A Grip on Sports: This will be a great weekend of sports on TV but, with the Seahawks already losing, not even the best of the month

A GRIP ON SPORTS • What a weekend awaits. Maybe not the best of the month but close. As many as half of the top 10 college football teams on upset watch. Every Northwest school in action as well. Dodgers vs. Padres for a spot in the National League Championship Series. And, finally, an NFL Sunday in which we are not forced to watch the Seahawks lose again. 

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• Thanks 49ers – and Amazon – for getting that last pain out of the way on a Thursday night. No angst-filled Friday and Saturday. We can just sit back and enjoy what’s on the TV. Unless you root for Oregon or Washington or the Cougars or any other institution of higher education in the region.

They always bring angst. Dread. Ulcers even.

What’s sort of odd, thanks to college football’s new world order, the nail-biting starts tonight, once the unassailable fiefdom of high school football. But look at the schedule. There are five college games scattered around, with at least one – Utah at Arizona State at 7:30 on ESPN – worth a smidgen of your time. And not just because there is a chance the #Pac-12AfterDark vibes will be strong. OK, that’s not true. That is the only reason anymore to care about those schools.

We are blessed, though, that even if the conference isn’t what it once was, that tradition has yet to leave.

It might even show up again Saturday. How so? How about something odd happening in the gloaming of Eugene, propelling third-ranked Oregon to an upset of No. 2 Ohio State. Wouldn’t that be fitting? And incite all those Buckeye snobs – we can write that due to our family history – to pour some more Chardonnay and take to Facebook to complain about the Big Ten’s expansion.

That game, starting at 4:30 on NBC – that’s not a typo – is one of four key showdowns this weekend. Top-ranked Texas should dominate, but Oklahoma is its biggest rival. And the game, as always, is being played at a neutral Cotton Bowl (12:30 p.m., ABC). That’s the same time fourth-ranked Penn State kicks it off in the Coliseum for another cross-country conference matchup with USC (on CBS). Finally, Ole Miss, ranked ninth, is in the Tiger cage of Baton Rouge for a 4:30 start (ABC) against No. 13 LSU.

Sadly, some of us will have our eyes focused elsewhere. Husky fans will be free in the afternoon, though watching their Dawgs play at Iowa (9 a.m., Fox) will be excruciating, even if UW wins. That’s just Iowa (read, old-time Big Ten) football.

The Pac-12 duo, thus far drawing decent viewership on The CW and elsewhere, face stiff competition this week. Both Washington State (at Fresno State, 4 p.m. on FS1) and Oregon State (at Nevada, 4:30 on CBS Sports) go up against the top-three matchup in Oregon. That could take a bite out of the ratings.

Want late-night action? The FCS’ seventh-ranked Idaho Vandals supply it, facing off with No. 3 Montana State in Bozeman. The game kicks at 7:30 on ESPN2.

• There is only one baseball game tonight, but it’s a big one. Two of the game’s biggest spenders, the Padres and Dodgers, meet in Los Angeles (5, Fox). Only one will move on to host the Mets in the NLCS opener. The other? Back to the bank for another roster-building withdrawal.

• Before we share our thoughts on the Seahawks’ latest loss to the 49ers, we wanted to share with you the highlights of Sunday’s NFL schedule. There you go.

Honestly, if you don’t have a favorite out-of-region team or fantasy squad to root for, why watch? When the most intriguing matchup is Detroit at Dallas (1:25, Fox), you know it’s a bad week.

• A bad week that started badly for Seattle fans. We’re beginning to think Pete Carroll and his staff wasn’t the problem. Maybe it is the players.

Exhibit A: Quarterback Geno Smith. After his lackluster performance (30 of 52 for 312 yards, with one TD and two interceptions for a 65.5 passer rating), the veteran tersely told the media to watch the film instead of explaining what went wrong. OK. One thing we saw? On his first-drive killing interception, the Amazon cameras caught him closing his eyes as he tossed it. Great. He played like a rookie, not a veteran. And it killed Seattle’s chances.

Exhibit B: The run defense. Even without Christian McCaffrey, the 49ers ran the ball 33 times for, ahem, 228 yards. That’s 6.9 yards per carry. Not sure if Mike Macdonald’s Baltimore defense ever was that inept. By the way, Seattle tried 20 runs. They added up to 52 yards – 24 less than Isaac Guerendo’s (who?) first-quarter scamper.

