I posted about his when it was pending and got little interest - posters are too busy feeding mutt trolls I guess.

Anyway the rule is now official per (reputable sports) link below. Still don't get it. On the first part, is this a change? Weren't they already eligible (to practice, etc.) immediately? And what does "play immediately" mean when followed by "can't play for a second school in the same year"?

A new NCAA transfer rule will allow all undergraduate athletes to transfer and play immediately if they meet specific academic requirements, as the Division I Council on Wednesday approved emergency legislation announced by the NCAA.

The rule will provide immediately eligibility to any athletes who have transferred during the 2023-24 academic year, including the football players who entered the transfer portal Tuesday and during this window

The legislation will not limit the number of times an athlete can transfer -- and there are still two transfer windows -- but they can't transfer midyear and play for a second school in the same season.

Former WSU guard Jabe Mullins announces commitment to Montana State​

Greg WoodsApril 19, 2024 at 7:00 pm
By
The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN — Former WSU guard Jabe Mullins is on the move again.

Mullins has committed to Montana State, he shared on social media Friday, heading to the third school of his career. He played his first two seasons at Saint Mary’s.

Mullins, a Snoqualmie native, averaged 1.6 points in nine minutes last season, taking a lesser role as WSU broke its 16-year NCAA tournament drought. After starting eight of 30 games as a junior, Mullins saw limited action as a senior, playing his most minutes in Pac-12 with a 17-minute outing in Washington State’s win over USC on Jan. 10.

At Saint Mary’s, where he played the 2020-21 and 2021-22 seasons, Mullins started 11 of 53 games, all his starts coming as a freshman.

Mullins, who entered the transfer portal in late March, is the fifth former Cougar to find a new home this offseason: Star guard Myles Rice landed at Indiana, center Rueben Chinyelu transferred to Florida, fellow center Oscar Cluff moved on to South Dakota State and guard Dylan Darling traveled south to Idaho State.

That leaves six Cougs in the portal: Senior wing Andrej Jakimovski, senior guard Joseph Yesufu, sophomore wing Kymany Houinsou, forward AJ Rohosy, walk-on forward AJ LeBeau and sophomore forward Spencer Mahoney, who entered the portal on Thursday.

Holdovers from last season still on the WSU roster are rising sophomore guards Isaiah Watts and Parker Gerrits, plus rising senior wing Jaylen Wells, who has until May 29 to decide whether to stay in the NBA draft pool or return to school.

This week, WSU also secured two commitments from new coach David Riley’s former squad at Eastern Washington: Center Ethan Price and wing LeJuan Watts.

Greg Woods Washington State beat writer for The Spokesman-Review

This hasn't been reported, that I am aware of....
"After that, the future is uncertain. The Pac-12 and Mountain West signed an agreement in the fall to work in good faith to merge by the 2025-26 or 2026-27 seasons, with no cost if the Pac-12 absorbs every MWC school, or a cost of upwards of $137.5 million if it takes some but not all MWC schools. But Oregon State and Washington State are focused first on joining an autonomous conference, and the uncertainty surrounding the future of college sports could spark another upheaval."

But not until June 2025. It was just released.

pullman radio

I don't follow the NFL draft that close other following the Cougs and occasionally tuning in. Here are the combine results and what nfl.com thinks of Hicks and Smith-Wade.

Anyone else follow this?

I just saw this come across my news feed. There are some things that aren't sitting well with me:

A juror spoke to the press and stated the following -

The jury had no definitive proof of who initially struck who, but assigned guilt to the defendant.
The jury based their decision partly on the fact that the defendant didn't simply run away after being assaulted - Wisc is not a duty to retreat state.
The jury began deliberations with a guilty verdict already in hand, the only discussion was whether it was with intent or not and there were actually 3 jurors who argued for intent.

I do have sympathy for the family of the young man, but these kids were drunk and stoned and behaving like pack animals and then play the victim when the cornered animal fights back. The kid who filmed the incident CONTINUED to film himself and started screaming "is this real life?" while his friends were dying, further demonstrating the complete and total disconnect from reality these kids have. (remember the actual pedophile Rittenhouse shot calling out for a medic like he was playing a video game?)

