some new powers to oversee off-campus groups. Maybe, well, anything.

Congress looked around, tested the wind and replied “No, we’re good, thanks.”

Charlie Baker, the Massachusetts politician who replaced Emmert when the former University of Washington president “retired,” has continued to call for Congressional action. It’s a call that has gone unheeded.

Baker articulated the overriding thought in Indianapolis in a social media post in late September. He said the NCAA’s hands were tied – neglecting to mention it was the NCAA’s years of inaction that weaved the rope – and asked Congress to “create national NIL guidelines that will protect student-athletes from exploitation, including the use of standard contracts.”

Which brings us back to thoughts of a conspiracy. Not among various folks scattered around the globe. Just in those Indianapolis offices. The committees and directors and analysts have no answer for all the problems court cases, such as Alston, the recently settled House suit and others, have caused. Complete transfer portal freedom coupled with no NIL oversight has turned every sport’s offseason into a free-for-all. What few rules the NCAA enacted to contain the damage have either caused more or have been ignored.

At some point someone in Baker’s domain decided inaction, or at best feeble actions, was the best course. And it became the organization’s gameplan.

Let the world of college athletics burn until the fire forces an unwilling Congress to finally step up and step in.

Problem is, athletics at places like Washington State and like institutions may be nothing but ashes by the time the flames are extinguished.

The blame isn’t on the athletes. Or the coaches. Or even collections of rich boosters who will spend whatever it takes for their school to win. The system is the system. And that’s the fault of the NCAA. Not the courts. The organization allowed it to happen. Has been unable or unwilling to fix it. And, like a little kid, is holding its breath until the grownups make it right. The rest of us?

We’re just suffocating.

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WSU: The Mateer news is covered in-depth in the S-R. Want an opinion? Jacob Thorpe has one, proposing some sort of renumeration for transfers. … Greg Woods has the nuts and bolts, covering the meetings that results in Mateer’s Washington State-based financial offer and the news about his upcoming transfer. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, Jon Wilner tries to explain how California, that scion of West Coast liberalism, will be the new home of the face of the anti-vaxx movement in college football, Nick Rolovich. … Wilner also examines in the Mercury News next year’s Big Ten schedule and how it impacts Oregon and Washington. … Just how did the Huskies use their freshmen this season? … John Canzano has his usual Monday mailbag. … Just which opponent would be better for Oregon to play in the Rose Bowl? … The Ducks continue to lose players to the portal. … Oregon State has added from the portal once more. … Should the Colorado stars skip the Alamo Bowl and begin preparing for their NFL future? … Arizona has a first-team All-American. … As Arizona State preps for its CFP game, there is All-American news and portal defections. … Among the future Pac-12 members in the Mountain West, Utah State and Colorado State are suing the Mountain West, challenging the legality of exit fees. … San Diego State is hosting a couple possible transfer quarterbacks. … Fresno State is being hit hard by defections. … San Jose State has a first-team All-American in receiver Nick Nash. … In basketball news, the Oregon men are ranked in the top 10. … The Oregon State women are having trouble hitting shots.

Gonzaga: Liam McNeeley basically dominated Drew Timme’s old school the other day. Turns out, McNeeley’s talents were nurtured through the same old-school methods. And neighborhoods. Jim Meehan explains the multiple connections between Connecticut’s freshman star and the Timme family. … The Zags’ second consecutive loss dropped them to 13th in the latest Associated Press poll. Theo Lawson covers that news. … Jim and Richard Fox cover that ground in the latest Zag Basketball Insiders Podcast. You can listen here if you like. … In WCC news, or, actually, future GU opponent news, there is an emerging star for UCLA.

Idaho: The exodus, triggered by coach Jason Eck heading to New Mexico, continues in Moscow. About 20 players, including many starters, have entered the portal already. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, yes, Montana State is the top-ranked team in the FCS playoff. But semifinal opponent, fourth-seeded South Dakota, is tough. … Sacramento State is a rumored landing spot for Michael Vick, the former NFL quarterback trying to become a college football coach. … In basketball news, the Montana men could not keep up with Northern Iowa. … The Northern Arizona women topped USF as coach Loree Payne sets a school record.

Preps: This is Spirit Week in the Spokane Public Schools, albeit awfully early in the basketball schedule. Dave Nichols kicks it off by highlighting one Ferris player who will not only have an impact on the court but next to it as well. Maia Siemers plays for the girls’ team and is part of the cheer squad for the boys games. … Dave also has his usual roundup.  

Mariners: No, you aren’t wrong. There is a good chance the M’s won’t make a splash of any sort this offseason. … OK. Trading Luis Castillo would be in that category.

Seahawks: It looks as if the Hawks have dodged another injury wrench. Geno Smith’s knee is structurally sound. When he will return to the lineup is to be determined but he isn’t headed to surgery. … Doesn’t matter though, who is playing, if the offense doesn’t support the quarterback better. … Kenneth Walker III returning to the lineup would help the playoff chase.

Kraken: Will there be more NHL expansion?

Storm: Seattle will play the first WNBA game outside the U.S.

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• We had some family duties today. That’s why this complete column was a little late. Sorry. The next few weeks will also be touch-and-go. It all depends on how touchy the dog is and if Harry Lyme and Marv Murchins leave my house alone between now and Christmas. Until later …