Canzano: In the wake of Saturday's scene
Pac-12, Big Ten, a whooping cough outbreak... and more expansion coming.
Some thoughts in Saturday’s wake:
• Did anyone have more fun on Saturday than Washington State and its fans? It was my first thought on Sunday morning. The post-game scene looked like a catharsis at Lumen Field. Were you there? Tell the rest of us what it was like in the comment section.
• Saturday was the 22nd Civil War game that I’ve covered as a media member. It was the first that didn’t feel anything like a Civil War. No cold weather. No big stakes. And while there were OSU students present, classes hadn’t started. The football season is barely three weeks old.
Before kickoff, I walked around Reser Stadium, trying to get a feel for this year’s Oregon-Oregon State battle, but it felt like just another game. Very different from the game in Seattle involving the Apple Cup. That one had an edge to it. Maybe because it was a more evenly matched game.
Why didn’t the Civil War feel like a Civil War?
My post-game column on the scene in Corvallis dove into that question. Check out the comment section if you haven’t already. I love that readers offered their thoughts.
• Oregon played smart and well in the 49-14 victory, didn’t it? Dan Lanning and his staff deserve credit. They exploited some glaring personnel advantages and put their weapons in position to do damage. It was an encouraging day for a program that has sputtered this season. The Ducks looked like they figured some things out on the offensive line, too. Oregon is off next weekend, then opens Big Ten play at UCLA (Sept. 28), where the Ducks should roll to a 4-0 start.
• Oregon State needed better players at quarterback and receiver vs. Oregon. As I watched the game, I wondered what the score would be if, say, UO quarterback Dillon Gabriel and his star receivers (Tez Johnson, and Traeshon Holden) were in Beavers’ uniforms. Coaching changes are brutal. Jonathan Smith’s departure to Michigan State hurt particularly with the QB-WR position groups. But I hope Trent Bray’s staff and the DamNation Collective left the stadium aware there’s work to do on the recruiting front.
• The Beavers will host Purdue next Saturday. The Boilers got clobbered 66-7 by Notre Dame. I can’t decide if that’s good or bad for OSU. My friend Jerry Palm from CBS Sports is a huge Purdue fan. He’s flying in for the game and bringing family and friends. If you have a bar, restaurant, or Corvallis pre-game or post-game hangout suggestion for Palm and friends, throw it in the comment section. He reads.
• Washington State’s 24-19 win over Washington came with a bucket of emotion. Cougars’ coach Jake Dickert was in rare form after the upset. He offered a wonderful and emotional moment on the Peacock post-game broadcast (video), then doubled down in the news conference when he declared on the spot that WSU was retiring the Apple Cup trophy (video).
“I think we might retire this trophy,” Dickert said. “I think this is the Pac-12 trophy. I think it might stay in our place for a long time. We’ll bring a new one next year, a little Big Ten vs. Pac-12. We’ll put the new score on it.”
• I caught up with Pastor Matthew McNelly after the victory. He’s a die-hard WSU fan who watched Saturday’s Apple Cup victory alongside his ailing father, who is battling Parkinson’s disease and dementia in a care facility. I wrote a column on the pastor, his dad, the game in Seattle… and the uplifting scene back at that adult-care facility in Pullman.
• The new-world Pac-12 vs. Big Ten record involving the four Pacific Northwest rivals is 1-1. I feel like keeping track of that over the next few years is going to be a thing.
• I had three photographers credentialed this week for the Civil War and Apple Cup. The photo galleries of both games are worth a look. My photo team is gifted. I always feel like I have the best photographers in the stadium on game day. I was impressed with the fan reaction and atmosphere that Naji Saker, Tim Healy, and Rio Giancarlo captured on Saturday.
Take a look:
• I spoke with the San Diego State and Colorado State athletic directors on Saturday. They were getting ready for their football games later in the day. SDSU’s JD Wicker told me his fan base was “thrilled” with joining the Pac-12. CSU’s John Weber described the mood in Fort Collins in the last 72 hours as “electric.”
