College football season creeps closer

It’s July 23, and that means it’s time to go jump in a lake. It also means you need to get your affairs in order: college football is upon us. Media days have begun, the SEC and ACC coaches have pontificated enough, and the Pac-12 media day is closing in. By the way, anybody remember what we were talking about a year ago Thursday?

Sorry for the reminder—back to the present day.

Your Washington State Cougars will open “fall” camp on Aug. 3, which is just more than a week away. Seems like this summer has flown by, no? As I said last week, I used to get out of my mind excited for day one of preseason practice. Nowadays, I temper my excitement. Aug. 3 is still a long way from the start of the season. The offensive line won’t prove itself on day one, that’s for sure.

As a reminder, camping in Lewiston, Idaho is out, and all practices will be in Pullman.

Elsewhere....it’s more of the same: mostly crickets, with a few newsworthy items spread out. Let’s look at a couple:

Mitchell Quinn enters the transfer portal

The Hawaiian was a walk-on who eventually earned himself a scholarship and had two catches in his time at Washington State. Fare thee well, Mr. Quinn.

#Pac12(10?)AfterDark is the conference’s only hope

We’ve all bemoaned late night games since the Pac-12 signed its new TV contract ahead of the 2012 season. While we’ve been warned that nothing will change, it’s true: nothing will change, unless Congress gets around to moving the country to just two time zones. Fat chance.

As Jon Wilner pointed out this week, those after dark games might be what the conference needs to sign a decent TV contract (there are other problems to solve, of course, like....will there be a Pac-12 in two years?). ESPN needs programming during those late hours, and the Pac-12 gives the network a P5 conference in the perfect time zone to accomplish ESPN’s goals.

Thoughts on this jersey concept?

I’m sure there are lots of opinions on stripes.

Big Ten players want a share of the conference revenues

This is unrelated to WSU, at least right now, but I expect these kinds of conversations/ideas/demands/whatever to continue.

Links

Pac-12 mailbag: The best target if raiding the Big 12, an ACC Network deal, the Apple-12 Conference and more | The Spokesman-Review
The Hotline mailbag is published each Friday.

This Alaskan teen hung out with Klay Thompson. He left with one of the Warriors star’s prized possessions. | The Spokesman-Review
Joseph Tagaban knew he was going to spend a day with his basketball idol Klay Thompson last week, but it was a moment involving Thompson’s own hoops hero that provided a true surprise.

Washington State backup receiver Mitchell Quinn enters transfer portal | The Spokesman-Review
PULLMAN – Mitchell Quinn, a reserve wide receiver for Washington State’s football team, has entered the NCAA transfer portal, according to a report Tuesday from Rivals.com.

How those hated Pac-12 night games could help the conference survive: ESPN loves ’em | The Spokesman-Review
“Nobody else can fill those time zones,” says media consultant.

College football players group talks with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren, demands include share of revenue - CBSSports.com
Penn State QB Sean Clifford is part of a players group advocating for more benefits from the conference.