Our run to run to Rose Bowl and also the sadness of Princess Di tragically dying in a car accident

blow the whole marketing budget on the PAC-12 championship game ads during the Utah-Fla game?

Remember that speech by Wulff…I feel like we’re now Wulff at the podium talking about being left out. Expect we get good viewership, wins, and offer good ancillary sports too. Wulff just sucked.

Well it is now the Pac-2!

As stated, if all schools aren't on board, no one is on board. It'll be interesting to see if they agree to this. And I also don't see anyone going against FSU or Clemson as the conference needs them to stick around for a few more years.

"There are four schools that have been against the additions: Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and NC State. The ACC needs 12 out of its 15 schools to vote yes to expand."

Kinda thought he would stick in the NFL, we've been turning out decent OL lately.

In other news, Easop Winston appears to have made the team. He's listed as 5th on a very deep WR corp, some are saying the best Seattle has ever had.

Apparently not yet, this is getting ridiculous

This week begins the 8th Season of The PodcastCoug, as we are discussing the current affairs in the conference alignment, the Pac-12 Quarterbacks, our 2023 Roster, and the opener with Colorado State in Fort Collins on Saturday.

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Hello Cougar fans

I made a few posts last year in anticipation of the game in Madison. We did have a lot of WSU fans in Madison, I sat near a few and spoke to a dozen or so after the game, hope everybody had a great time.

I’ll refrain from quoting all the posters on this board who insisted that Wisconsin will back out of the game in Pullman…it does appear that we’re going to show up. I’m planning to go too, but don’t think many Wisconsin fans will make it, as it’s not a convenient place to get to, and finding lodging in town on a football weekend is…challenging. We do have plenty of alumni in the pacific northwest, undoubtedly some of them will get to the game.

Anyway, I’d like to get people’s thoughts on the ticket market. I can buy visitor tickets from Wisconsin (will have to decide by June 21) but would prefer not to. At road games, I prefer good seats (between the 20’s or better), relatively high (row 40 or higher) in the middle of the regular (non-student) fan base. I'm not familiar with Martin Stadium. Some specific questions

-- Has WSU converted to digital tickets?
-- Is there a street market for tickets on game day? (since we went to digital tickets, there are fewer tickets on the street)
-- Do you expect this game to sell out?
-- Where are the seats sold to visiting teams located?
-- What is the total capacity? How many student tickets are sold?
-- What do season ticket holders pay per ticket this year? Do single game tickets cost more?

Any other insight on ticket availability will be appreciated. Looking forward to the trip, 2023 is kind of the end of an era. IMO most of our fans are less than enthused about UCLA and USC joining the Big Ten, but of course it’s all about money. The game itself should be competitive. We should be a better team in 2023, people are generally optimistic about our new coach.

Per Bruce Feldman of the Athletic sports website:

24. Ben Arbuckle, Washington State OC

"He is only 27 but has generated a lot of buzz inside the coaching world the past couple of seasons. Arbuckle got his start as an unpaid volunteer assistant at Houston Baptist and moonlighted as a driver for Uber Eats. In 2021, as Kittley’s wingman at Western Kentucky in an offensive quality control role, he helped an attack that led the nation in passing (433.7 yards per game) and finished second in total offense and scoring. Last year, with Kittley at Texas Tech, Arbuckle’s offense — with a new QB in Austin Reed — finished seventh in total offense and 15th in scoring and tied Georgia for the most explosive plays of 20 yards or more with 98. Reed led the nation in passing yards (4,744).

To cap it off, WKU put up 677 yards in a New Orleans Bowl romp over South Alabama, which had a top-20 defense. In Pullman, Arbuckle inherits a talented QB in Cameron Ward, who gets overshadowed by all the other terrific quarterbacks in the Pac-12. Don’t be shocked if the Cougars put up some massive numbers in 2023."

that is all.

go Cougs

Always loved the way Josh played. Under appreciated talent imho. Curious how he ended up on Japan's team.

Root Sports is the only way, (besides the few MLB TV and Apple TV broadcasts), to watch the live Mariner's bandwagon.

Did you know they've sped up the game? Game play is faster now!

Pitch Timer​

For the first time ever, MLB now utilizes a pitch clock. Each inning break will be two minutes and 15 seconds, and there will be only 30 seconds allowed in between batters. Pitchers must begin their windup before the clock expires. They will have just 15 seconds between pitches with no runners on base, or 20 seconds with runners on base, to start their motion. If the timer hits zero, the runner gets an automatic ball.

Hitters will also be impacted by the time constraints. Batters must be in the box and looking at the pitcher in eight seconds or less, or else they get an automatic strike.

DISH Network does not carry Root Sports. DirecTV Stream does. No contract, cancel anytime.

I'm not a HUGE Mariners fan....but if they keep playing the way they're playing, it would be fun to witness the ride. Could be epic.

QUESTION: Can you share your DirecTV Stream account? Yes, you can share your DirecTV Stream account and stream on (3) three devices simultaneously.

Looking for (2) two partners. $37.00 a month. Cancel when the Season is over, either October or the World Series.

Let me know if you're interested.

Since this may be the last opening weekend I give a rats ass about anyone other than WSU…in classic CFB fashion there’s maybe three games that are worth a shit:

Florida @ Utah (-5) - have no idea how Florida reloaded but I’d take Utah and the points at home. Easily best game on the schedule this weekend.

Colorado @ TCU (-21) How is TCU only a 21 point favorite? CU will probably resemble Leach’s first year in Pullman, zero depth and a couple of talented freshmen. TCU by 35

Boise State @ UW (-14.5). Seems like easy money here, UW will win by 4 TDs.