• I’d like to take a moment to welcome new readers who follow the programs at San Diego State, Fresno State, Boise State, and Colorado State. This independent endeavor promises to go where the best stories are, and your schools are now in the middle of it. If you see me at your stadium, say hello.
• The Pac-12 is expanding. It needs at least two more schools to get to the NCAA minimum of eight members. I’m told the conference prefers nine members for football and basketball scheduling reasons.
• There’s also a good reason why the Pac-12 is in a hurry to finish expansion, despite the July 1, 2026 deadline to reach eight schools. Membership requirements in other conferences dictate a one-year notice to withdraw. That means the Pac-12 only has until June of 2025 to get things finalized, which makes getting the decisions made by the end of this calendar year a target.
I was told by an involved source: “Stay close.”
• If we’re looking at Pac-12 expansion ONLY through a media value lens then Tulane, Memphis, and the University of Texas-San Antonio are at the front of the line, per my consultant friends.
• One reliable and wise media-world source told me: “Taking Air Force along with Army and Navy wouldn’t be a bad idea, either. Service games are good TV.”
• UNLV is interesting to me. Las Vegas has declared itself a sports mecca, but I’ve wondered if the Rebels could easily be separated from Nevada. They share a board of regents in that state.
• I was reminded by a former conference commissioner, however, that there’s a precedent to divide the schools. UNLV joined the WAC and left Nevada behind in the Big West in 1994. Also, the current governor of Nevada, Joe Lombardo, is a UNLV alum.
• If UNLV and Air Force don’t land in the Pac-12, I’ll bet the American Athletic Conference would take them both. I’m told there has already been contact between those sides.
• If this Pac-12 expansion decision is a beauty pageant — and I think it is — it was an interesting week for the starlets on the stage. Memphis beat Florida State 20-12 and UNLV beat Kansas by a 23-20 score. Meanwhile, Baylor beat Air Force 21-3, Oklahoma topped Tulane 34-19, and Texas clobbered UTSA 56-7. Success on the football field is only part of the criteria, but those scores caught my eye.
• I went a modest and mediocre 5-5 against the spread with my Week 3 picks. A chimpanzee could have thrown darts and given you the same outcome. Just saying, I need to be better. I went 9-1 picking the games straight up.
My season record against the spread: 24-12 (.667)
My record straight up: 34-2 (.944)
• My biggest pick was predicting the exact score of Arizona State’s 31-28 victory over Texas State. My biggest whiff was missing on Colorado’s convincing 28-9 win over Colorado State. I incorrectly predicted CSU would win the game, 31-30.
• Portland State canceled Saturday’s home football game against South Dakota due to a whooping cough outbreak on the Vikings team. PSU had players ill on Thursday. They were quarantined. Several other players were exposed. South Dakota and PSU administrators “huddled” and canceled the game.
• I was driving toward the Civil War when I was tipped off by a team source. I reported it on social media. My initial tweet got more than a half million views. Some of the responses were entertaining.
“Not sure a huddle was a great idea in this scenario…” wrote one.
“Are we in a time machine and it’s 1895?” said another.
“But my parlays…” offered a third.
• South Dakota was not happy with the game cancellation. It was aware of the outbreak but made the trip thinking the game still was on. The team’s radio play-by-play crew initially thought the cancelation was a prank and refused to leave the broadcast booth. No joke. It happened. I’m told those who got sick are expected to recover.
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Gevani McCoy looks like Joe Montana compared to DJU this year.
September “Apple Cup” soooooo much fun…pregame at CougFan breakfast tailgate and meeting many great Cougs followed by Marco Polo B&G pregame and more Cougs, to Lumen with many more (but not enough) Cougs, witnessing a hell of a Coug win with puppies dismayed, post Game on Lumen field with soo many crazy Cougs in the Butch “mosh pit”, walking off Lumen through tunnel with all yelling….Goooo…..Cougs, post game celebratory shot with all Coug brothers and sisters, to rewatching the game at family bbq to finally rolling into bed, throat hashed and voice gone. Woke up this morning and asked my wife….Can we do that again?:)