Pretty interesting that former Cougar Eddie Hill is now an assistant for UCR who is coached by Mike Magpayo who was the Director of Basketball Operations at USF under Coach Smith.

Eddie was in the Dallas area and I didn't really notice when he came to Cali last December. He surfaced on my radar when he had in the same Juco player we had in the next week. He was a leading recruiter for Portland back a few years. His sons are big baseball players.

Back on the winning track I hope.

Is a defensive analyst and linebacker assistant with the program. Honestly did not know that until today. One of the best players I’ve ever watched at the position, just was a too small to make it to the big time. That is an excellent appointment by Dickert/Schmedding. Gonna assume he played under JS in his time at EWU.

New story in the Athletic is out at https://theathletic.com/4411854/2023/04/14/smu-football-pac-12-aac-realignment/. I know many may not subscribe. Here are some key points.

• Concrete is pouring into the south end of Ford Stadium, where the program’s new $100 million end zone facility is under construction. The 192,500-square foot building, which includes new locker rooms, meeting rooms, coaches’ offices, a weight room and premium seating, was spearheaded by SMU alumnus and former player Garry Weber’s $50 million donation last year. It will open before the 2024 season.
• Donors have been aggressive in the name, image and likeness space. Last August, the Boulevard Collective pledged to pay SMU football and men’s basketball players $36,000 each. The group is one of two SMU collectives, along with Pony Sports DTX.
• SMU just completed its fourth consecutive season with a winning record, the longest such streak the program has had since the 1980s, before the infamous NCAA-instituted “Death Penalty” in 1987.
• In the 2023 recruiting cycle, SMU’s class ranked 47th nationally, according to 247Sports, higher than any other Group of 5 program and above several Power 5s. The transfer haul ranked 9th.
• SMU is really hitting its Dallas location hard on recruiting, similar to TCU. They have grown their recruiting staff to a P5 level.

This is in addition to all the stuff we already know about its solid academics, likely near-term R1 status, tons of $ generally, and how big the D/FW market is. I think SMU in P5 could grow into a really solid member of the conference, and maybe even a monster if their boosters work to resurrect the Pony Express.

Big Jack to Minnesota. And Bamba to Villanova

Link to article where she says LSU isn't going to the White House but would go see the Obamas. I mean WTF? Just because Jill Biden said something stupid about inviting IOWA also? And who is she to speak for the entire LSU team, coach and school? She is a racist hater.

This is f-ing crazy stuff. Don't say Christmas tree, bunny or America because they might be offensive? To who?

No one can say we don't get a big bang for our buck on recruiting spending.

An interesting read on PAC 12 media rights issues:

https://www.cbssports.com/college-f...t-competes-with-major-leagues-for-tv-dollars/

What a crazy bitch! Good Gawd!

Colorado State has been mentioned in another thread as a dubious Pac-12 addition. We already have Colorado, so CSU is redundant.

So let's look at the populations of some states that have 2 Power 5 programs in them. Rounded, and all per Wikipedia.

Washington - 7.7 million
Arizona - 7.1
Colorado - 5.8
S. Carolina - 5.1
Alabama - 5.0
Oregon - 4.2
Oklahoma - 3.9
Utah - 3.3 (2 programs when BYU joins the Big 12)
Iowa - 3.2
Mississippi - 3.0
Kansas - 3.0

Nevada? 3.1 with no Power 5 programs.......
San Diego County? 3.3 with no Power 5 program, and in fact only one D-1 program at all.

Pretty interesting IMHO. My perspective? It's all about eyes on TV, and butts in seats. The West Coast doesn't have them. Fact of life. Adding the big Dallas and New Orleans markets with SMU and Tulane doesn't mean eyes on TVs. Or butts in seats judging from their stadiums which are punier than ours.

Point? Stay the F in our footprint, do what we can to generate more interest. Games in LV and SD, in-league rivalry in Colorado, etc. Taking a stupid flyer on Texas and LA schools that no one gives a shit about ain't gonna fix our problems.

Oh and Louisiana? 4.6. One Power 5 program. Unless we totally F up and grab Tulane, then 2.

Lots of QB talent in the Pac-12 this year, with at least three guys who likely would have been to the NFL in most years (Penix, Nix, and Rising) returning, along with the reigning Heisman winner (Williams). Lots of other interesting situations, too. E.g., Oregon State did what it did last year without an elite QB, had Gebbia transfer to Ohio State, of all places, and now has DJ Uiagalelei, among others. Cal likely is going to start a dual-threat TCU transfer. ASU might start a 5-star freshman it won a NIL bidding war for. Ward is nowhere to be mentioned on the top-10 list or its honorable mentions, BTW.

According to a headline on Brand Sucks, it sounds like Arbuckle isn't a huge fan of them.

I didn't read the article...just going off the headline and a tweet saying the fans would be relieved.

If this is true, it is a great week in WSU sports.

Pac 12 champs for the ladies, no more bubble screens. Fook yeah!!

Interesting possibility.

Hawkins gives up 3 runs in 6 innings, Grillo gives up 3 runs in .0 innings in the 9th. As a former pitcher (not good enough for college) Wow.

