On the Pac-2’s court situation, Damien Martinez, Beaver and Irish defections, Bray’s staff, my Heisman ballot, NBA in-season tourney and more
Alan Thayer
Assorted thoughts on sports news items of the moment …
• Friday’s ruling in Washington Supreme Court was a step in the right direction for Oregon State and Washington State in their quest to control the Pac-12 board.
The court declined to hear an appeal of a preliminary injunction, which had been filed by the University of Washington on behalf of the 10 departing schools. The decision gives OSU and Wazzu sole voting power in the conference and lifts a stay of the injunction that had been in place for weeks.
Hundreds of millions of dollars in assets are in balance. The two schools control them until the case is settled or goes to trial. For now, they can decide how to distribute revenue as well as determine whether they want to rebuild the conference utilizing its assets. They have a two-year grace period in which they must find at least six other members if they want to maintain status as an FBS conference.
Alan Thayer is a business lawyer who lives in Eugene and coordinates the Facebook group “Beavers Behind Enemy Lines.” I asked Thayer to provide in layman’s terms what this means for the “Pac-2” schools. Alan’s response:
“Procedurally, we are at the end of the beginning.
“The case in the Whitman County Superior Court began with motions for a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction and motions by the others to dismiss.
“Judge Gary Libey sided with OSU and WSU. Those decisions were appealed even though the case is in the beginning stages. This is a discretionary appeal. The court decides whether they want to take up the appeal at this time. The Washington Supreme Court decided, no, they will not consider the appeals at this point in the case.
“This means the case in Judge Libey’s court continues. … discovery, motions, depositions and trial. If OSU and WSU win at trial, they will ask that the preliminary injunction become permanent. That decision could then be appealed.
“In the meantime, the preliminary injunction granted by Judge Libey goes into effect. OSU and WSU are the only members of the Pac-12 board. The wretched 10 are likely to contest decisions made by the two. This will take everyone back to the judge’s courtroom, where the merits of decisions will be argued.
“Of course, the parties could always settle. The preliminary injunction and the state’s highest court’s decision not to review that injunction strengthens the righteous two’s bargaining power.”
Thayer adds: “It is a good day to be a Beaver!”
When I asked Thayer for a time line on when the next step in the case will take place, he responded, “I suspect we could see them back in front of Judge Libey sometime in January.”
Damien Martinez has been cleared to play in the Sun Bowl (courtesy OSU sports communications)
• Beaver Nation received more good news on Friday when the Benton County district attorney, John Haroldson, chose not to file charges for DUII against Damien Martinez. The sophomore running back was arrested two weeks earlier in Corvallis on suspicion of driving under the influence of intoxicants, as well as other charges.
Oregon State has lifted its suspension of Martinez and he will participate in the Sun Bowl on Dec. 29 against Notre Dame.
That game, incidentally, appears to be a battle for survival of the fittest.
The Beavers will be without their top two quarterbacks, DJ Uiagalelei and Aidan Chiles, along with placekicker Atticus Sappington, star tight end Jack Velling, their top defender — linebacker Easton Mascarenas-Arnold — safety Akili Arnold and freshman cornerback Jermod McCoy. All have hit the transfer portal. Also, All-America tackle Taliese Fuaga will sit out the game to prepare for the NFL.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, will be missing quarterback Sam Hartman and star running back Audric Estime, who have declared for the NFL draft along with offensive linemen Blake Fisher and Joe Alt, linebacker Marist Liufau and cornerback Cam Hart. To the transfer portal, the Fighting Irish have lost receivers Rico Flores, Tobias Merriweather and Chris Tyree, tight end Holden Staes, defensive end Nana Osafo-Mensah and safety Ramon Hernandez, all starters or rotation players.
Before Martinez’s reinstatement and the defection of Estime, Las Vegas odds had Notre Dame a 10 1/2-point favorite. By Saturday, the line had dropped to 6 1/2.
• Trent Bray has all but completed his OSU coaching staff. The announcement of Keith Heyward as defensive coordinator is expected to come after his duties end as defensive quality control coach of the Las Vegas Raiders.
For now, the offensive coaches include Ryan Gunderson (coordinator), Kefense Hynson (receivers), Kyle Devan (line) and Jon Boyer (tight ends). On the defensive side, there are Ilaisa Tuaki (line), A.J. Cooper (inside linebackers) and Anthony Perkins (cornerbacks). Bray has also hired Mike McHugh as director/football operations and Todd McShane as director/player personnel.
