Your Wazzu Crimson Sunrise 4/25: NCAA Elite Taking Liberties, Early Odds, New QB Committ

This is the weekend, this is your last shot at watching Coug football until August.  Spring football is mostly an exercise in building excitement, but if one suspends logic, it can be fun.

The game will air at 1 pm tomorrow (apologies to the misprint on time earlier this week, both from me and from my cable provider for mislabeling), but the run up to the game could prove a bastion of hope.  The Pac-12 Network is airing a set of games from last year that can help us all remember the positives from 2013.

If you are so inclined, the USC, Cal, Utah, and Arizona games will be featured in 1 hour recap format in the hours leading to the kick in Spokane.  Additionally, the Apple Cup of Baseball (that actually hurt me to write it), will be aired live at 7:30 from Seattle.

So, enjoy this while you can, the next 24 hours will showcase the Cougs up and down the Coast and into the Mountains.  This is our chance to revel, to bask, to feel that crimson blood flowing.   This will not produce the smiles of an Autumn football Saturday, that feeling that causes your facial muscles to ache after a piece,  but it can be a salve to get us through.  Enjoy and Go Cougs!

Links:

Okay, so the haves voted to stop the have nots from having their say.  We can’t be sure if this will be ratified, or if this will lead to a higher tier of D1 sports, or well, as we know with everything in the NCAA, if this is just saber rattling.

Not that we would condone such things, but if you want to gamble on the Pac-12, here are your odds.   Strangely enough, the Cougs are approximately where they probably should be.   Might be worth dropping a fin right now on the Cougs.  If you are a Colorado fan reading this (welcome, I’m not sure why you are here), there are no odds, and less hope in Boulder.

Curious about who will be under center in 2018?  Here’s your apparent starter.  Obviously things can change, but an offer from Penn left on the table is great, that mind will be needed in Pullman.  Also, he is hailing from the same smallish town as former Wazzu CB Tyron Brackenridge, along with some other Upland players, continuing a nice little pipeline.

Tweets:

The son of QB legend Jack and former TE at WSU himself, an interesting list from someone who’s opinion should matter.

Thoughts: 

It is important to note that we are now down to 5 top tier conferences.  We watched the Big East implode over the past decade, becoming a truly worthless football conferenece in the form of the  AAC (additionally, the naming committee should have been fired for acronymically naming themselves one letter from the ACC).  In 2003 the Big East was comprised of Miami (FLA), West Virginia, Pitt, V Tech, ‘Cuse, BC, Rutgers and Temple.   In 2014 the AAC will incorporate Central Florida, Cincinnati, UConn, Houston, SMU, Memphs, South Florida, and Temple (Temple is the only common denominator, and they have been to 4 bowls in 67 years).

The AAC adds East Carolina, Tulsa, Tulane, and Navy in the next couple years.  This is not a power conference, and should not have been considered one for some time.  Losing Louisville and Rutgers to the ACC and Big Ten respectively will show you (as these two programs struggle to make the leap to a real conference) just how horrible the Big East had become.

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