Pac Ten Alley

The hunt for the next Athletic Director is about to come to an end as UW has identified it's top candidates. If you listen to the media the top choice is Utah AD Chris Hill who turned down the opportunity last time the job was open. If he turned it down back then what makes people think he will take it now? It could be money, but TT wasn't exactly underpaid either.

Bob Stull from UTEP was in town to interview according to the spies put there, but the feeling is that he isn't the top target. Stull has everything you want except youth.

We still hear a buzz about Bill Moos, but the $180,000 a year buy out for almost ten years isn't really enticing.

A couple names from Florida popped up recently, but nothing from a conference known as the cradle of coaches, the MAC. Seems we picked up a couple of up and coming guys named Don James and Mike Lude from that league years ago.

Bob Condotta of the Times is your source for the latest in the AD hunt.

Pac Ten Commissioner

Expect a familair name such as Todd Turner to at least throw his hat in the ring for this job. I know you are laughing, but he has the qualifications they are looking for. Being a conference commisioner is sort of like being a Russian Czar because it is usually a lifetime appointment unless you absolutely screw things up.

UW has the nations toughest schedule

Scheduling of course is the biggest reason UW is having trouble climbing out of the basement.

Below is Phil Steele's 2008 toughest schedule. All factors are taken into account in these rankings. You will also find the article as reprinted from page 317 in "Phil Steele's College Football Preview." There is also a list on teams that will benefit and that will struggle due to the strength of their schedules.

Pac Ten Expansion

A fan blog on Pac Ten expansion in USA Today.

For the record the Pac Ten has no interest in expanding unless Colorado, and Texas are willing to join the league. The Pac Ten has no problem with the way things are now, they like the round robin the 12 game schedule gives them in football.

Many teams try to argue that strong recent performances justify a move to the PAC 10. This post will attempt to separate the wheat from the chafe. The reasons behind selecting teams for consideration are given in my introductory article. By examining the record of a team over their last 9 PAC 10 games, an estimate of how each team would fair in a full PAC 10 schedule can be made. How far back one has to go to find 9 games is given in parenthesis. Examining the number of PAC 10 games in the last five years is a good measure of PAC 10 interest in playing each team. This is amplified if the PAC 10 teams are willing to travel. Bowl records over the last 10 years give a separate measure of performance over quality teams. Home attendance measures the current fan base of each team.

Pac Ten Alley

Now it is time to take a walk down the coast to see what the neighbors are up to.

If you haven't been over to Michael Wine's Oregon blog you are missing out on the intriguing game of "What is it?" the news this week is the time change for the Labor Day weekend opener against UW. Fantastic, that gives the Oregon fans about 8 hours to get tuned up for this one.

The University of Oregon's Aug. 30 football season opener vs. the University of Washington in Autzen Stadium has been changed to a 7 p.m. kickoff to accommodate Fox Sports Net television, according to an announcement Monday by the Pacific-10 Conference."

Jon Wilner comments on the retirement of Tom Hansen, and the Pac Ten TV lineup for the Fall.

The Pac-10 released its fall lineup on Monday afternoon — about the same time commish Tom Hansen announced his retirement (I’ll be blogging about potential replacements tomorrow) — and it couldn’t come soon enough.

The Wildcats get bumped out of the Super Regionals.

It was a long and bumpy road for the University of Arizona baseball team in 2008.
The traveling stops when the Wildcats return home Monday after a 4-2 season-ending loss to No. 1 overall seed Miami on Sunday in the the final game of the best-of-three NCAA super-regional in Coral Gables, Fla.

ASU was bounced early too which was a surprise since they were one of the favorites to win the title this year.

Arizona State baseball coach Pat Murphy can't spend much time feeling the pain of his highly rated team's early ejection from the NCAA Tournament.Too much work is ahead. He is losing more than 80 percent of his offense and two-thirds of his pitching wins to pro baseball, but he also is expected to sign his five top recruits."I'm excited about next year's team," Murphy said. "We went to Omaha (College World Series) last year with one returning pitcher. What's to say we can't go to Omaha next year with one returning player? We certainly aren't going to call it a rebuilding year, and you'll see as many as seven freshmen in the lineup."

California's Jeff Teford now has his own blog.

Over the last few years, I have been teased by my players for not being up-to-date with the latest internet developments like youtube, facebook and itunes, but I realize it's a reality and want to use it productively to communicate with you, the fan. I am hoping to provide the Cal fans with glimpses of the Golden Bear football program from the inside, giving you all some of my thoughts and feelings on various subjects relating to the team. The purpose of this is to give insight, not to get caught in debates - I don't have time for debates with everyone. I know everyone is not always going to agree with everything - run/pass, pass/run, run inside or outside, throw short or deep, you get the drift. That's a fan's prerogative as interested supporters who care. I hope to give regular updates as time allows, but as you know, the season gets very hectic.

Oregon State won't be in Omaha this year to defend it's back to back titles, but Jake has a nice article reliving the experience of the past two years.

The Beavers didn't get a chance to defend their back to back titles this year, we know that. But while this year's field is battling it out in Omaha, we'll take the opportunity to look back at the incredible event that was the 2007 College World Series. Now, I realize that that 2006 trip was just as special, but the fact that I made the epic pilgrimage to Omaha for the 2007 championship made it extra special for me, and gives me the perspective to narrate this story.

What is that, twelve early commitments for USC?

It wasn't a secret that USC had wide receiver Alshon Jeffrey high on its wish list or that he had high interest in USC. Afterall, USC was the first school Jeffrey requested his film be sent to. Yesterday, Jeffrey, who received a written offer from USC last week, called Pete Carroll and verbally committed to the Trojans.

Good news for Ben Howland.

UCLA forward Josh Shipp has signed paperwork to withdraw his name from the NBA Draft and will play his senior season for the Bruins, UCLA head basketball coach Ben Howland announced today.

In June it is common for head coaches to get out, play a little golf, and stay in touch with the fan base.

A HUGE hat-tip to our own Kaddy, who had the privilege of attending the Friday night Columbia River Cougar Club dinner. Among the attendees were both head coaches, Paul Wulff and rockstar-Tony Bennett. Read on for the full deal (great job Kaddy!)