Boise State LB Winston Venable was suspended for half a game by the WAC for a flagrant hit on OSU WR James Rodgers, who will likely miss this week's game against ASU with a concussion. The Broncos are also on the cover of Sports Illustrated this week.
UCLA Kevin Prince has missed two practices this week with a swollen knee. Prince is listed as questionable for the WSU game on Saturday.
According to Bob Condotta, who interviewed UW AD Scott Woodward this week, the Pac 10 seems to be leaning toward a North/South alignment with a twist: breaking the league into three four-team pods which, guaranteeing the Huskies would play in LA and the Bay Area three out of every four, or four out of every five seasons.
Seattle U. and Denver appear to about to be invited to join the WAC according to Bob Condotta, who covers the Redhawks for the Seattle Times during basketball season. In a perfect world, both schools--together with Pacific--would be logical members for a 12 team WCC, who recently added BYU in all sports but football. However the WCC doesn't seem to be interested in expanding further at this point.
Due to financial concerns UC-Berkeley is cutting baseball, men's and women's gymnastics, and women's lacrosse. In addition, men's rugby will transition to a varsity club sport, a newly-designated status at UC Berkeley. The school boasted 29 sports before the cuts. Even at 24 sports, according to the university, Cal will rank tied for second in the Pac-10, and eighth nationally among public schools.
ESPN's Ivan Maisel credits a diverse group of coaches for the Pac-10's rise, and suggests that the conference is abandoning the status quo off the field, an on the field.
The Pistol offense is gaining some notoriety after UCLA knocked off Texas last week in Austin.
Invented in Nevada, the short shotgun setup - hence pistol - that places the quarterback about 4 yards behind center and a running back 3 yards behind the QB is now being used in varying amounts at Alabama, Arkansas, Duke, Indiana, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and UCLA, just to name a few.