A GRIP ON SPORTS • On the day the Seahawks paraded through the streets of Seattle, celebrating its 2025 NFL title, one of the state’s college football programs announced its 2026 schedule. The game really doesn’t stop, does it?
•••••••
• No one is exactly sure how many people gathered downtown to watch – and participate in to some degree – the Hawks’ celebration Wednesday, but it was a lot. Estimates vary, from ¾ of a million to more than that magic number of one million. In other words, at least as many people who live in Washington’s largest city were on hand.
But only one of them, Seahawk right tackle Abe Lucas, wore a Washington State shirt and bonked his head on a traffic signal. Of course, Lucas was the only Cougar alum to be riding on a double-decker bus carrying the team through the streets.
Hopefully, the traffic signal survived the encounter better than the Pats’ defensive linemen did last Sunday. And Lucas’ head suffered minimal damage. Though he has a few months to recuperate. As do the 12s. Wednesday’s celebration should cap the festivities that began about 8 p.m. Sunday night with, of all things, fireworks in our neighborhood.
Any excuse will do, won’t it?
And any excuse will do to start throwing the D-word around. As in dynasty.
In the spirit of what is happening the month in Italy, let’s not get over our skis, so to speak. One title every dozen does not a dynasty make. Not even two, actually, in back-to-back seasons. It takes more. Much more.
But one Lombardi Trophy does allow everyone to dream a little bit.
The head coach is young and hungry. The offensive line has been built, and paid, to last. The quarterback is locked in. The best player on that side of the ball, and in the NFL last season, is just entering the prime of his career. The defense is more of a system than a collection of stars.
It’s possible. Even in a league smack full of financial and scheduling rules in place to promote parity. But probable? No. Heck, the Super Bowl MVP is a free agent. So is the midseason offensive and special teams’ acquisition who supplied a huge spark. And three defensive backs. The kicker, he of five Super field goals, is not getting younger. Neither are some of the defensive standouts.
This season’s one-year wonder of an offensive coordinator is headed to Las Vegas to try his luck.
Time doesn’t stand still. Of course, neither will John Schneider and the Seattle front office. For every roster minus there will be a corresponding plus. Lately the choices have been near-perfect. But there is no guarantee that will continue. Never is.
• The Pac-12 guaranteed one thing with its football schedule reveal Wednesday. One day of notice nationally. The rebuilt conference didn’t ensure that with a fine stroke of marketing, waiting until after dark to crack open the 2026 schedule. Nope. The addition of a flex Saturday to end the regular season was the star of the proceedings.
A weekend built to help the conference’s eight football-playing schools maximize their shot at a College Football Playoff berth. To be more precise, the Group of Six’s lone automatic berth. A way for the Pac-12 to separate itself from the Mountain West, American, Sun Belt and the rest. A way for the best in the Pac to add to its resume just as the CFP Selection Committee zeroes in on them, looking for ways to exclude anyone not carrying a Power designation.
Will it work? It’s up to the football teams themselves. They must win games, not just on the late-November flex weekend but in September’s nonconference matchups, throughout the two month slog through conference play and, for best-positioned one, in the conference title game.
There’s a lot at stake. A boatload of money, of course. That’s at the root of everything in college sports these days – a sentence that could have been written any time in the past 70 years. But there is more. A chance to do something special in the 12-team playoff. A chance to ensure high school recruits and the better transfer portal denizens actually consider the conference a viable place to experience future playoff runs. A chance to separate before the inevitable reshaping of the sport hits again at the end of the decade.
One out-of-the-box scheduling quirk won’t be able to carry all that. But it does show a willingness for the conference’s members to stay flexible. And that will be more important with each passing week, month and year.
•••
WSU: The fall football regular season won’t finish with the Huskies, as was the case for so many of Washington State’s previous seasons. Nope. It will begin with them. In Seattle. Who will it end against? Uh, that’s not determined yet. Greg Woods delves into all that with this story. … Elsewhere in the (current, old and future) Pac-12 and the nation, John Canzano’s column focuses on former WSU athletic director Bill Moos’ recently published memoir. And the beginning of the end of Moos’ time at Oregon. Those in Nebraska, where Moos went after leaving Pullman, have other decisions they have focused on. … The Washington men’s NCAA hopes may just be toast after last night’s loss to Penn State. … No. 16 Texas Tech routed Colorado in Lubbock. It got ugly. … Kelvin Sampson is fine with Utah’s first-year coach. Thinks Alex Jensen is a good fit. Not sure if that’s a good thing or not. … USC fell at Ohio State in another tight game. … Utah State had to overcome a slow start to earn its 21st win Tuesday. … California lost 107-100 in double-overtime last night at Syracuse. … The 25th-ranked Washington women couldn’t get past No. 15 Iowa. … No. 2 UCLA routed No. 13 Michigan State. It sure seems as if the Bruins and No. 1 Connecticut are on a collision course in the NCAA final. … Colorado held off Houston on the road. … Utah fell to Arizona State and was swept in the season series. … Oregon has a veteran player who has helped in its success.
