Weekly Six Pac: Stream Me Up, Georgie

1. The ongoing Pac-12 media rights negotiations include plenty of unknowns. In fact, you could argue that the process is nothing but an unknown. The vacuum of information leads to speculation and Jon Wilner summarized some of the wilder possibilities in this week’s column. Wilner plays out what it would look like if the Pac-12 already had a deal that it hasn’t announced, or if they wait until the winter to finalize a deal. Alternately, he talks about the possibility of moving forward with 10 or 14 members or disbanding altogether. As Wilner himself notes, none of these possibilities is at the top of the list, but it’s fun to think about what each version might yield. If a ten-team version of the conference could actually hold together, it might not be so bad for the fans.

2. On the other hand, Write for California summarizes the items about the Pac-12’s future that have been more concretely reported. Avinash Kunnath notes that SMU and SDSU both act as if they are confident that they will be invited to the Pac this year. He also points out that football will almost certainly air on a combination of over-the-air and streaming services, and that the holdup likely relates to the bungled overpayment mess with Comcast.

3. Much has been made about the slow start to UW’s recruiting cycle, but defending Pac-12 Champion Utah is actually behind the Huskies at this point. KSL has a summary of the five commitments the Utes have so far. That number stands out with nearly half of the conference already in double digits, including Stanford with an astonishing 24. I am very intersted to see how much attrition some of these teams with very full classes will see later in the cycle and whether teams with a more deliberate approach will do any better.

4. Heading into Bo Nix’s senior season, Addicted to Quack looks back at the senior seasons for noteworthy Oregon QBs in history. The most recent edition covers QBs in the 21st century and it’s quite an impressive list. Joey Harrington was a Heisman finalist and led the team to the Fiesta Bowl when such an accomplishment was almost unheard of in Eugene. Kellen Clemens led a team that won double-digit games until he broke his leg. Dennis Dixon got the Ducks to #2 in the rankings before he tore his ACL. Justin Herbert led his hometown team to a Rose Bowl victory. One thing they all have in common is that they didn’t win a National Championship.

Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images

5. Coug Center took advantage of NBA Draft season to look back at WSU players drafted to the NBA and the various paths they took to get there. The summary really highlights how much of an outlier Klay Thompson is in WSU basketball history. Sure, there’s a James Donaldson here and an Aron Baynes there, but there are hardly any regular NBA starters until you get to Thompson, a four-time champion and surefire future Hall of Famer.

6. Former Arizona PG Kerr Kriisa has had a very strange offseason. The floor general originally entered the transfer portal and the speculation was on him rejoining former UofA coach Sean Miller at Xavier. Instead, Kriisa chose West Virginia, where he did not have obvious links. Then, WVU’s Bob Huggins drank (and drove) away his job and players were granted a 30-day window to transfer out. Kriisa entered his name in the transfer portal again and then almost immediately withdrew to stay with the Mountaineers.