Obviously I have an opinion, but I am open for discussion on this case as maybe I don't have all the facts, thought its not from a lack of trying to find them.

I for one, believe this accurate. Make the most sense.

FSU and Clemson to go to SEC in 2025. ACC gets a new TV deal until 2036. My opinion is this opens the door for ACC western expansion...put Cougs and Beavs in the front seat to merge with the ACC.
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If ESPN is thinking strategic, they make that ACC TV deal "pro-rata" to add former Pac-12 teams. I think Utah would come back. ASU and UA, likely depend on other political factors.

WSU baseball, women’s swimming joining Mountain West as affiliate members​

Greg WoodsApril 16, 2024 at 12:47 pm
By
The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN — Washington State’s baseball and women’s swimming teams have a conference home, at least temporarily.

Those programs are joining the Mountain West Conference as affiliate members for the next two seasons, per a news release, providing a landing spot for two of the last WSU programs to find one. The agreement goes into effect on July 1.

“Finding a home for our baseball and women’s swimming programs has been a top priority for our athletic department and we appreciate the efforts of so many to get to this point,” WSU interim athletics director Anne McCoy said via release. “This agreement offers both programs a competitive schedule in a west coast-based conference while providing a championship path for coming seasons.”

As Washington State and Oregon State — the two Pac-12 schools left behind in conference realignment — attempt to rebuild the conference, the schools are using a two-year grace period to enter agreements with other conferences. The Cougars’ football team utilized a scheduling agreement with the Mountain West to provide them with six opponents next fall, while their basketball teams are joining the West Coast Conference on an affiliate basis.

Affiliate status through the NCAA allows for member affiliates to compete for conference and national championships.

Membership fees for WSU were not immediately clear.

Oregon State is going independent in baseball next year, largely thanks to its long history of success — including a national title in 2018 — which gives the program the ability to schedule teams and bring them to campus. WSU doesn’t have that luxury, which is why it’s entering an agreement with the Mountain West.

In total, 10 WSU programs are joining the WCC as affiliate members next season: Men’s and women’s basketball, men’s and women’s cross country, men’s and women’s golf, rowing, soccer, tennis and volleyball.

Greg Woods Washington State beat writer for The Spokesman-Review

Beuller?

Interesting he didn’t follow his future coach

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Interesting I guess

I'm a bit underwhelmed by the information I see from the Cougar Collective. After saying that I would never give to this, I ponied up a modest donation to the BB matching campaign. Got an acknowledgement, fine there.

Other than that, I find their site to be basically information-free other than exhorting the reader to give, give give. To what? I get that they don't want to overspew information, but how about something? Is the Collective spending or offering money to players (portal and non-portal)? Some idea of levels? Offers to every one, probably in varying amounts? Just the 2 or 3 guys that we really want to keep?

And FB - are they going to sit around and wait for portal jumpers, then offer? Obviously they can't offer/give big bucks to every player, but c'mon, give us something other than "here's a pig in a poke, buy it". How about partner companies/groups? Any specific stories to share about XYZ company directly working with athletes? The only story I have ever read was the one about Mateer partnering with that local deli/bake shop or whatever the hell it was.

Curious to hear from Collective "members" and/or big donors about the information that they may be getting - if any.

First go read the Brand X article on this. So many things to pick on here:

• Regent's seeming disinterest in the details. I would be all over this shit if I were one. Where's Bill Marler when you need him?
• The previously budgeted $4M deficit has ballooned to $9M
• We are going to close the deficit with Pac-12 cash. Well duh
• Brand X's comment that Chun and Smith's buyouts will "buoy" the FY25 budget by $1.4 million. Uh guys, it is FY24, they are gone, and if the traitors have some clause that lets them defer this to next fiscal year then we are bigger idiots than previously proven
• We are paying Riley half of what Smith made? And Smith made $1.5M not the $1.2 the article refers to. Wulffian....EWU HC......hmmm
• We are setting aside $65M of Pac-12 money to rebuild the conference? Don't know if that is Brand X's opinion or if it is documented. But either way, it is complete BS for the Pac-2 to pay teams to join. F-that!