• In football news, Jon Wilner has his thoughts on the Pac-12’s new-look schedule. … Washington has a few positions that seem stable heading into the fall. … There are schedule stories from throughout the Pac-12 footprint. Not only are there two for Oregon State, but an interview with new head coach JaMarcus Shephard as well. … Utah State, Boise State, San Diego State, Texas State and Colorado State are covered as well with multiple stories from Boise, Colorado and Texas. … If you have questions about Oregon’s offseason, we can send you to a place to find a few answers.
Gonzaga: Davis Fogle may have forced his way into the rotation before the first of the year. Or he may have just been the most logical alternative when injuries struck. But either way, the freshman from across the mountains has stood out. Theo Lawson tells us all how in this look back at the win over Washington State. … Theo also has a story about a nonconference matchup set to open next season. The Zags reportedly will meet Purdue in Las Vegas. … Mark Few is once again a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Theo has that story as well. … Just how confident can anyone be about the Zags’ Final Four chances without Huff? … Greg Lee has his usual women’s basketball notebook and a not-so-usual story. Both have at its core Lisa Fortier, the Gonzaga head coach. The former covers her team’s improvement in one key area recently, taking care of the ball. The other? It focuses on the Zags’ recent Paint the Kennel Pink game against Pacific and how much it meant to Fortier, a recent cancer survivor. … Elsewhere in the WCC, Santa Clara’s men won by 12 at Seattle U on Wednesday to move a half-game ahead of GU heading into Saturday’s Bay Area showdown.
EWU: Stories about players who are finishing up their career at one school, after having played a multiple others during the past four or five seasons, are getting more and more commonplace. But stories that explain the why behind that as well as Dan Thompson did today? Rarer. He uses the Eagles’ grad senior Kiree Huie’s journey to illustrate the point. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, a 25-year-old Montana player will be back this fall for his ninth NCAA-sanctioned season. And the organization is fine with it. Everyone should be, considering the litany of major injuries linebacker Solomon Tuliaupupu has suffered. … Northern Arizona has announced the labels for each of its home football games. … In more-important news, UC Davis handed successful head coach Tim Plough some more security with a contract extension.
Preps: District basketball playoffs are already underway at many levels, as proved by this roundup in today’s S-R. But the GSL’s 4A and 3A schools begin tonight. And Dave Nichols has a primer explaining the route each has to take to move along in the State playoffs.
Seahawks: Dave Boling was a witness to yesterday’s Seattle celebration. And he kept his main focus on Cooper Kupp, the veteran receiver who earned the Jerry Rice and Walter Payton awards while at Eastern Washington, a Super Bowl title and MVP award with the Rams and another Lombardi Trophy with the Hawks. … The Seattle streets were packed. Lumen Field too. The players’ language? Well, the mute button probably got a workout. … Many of them mingled with the crowd. … Stacking wins meant stacking helmets for Seattle. … Yes, there are questions to answer this offseason.
Olympics: Can the U.S. men win ice hockey’s gold medal? … is Jordan Stoltz the breakout American star of these Olympics? … An Ukrainian skeleton athlete was kicked out of the Games because of photos on his helmet. As long as there have been Olympic Games, there have been athletes who have used the forum to speak out for what they believe in.
Mariners: Now that the Hawks have won another NFL title, Cal Raleigh believes it is time for the M’s to win their first. … New second baseman Brendan Donovan is already showing how he stands out. … The last independent umpiring school, one that even some folks from Spokane traveled to attend, has closed after 88 years in business. And that’s not good for the sport’s future. … The near-term also is threatened by the looming labor negotiations.
Sounders: The team will have a new look for their jerseys this season.
•••
• A quick word of warning. I will be here tomorrow. But basically with links only. Our full report will return Saturday after a long travel day. Until later …