That would leave two spots on his coaching staff. One of the hires will work with running backs. The other will either coach safeties or handle special teams, depending on how Bray wants to break down coaching responsibilities.
• With only three coaches from Jonathan Smith’s 2023 staff working the Sun Bowl — Hynson, Perkins and special teams coach Jake Cookus, aided by a group of interns and analysts — I was surprised when Bray announced he wouldn’t be coaching in the bowl game. I know he is swamped with responsibilities including recruiting and re-recruiting Oregon State’s current players, but that’s the life of a head coach in FBS college football. With such a short staff, Bray’s contributions would be not only welcomed but necessary. Hynson is the interim head coach, but I won’t be surprised if Bray is also on the sidelines on game day at El Paso.
• In a way, I was disappointed that Oregon State agreed to continue the Civil War football series. Sure, it continues one of the longest-running rivalries in college football, and ensures a Reser Stadium sellout come next Sept. 14. Big financial payouts are even more critical than they were before.
But Oregon already had a distinct advantage in resources to pump into its football program. It appears that disparity will increase exponentially as the Ducks move into the Big Ten and the Beavers likely go independent for the next couple of years. What was an uphill battle for the Beavers could turn into a climb up a Seven Summits mountain peak. That wouldn’t be much fun for those on the orange and black side.
• I wonder if there is any good Beaver coaching gear yet to be found at the Corvallis Goodwill store.
• A suggestion to the NCAA: Move back the start of the football transfer portal window a month to the first week of January, after all of the bowl games except the CFP Championship Game. That would keep rosters more intact for the bowls and would still allow time for a transfer to get enrolled for winter term at a new school.
I’m afraid we’ll have to leave it up to NIL payouts to keep players such as Oregon’s Bo Nix from opting out of bowl games to prepare for the NFL draft. As for coaches leaving for new jobs staying on through a bowl game? That ship seems to have sailed, which is lamentable. But any sense of loyalty in that regard has been lost in this new era of professionalism in college football.
No. 1 on Eggers’ ballot for the Heisman: Huskies’ Michael Penix
• My ballot for the Heisman Trophy went this way:
1. Michael Penix, Washington.
2. Bo Nix, Oregon.
3. Jayden Daniels, LSU.
This was one that, for me, went down to the final weekend of competition before the bowl games.
Daniels had an incredible season, putting up video game-like numbers — 3,812 yards passing with 40 touchdowns and four interceptions, rushing for 1,134 yards and 10 TDs. The Bayou Tigers lost three games, a negative for the 6-4, 210-pound senior, but not an overwhelming one.
Call it West Coast bias if you will, but I cast my lot with Penix and Nix (I went with the “ixes.”) Nix had a remarkable season, nearly setting an NCAA record for completion percentage. You can make the case that his campaign was better than that of Marcus Mariota when he won the Heisman in 2014.
But Penix had a terrific season, too, for a Husky team that went undefeated, and beat Oregon twice. That tipped the scales in his favor for me.
• Deion Sanders, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsperson of the Year? Not in my world.
• I’m reading so many great things about the NBA’s in-season tournament, I figure I must have missed something.
The Lakers-Pacers finale (that should tell you something) was the most-watched non-Christmas NBA regular-season game in nearly six years, averaging 4.58 million viewers. Whoop de damn doo.
Each player on the winning team (Lakers) received $500,000. The average annual salary for an NBA player this season is $9.7 million. A half-million isn’t chump change, and for the players on the bench, it was a nice payday. But you catch my drift.
The gaudy courts were unique and flashy, sort of like abstract paintings.
To have the tournament games interspersed with regular-season games — well, I guess they’re all regular-season games — is confusing.
Most of all, I just don’t see it as necessary. While I quibble with the excessive noise pumped into NBA arenas during games (“Get off my lawn!”) and don’t spend a lot of time watching non-Blazer basketball during the regular season, the in-season tournament didn’t pique my interest at all.
In general, I like the NBA product. Pro basketball players are the greatest athletes in all of sport. For the most part, the athletes play hard. Games between good teams are fun to watch. Tinkering with the product is fine and necessary, but adding an in-season event so the league can make more advertising/sponsor dollars doesn’t do it for me.
• Did you notice what former Miami Marlins president David Samson thinks of the $700 million contract the Los Angeles Dodgers laid on Shohei Ohtani — $680 million of it deferred?
“If I’m running a team today, I would change the rules, starting with this,” Samson said. “I want every penny that is being paid to a player to count toward the luxury tax and the competitive-balance tax of a team.”
I couldn’t have said it better. Now let’s see if MLB does anything about it.
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