Ok, so let's look at the actual Regent's meeting documents, shall we? (link below). I don't have the time to totally dissect this 400-page document, but:

• The precipitous enrollment drops (grad and undergrad, all under Schulz's watch) should horrify all Cougs. Page 268
• Employment figures for FY 23 and 24. Grad down 23, faculty up 27. But fear not! Admin employees up 135, and Classified up 110! Sounds about right with enrollment plunging, eh?
• Credit Hour totals have fallen 32,000 since the year before Schulz came. Page 279. But the Global Campus is doing well as Pullman plunges. Page 282
• The old 1%, 3% and 5% budget reduction exercise. Starting on Page 294. Been around for a looong time. Hint (from personal experience with this process) - the colleges, etc. will throw out their best and most golden goose programs as what they would cut first
• On to Athletics, starting on Pag 299. Lots to digest here
• Notice that a big budget killer was "admin expense" - $6.1M rather than 4.6M budgeted. Page 301. And they forgot to put brackets around the bowl revenue shortfall of $2.6M. What bowl did they think we were going to?
• Then, the FY25 Budget. Page 305. Read for yourself. 0-0 in media rights, $20 million extra in Conference money distributions (I'm cool with that backfill), less in scholarships (wait tuition is going up 3%). Less in contributions. FY 24 was originally $10.5M, reduced to $9.5M, down to $7.8M for FY25. Note that Endowment revenue stays at $.9M. How does $9.5M and $.9M reconcile with the $60 million Chun claims to have brought in last year? And go read the other fundraisers' bios - record-setting donations everywhere!
• Finally, $5 million in salary reductions. And the Regents were not interested in the details. Wow

Does anyone have a good handle on what the roster looks like currently?

No idea how good this invitational is these days but Jones with a couple impressive and efficient games. He doesn't have a 3 or perimeter game, but hope he finds a home somewhere in the NBA. If not I guess off to Europe?

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Kids will never learn. I did dumb stuff growing up but not like this.

Looks like a good young player to me. Chinyelu to Florida.
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Times article on the subject.

Bottom line: Basically, UW is going to get around $20M annual in "institutional" support....we need to be more aggressive with this.

Highlights:

The athletic department paid $12.3 million in debt service in the 2022 fiscal year, per the financial report submitted to the NCAA.

But that figure dropped by approximately $3 million in 2023 after Washington’s board of regents approved a temporary restructuring plan

Washington’s campus support, which took the form of student fees allocated to athletics and direct transfers from the university, totaled $10.3 million last year — the fourth-lowest amount in the conference.

Oregon received no direct help from campus while UCLA received $2.1 million in support and Washington State received $6.8 million.

VA passed a bill banning the NCAA for punishing schools while directly pay NIL deals, eliminating the separate collectives that have been created. How many states follow suit? Does the NCAA sue?

Bella M. Signed a "rookie scale" contract with the Phoenix Mercury yesterday, per the WNBA (link below). This is opposed to a "training camp" contract which was what WSU WBB announced on X (see Brand Y for the story. Get it right, Cougs. I assume they are basically undrafted free agent contracts like the NFL, although a rookie scale contract sounds better than a training camp contract. The Mercury signed 4 players to these rookie scale contracts BTW.


So - what does this mean for Walker-Leger, who was supposed to be going pro? Lots of teams signing players, but don't see her name. Could she return to WSU now? Stay tuned for a few days I guess.....

FML

Familiarity. Cedric Coward and LeJuan Watts (believe visited or visiting) are 2 others rumored to head south.

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Had he not left for Minnesota and stayed at Gonzaga, do you think they would have had a similar level of success? As I can't stand the newly sober Mark Few, I'm loathe to give him any credit for anything beyond inheritting a very unique situation furthered by a wealthy donor (wouldn't that be nice...looking at you, Ed Schweitzer).

Pretty funny.