So, I heard it AGAIN on the local sports talk that WSU, specifically an econ professor, was the one that came up with the $50M valuation that is now retrospectively being regarded as the reason that the TV deal never got done.

So, I have a couple of questions: where is this information coming from? I'm not saying it is wrong, but who leaked it and is it true? Who is reporting it?

Second: I'm not sure that for the life of the contract that a $50M valuation was wrong or bad. Yes, its over-valued in year one but probably undervalued at the end of the contract. Taking a lowball bid of $30M was never feasible, especially for the big 4 in our conference, as it would be undervalued the minute we signed the deal. It was a bullshit deal and perhaps presented for the sole purpose of destroying any reasonable talks or further negotiations. Or perhaps for destroying a conference.

I know that many will come back and say that $50M was an insane number, but if you look at how things played out I'm fairly confident that if the P12 would have countered with $30,000,000.01 the network would have walked away. It wasn't about honest dealings, it was about screwing a conference one way or another.

And yes, I like my tinfoil hat just fine, thank you. Now excuse me while I go track the helicopters that keep flying over my house.

low it is in the Mountain West.

Here is a perfect example on how low a G5 program is:

San Jose St. plays USC today, as a kickoff to the 2023 College Football Season, in Los Angelos, in the Coliseum at 5pm tonight.

But....did you notice it's not televised on NATIONAL TV? No national broadcaster like FOX, ESPN, ABC, CBS, or any cable affiliate picked the game up. Instead, it's on the Pac-12 Network.

Guaranteed 100%, if it was a Power 5 school vs. USC tonight, it would be televised on national television. That's how bad the Mountain West Conference is.

I was listening the other day to Sirius/XM in the car. It was promoting the upcoming college football season...and it the promo it says..."Sirius/XM, where we bring you all the Power 5 Schools".

Not that I listen to Cougar Football on Sirius/XM, but if you're ever traveling away from home, or even camping out in a national park, it's pretty convenient to listen to our games. If we move to G5, there will be no Sirius XM, unless we're playing a Power 5 school.

Words cannot describe how bad, how devastational, how dissatisfied, how horrible, and how sad it will be if we move down to G5.

One thing is for sure. I don't know how I personally am going to deal with the change. It's a huge blow, and I don't want to hear how we'll be the King of the Mountain West Conference. So what. How long will that last?

Also, do you know where you go if you're the King of the Mountain West? The LA Bowl. One of the lowest of the lowest bowls, playing a 7 win Power 5 school. Remember, last year...we lost to the Mountain West Champions Fresno St. in the Jimmy Kimmel LA Bowl! That was a big, huge deal for them. So-Fi Stadium, national television. To us, it's another non-relevant trophy cup bowl game, which we lost anyway.

The COUGS are used to being on national television the majority of our schedule. To the Mountain West....it's so rare...it's a big deal to be on National TV.

Words cannot describe how bad this is. Again today, SJSU vs. USC on the Pac-12 Network, on "Opening Day". Think about that. I'm trying to stay positive...but this one is difficult.

For once I’d like to see the remaining powers that be say screw you furd and begin moving forward on their own. They are an so-called elite school that thinks their sh!t doesn’t stink. Screw Them! Join with the Beavs and move forward to save the PAC in some form. Take the necessary schools needed to form the best conference possible. Those of us living here in the west / pac-12 footprint want to see football that is madeup of schools that are in the west. Many of us have no interest in big 10 or sec football. We know the $ won’t be the same, but it is what it is. Make some choices to help yourselves and stop relying on unreliable entities to save you!

I thought there would be some noise re Stanford with hat in hand to the ACC. If it was a solid no we’d have probably heard by now. May be negotiating a changing in GOR or higher payouts to FSU, Clemson etc?

I still maintain if they are going to take Stanford, they should take Cal, OSU, WSU,SMU and SDSU for a western football pod and then add St Marys and GU for hoops and Olympic sports.

I'm not an attorney, but my understanding is that tortious interference relates to contracts or business relationships. I suspect the chief issue will be that this media contract wasn't sign, so Fox didn't do anything to harm that contract.

However, I'm curious if it can be established that all schools verbally accepted the agreement with Apple, Fox caught wind and sweetened the deal.

My other understanding is WSU hasn't incurred damages yet has we don't know what our media contract will be. Once that gets settled, then maybe we assess our situation and try and pursue something.

So I've read some of the realignment threads, but far from all. There was so many people with no idea posting their dream conference that it got sickening. So maybe someone has written this already in a previous thread, so I apologize if that is the case.

We know USC nixed some moves that would have saved the PAC-12 before they made the move to the Big 10.
I have serious questions about Cohen and her role in the demise of the Pac-12. Brock Huard (on Brock and Salk) has said he has heard the possibility of her going to USC for a couple months. If she was in negotiations with USC, I question whether the decisions she was making as UW AD were in the best interest of the PAC-12/X.

If UW makes decisions to go to the Big 10, that is a power move and looks good on HER resume. It might not be in the best interest of UW or the state of WA.
If the PAC-X survives and they sign with Apple or get a different offer from FOX or ESPN, it might be in the best interest of UW athletes, UW, the state of WA; but not look good for HER.

I've always hated the huskies, but I hate them even more now...

This whole thing STINKS!

They had better fry that M-Fer. If I didn't want to stay alive for a while for my children, grandchildren, and future honeys I would love to break into that jail and shoot that M-Fer in the head. A few times. How the F do you knife 3 pretty young girls to death?