The thing that is interesting in all of this, is that this quote..."the New York Post reported last month that ESPN once had a deal on the table for the Pac-12 equal to that Big 12 number ($31.6 million), an offer that has since been revoked, according to the Post."

Tells me that a bird in the hand wasn't what we were looking for. My other sense is we are looking to have very few games on P-12 network.

Also, heard something the other day that 50%, and a larger percentage of Gen Z's, view primarily on streaming.

Okay, I am going to post this in a new thread instead of getting it buried in the swamp of the Michigan State thread. Just read it this morning and thought it was a good analysis. To me, it rather encapsulates Trump and the two sides. One side says we don't care much about his personal foibles and shortcomings, we want someone running the country that knows what is good for the country and its economy. The other side says we are so disgusted with who he is and how he acts (DAMN those mean tweets!) that we don't really care who is running the country or how good a job he does, just as long as it isn't Trump.

AFAIK, Stossel is a Libertarian, and I think he has done a lot of actual journalism over his career. One thing I did notice that he had wrong in this article is when he mentions a possible crime when Trump uses campaign funds to pay for the Non-Disclosure Agreement. That did not happen, no campaign funds were used, and the FEC (Federal Election Commission) ruled that there was no campaign finance violation. However, That is exactly what John Edwards did when he was running for president and he was assessed a fine and no prosecution was brought against him.

For your reading and commenting enjoyment.........



Trump Good and Evil



The Stossel TV Studio is just a block from Trump Tower.

Today, noisy helicopters hover, and sidewalks are pointlessly blocked by the usual politics/media excess: too many barricades manned by too many bored police officers.

The predicted "big demonstration!" and "possible violence" are not visible.

Donald Trump left for the courthouse around 1 p.m. to turn himself in. He was booked and fingerprinted at the courthouse. He then pled not guilty to the 34-count charge of falsifying records to hide hush money payments.

Presidents should not be above the law, but neither should they face politically motivated charges.



Manhattan district attorneys campaigned on opposing Trump, bragging, "I have sued Trump more than a hundred times!" He suggested he would be best choice to get Trump before he even saw the evidence. That's just wrong. Federal prosecutors did see the evidence and decided against charging Trump.

Using campaign funds to pay someone to keep silent about sex may well violate the rules, but most campaign finance rules are useless, and no serious person thinks this case would ever be brought against anyone other than Trump.

This is a slippery slope to banana republic.

On the other hand, Trump definitely is a horrible person.

In his real estate business, he cheated the little people, cleverly using our slow and expensive justice system to avoid paying what he owed.

As president, he was unpresidential and childish. He's vain, selfish and mean. He doesn't read or listen to advice from smart people, and he lies again and again. I hate him.

Yet it would be better for America if he were president today, instead of Joe Biden.

Nothing is more important to more people, especially the poor, than a solid dollar and a growing economy.

Trump's presidency brought us closer to that than today's Democrats ever will.

Trump knows how government can kill growth. He criticized "job-crushing regulations," saying he'd eliminate two of them for every new one passed. He didn't, but he did repeal some big ones: allowing more oil drilling, reducing the Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate waterways that are barely waterways, ending Barack Obama's regulations forcing automakers to make "greener" cars (Biden reimposed them), and allowing internet service providers to charge different rates for different services (repealing the destructive net neutrality).

His words alone sent a message: "Not everyone needs welfare. You can work!"

Under Obama, people stopped looking for work. Democrats' message was: Poor people are victims of an unfair system; you need handouts.

Under Trump, people started working again. Six million Americans were hired. Unemployment dropped to a 50-year low.

Trump signed the First Step Act, reducing long prison sentences for drug-related offenses.

He launched Operation Warp Speed, speeding production of Covid vaccines.

He appointed judges who believe in free speech and limited government.

Hooray for President Trump!

But then there's the evil Trump.

He lies and breaks promises.

Trump promised he would "cut spending, big league" and then increased spending.

Biden's been worse; this administration's crazy spending is why inflation is killing your savings. But Trump was little better. He increased spending from an already astounding $4.1 trillion in 2017 to $6.55 trillion in 2020.

Trump promised to end America's wars. He didn't. In fact, he signed a massive $738 billion defense bill, bragging that it was "an all-time record!" At least Trump, unlike his predecessors, didn't start new wars.

Trump imposed tariffs on China, ignorantly claiming they'd protect American consumers. Instead, the tariffs punished American consumers and businesses. So Trump then gave billions of your dollars to farmers and others hurt by his tariffs.

Finally, Trump refused to accept the results of the election. For 224 years, our democracy has had a peaceful transfer of power. Trump ended that.

He lied about voter fraud. He told his supporters, "Fight like hell."

On Jan. 6, he did tell them to "peacefully" march to the Capitol, but when things got ugly, he did nothing. Only hours later did he post a video asking protesters to go home.

Today he shows no remorse for any of the nasty things he did.

Because of Trump, Biden will probably be reelected.

Here's an excellent take on them and the Pac from SI...

Enters the Portal for the second straight year. Maybe this time to EWU or Seattle U.