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WSU: For the 4-1 Cougars to improve on defense, they have to improve in one area that is crucial in all team sports. Communication. It won’t be easy on the road this week. Greg Woods has more in this story, including how Washington State stacks up nationally on that side of the ball. … Fresno State will be a conference opponent soon. And that has financial implications for the school. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, we really wanted to watch USC’s loss to Minnesota last week. Kept turning on the Big Ten Network, where the game was scheduled, and being disappointed. There was a fluff feature about the Trojans joining the conference. Our first thought? Thunderstorms in the area. Our second, and correct thought, reached after three attempts to watch? We have Comcast and that company was not letting us see it. Bad words followed. No more. Jon Wilner tells us peace has been restored and a carriage agreement reached. … He also has his weekly look in the Mercury News at how the rivalry between Utah and BYU stacks up. … Pick day. Wilner has his, John Canzano has his and Christian Caple has his Big Ten ones. … The SEC and Big Ten met yesterday. No one had to play the role of Pope Alexander VI, but the two conferences probably agreed to divide college football’s spoils along some sort of line of demarcation. … For Oregon State to breeze over Nevada in Reno, the Beavers need to fix their leaky run defense. … The big matchup in Eugene pits a longtime Big Ten power in Ohio State against the upstart Ducks, just arrived from the lowly Pac-12. Who wins? College GameDay viewers, for one. … We mentioned Washington above. How will it do when it travels across the Rockies once more? … Stanford meets 11th-ranked Notre Dame on Saturday in South Bend. Nothing unusual about that, as the two have met off-and-on for a century. But the series isn’t on the schedule anymore. … For Kansas State to conquer Colorado, it will have to control Shedeur Sanders. … It looks as if Cam Rising will be back at quarterback for Utah against Arizona State tonight. A win would emphasize how well Kenny Dillingham has done starting his coaching tenure. … It is time for one USC player to step up. … The entire UCLA squad will need to if it wants to top Minnesota in the Rose Bowl. … The numbers illustrate how Arizona has played. … In the Mountain West, San Jose State and Colorado State match up in what should be a shootout. … The matchup between Wyoming and San Diego State has much in the way of potential. … if Boise State keeps blowing out opponents, like Hawaii this week, it may hurt Ashton Jeanty’s Heisman hopes. … New Mexico has a rebuilt offensive line. … A veteran Air Force defensive back has perspective concerning the poor start. … In basketball news, Arizona is not too happy with its projected Big 12 finish.

Gonzaga: Julian Strawther’s performance last season and this preseason has been enough. The Denver Nuggets picked up his third-year option this week. Jim Meehan’s story explains what this means to the former Gonzaga wing.

EWU: Though the Eagles are 1-4, Dan Thompson tells us captain Austin York and his teammates haven’t lost their faith. Saturday night’s game at Sacramento State, another team struggling at 2-3, is important, though. If only to keep the Eagles from wavering. … Six former Eagle athletes will enter the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame on Oct. 19th, the 20th class so honored. That news leads off the S-R’s latest local briefs column. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, the Hornets are serious about moving up. That is clear. … Northern Colorado is still looking for its first win. … Despite injuries, the Idaho State offensive line is still performing at a high level. … Weber State wants to build off its big road win in Missoula. … Cal Poly is rotating its quarterbacks.

Idaho: We mentioned above the Vandals’ showdown in Bozeman on Saturday. Peter Harriman does more than mention it, he previews it, focusing on MSU quarterback Tommy Mellott and the pressure he puts on a defense. Much of it falls to a UI linebacking corps that has been up to the challenge all season.

Preps: You thought the 49ers ran for a lot of yards last night. Dave Nichols may not disagree but he will offer Mead’s rushing total in its 62-26 rout of Ridgeline as a counterpoint. “A lot” in this sense meant 526 yards on the ground, including Keegan Mallon’s 24 carries for 269 yards and five touchdowns. … Dave also passes along this roundup of Thursday’s other action.

Whitworth: The Pirates welcome Willamette to the Pine Bowl on Saturday. Greg Lee has a preview that revolves around the emergence of receiver Evan Liggett as one of the nation’s best.

Seahawks: From 3-0 to 0-3. Has this season been the product of an easy schedule turned tough? Or is there more to it? Put Dave Boling in the category who believes the latter – and sees the losing streak as a chance for Macdonald to show his coaching chops. … There are always grades, right? And things to learn, courtesy of our old friend Tim Booth, who recently the Associated Press for the Seattle Times. … The error-filled performance was not a good look for the Hawks. … We can pass along some thoughts about the win from the 49ers perspective. San Francisco can always count on the Seahawks to help it get healthy. … Hey, at least Amazon tried to help Seattle win.

Kraken: Matty Beniers is an assistant captain. But that should only be a way station as he travels down the road to a captaincy.

Sounders: We linked this Times story yesterday about momentum and the way it is killed by the MLS’s postseason schedule. It ran again today in the S-R. … The U.S. Men’s National Team is getting ready for the international window with new coach Mauricio Pochettino in place.

Storm: New York was cruising at home in Game One of the WNBA finals. Up 15 in the fourth quarter. Then, nothing. Minnesota roared back and won in overtime.  

Mariners: Second baseman Jorge Polanco had knee surgery this week. … Besides tonight’s showdown in L.A., there is only one divisional series still underway. The Yankees finished off Kansas City last night on the road. And Cleveland stayed alive by edging the Tigers 5-4 in Detroit. The deciding Game Five is Saturday in Cleveland.

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• Busy day today. Kim is back in town and we will be celebrating, belatedly, a recent birthday. We have tickets to the Van Gogh exhibit, dinner reservations and a date to watch the Dodgers/Padres together. A perfect evening harkening back to 1982 or something. Until later …