A Grip on Sports: Forget importance, sometimes all that matters is whether the sports show is entertaining and memorable

A GRIP ON SPORTS • Not all presents arrive on your doorstep wrapped in paper and tied with a bow. Some of them float through the ether and land in your home via the magic of television. Want examples? There are a couple available today.

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• Instead of fighting it, I’ve decided to embrace this whole College Football Playoff-runup extravaganza thing. Even if each of the weekly rankings don’t mean anything. And will be forgotten right after the real choices are revealed Dec. 8.

I’ve decided to focus on what the rankings are, not what they aren’t. Fun. Time fillers. Argument starters. Ice-breakers. A way to keep Tuesdays and Wednesdays relevant as fall accelerates toward winter.

Your team isn’t part of the discussion anymore due to a dream-killing upset? Sorry. But, hey, the committee decided to give Boise State a bye in their latest rankings. Ahead of the projected Big 12 champion. Isn’t that something?

That will be of interest to Phil in accounting, don’t you think? Didn’t he graduate from Boise back before the school had blue turf?

And did you see there are only four SEC schools in the 12-team field? How could Tennessee be left out? The 8-2 Vols are, well, in the SEC. Anywhere else and they would be 10-0. No worries, though. They play Vanderbilt in a couple weeks. And the Commodores beat Alabama. A win in that rivalry game should boost the Vols’ resume. Ask Georgia State. Its four-point win over Vandy in September keyed … hold on, let me check the Sun Belt standings … a 2-8 season. What?

Can we all just agree college football is weird and leave it at that? Sure, the players may be professional these days, but they are also, for the most part, not yet 25 years old. And still volatile in many ways.

It’s what makes the game exciting. Unpredictable. Just plain odd at times. And worth watching as often as one can. But projecting outcomes? Ranking the best of the best? That’s tougher. In the end it should come down to the “I” test. As in, “I want to keep the folks who control the sport happy, so five SEC and four Big Ten schools better be in the final rankings.”

Until then, though, we have our Tuesday nights full. And our Wednesday discussions. Thanks for the mid-week gift guys.

• Speaking of gifts, Scott Van Pelt is one. A dome-headed, glasses-wearing, degenerate-gambling gift. At least he plays all those things on ESPN. The University of Maryland grad – I mention that to put his place in the world in context – does a segment on his somewhat-nightly Sports Center shows called “Bad Beats.”

The segment he did Sunday night, from a set just off the sidelines at Jerry Jones’ falling-apart AT&T Stadium, was a classic.

The title, “Bad Beats,” says it all. He and Harvard-of-the-West grad Steve Coughlin, aka Stanford Steve, detail the worst end-of-game losses. Not for the teams. Nope. For those folks out there who wager on said teams. And Sunday Van Pelt went crazy about one he, personally, suffered a night earlier.

The scenario: Boise State went into San Jose State a 14.5-point favorite. Van Pelt took the Spartans, who broke out to a 14-0 lead. That’s prelude. The climax of the story? BSU rallied, of course, but San Jose was down just a score with less than 3 minutes left. And lost by 21 points. How?

It’s immaterial to us, but not to Van Pelt and all his like-minded betting friends. What is important is this: As he described Davon Banks’ 70-yard interception return with 102 seconds left, Van Pelt began to express the type of emotion only seen at funerals and lost-election post-mortems. That whining grew as he described the Spartans quickly driving to the Boise 2-yard-line, ready to score as time ran out. And then failed, despite three cracks at it.

The final play? A bellyaching-inducing sack.

And bellyaching – on steroids – is what Van Pelt did. Stanford Steve was laughing so hard he had to put his head on the table. And you could still see his shoulders heaving.

If it was a performance, Van Pelt deserves an Emmy. But it seemed real. It was visceral. Loud. Physical. Echoed every response ever from someone who has lost their meal money on a sure thing.

At least a piece of the roof didn’t fall on the set. Wait, I put down $10 it would. Crud.

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WSU: Ya, I was referring to the Cougars above when I wrote about “your” team falling out of the CFP picture. Sorry. But how many of you Wazzu fans really thought the playoff folks would open a door, even if your team finished 11-1? Ya, that’s what I thought. It was just another way to play the everyone-hates-us card, wasn’t it? That was the endgame. It’s gone now and all that’s left is, say, watching Kyle Williams streak down the field with a football tucked in his arm, scoring another touchdown. That’s enough, right? Greg Woods has seen all of Williams’ 11 scores, just four behind the single-season school record for a receiver. It’s no wonder Greg writes about Williams today. … Elsewhere in the (new and old) Pac-12, the Mountain West and the nation, the loss might just cost the Cougars a trip to San Antonio, though. The Alamo Bowl would have been a sure thing at 11-1. Jon Wilner has his weekly update on bowl slots. … Wilner also takes a look in the Mercury News at the weird season the Arizona Wildcats have experienced and the CFP rankings. … John Canzano has one of those columns today that stretches the definition of a sports column. In a most appropriate, and needed, way. … Back to the rankings. The newest reveal didn’t just engender conversation. It also led to hundreds of thousands of words being typed, some of which I can share. … Oregon State has a bunch of questions. An upset of WSU in Corvallis on Saturday afternoon would answer a few. … There is one less question for Oregon to worry about. The Big Ten rented a Super Computer from Circuit City this weekend and threw all the conference championship possibilities ahead into it. Yesterday the conference announced the results. The Ducks had qualified for the Big Ten title game. No matter what. And, according to the Hal 9000 (probably), had clinched a spot in the playoffs. … If Colorado wins the Big 12, makes the CFP, wins a game or two, does Deion Sanders bolt to Dallas to rebuild AT&T Stadium? Sorry, lost my head there for a moment. Thought Coach Prime also was a carpenter. By the way, the way Sanders treats the Buffs’ oldest fan is exceptional. And heartwarming. … There is one bright spot on Utah’s offensive line. … The way UCLA’s DeShaun Foster has embraced the rivalry with USC is a bright spot too. It is a football rivalry that has lost some of its juice, thanks to the Bruins blindly following the cross-town school’s path to the Midwest. … The Trojans are dealing with a flu outbreak. … Arizona State has sold out its stadium in advance of BYU’s visit Saturday. There was a time when that was common, as the schools were bitter rivals back in the WAC days. … In the Mountain West, Boise State is trying to fix some special-teams issues with competition. … Hawaii received some good injury news. … Utah State seems to be hitting its stride. … The New Mexico offensive line is holding a turkey drive. … Air Force has seven losses. But still could play in a bowl game. How? … Colorado State must continue to win to make the MWC title game. … The debacle that is the San Jose State women’s volleyball team’s season continues. But there is actually an on-court, instead of the usual in-court, component today. … In basketball news, the rankings are always a topic of conversation early in the week. I am happy to oblige. And contribute. … Washington’s men are having trouble scoring. … Undefeated Oregon State has had trouble attracting a crowd. … Oregon has had trouble staying healthy. … Lynne Roberts had been the women’s coach at Utah for a long time. But she’s resigned after four games. To coach in the WNBA. I wonder if members of the national media rakes her over the coals as they did Tony Bennett for leaving Virginia just before the season began?

Gonzaga: Yes, Long Beach State visits the Kennel tonight. And, yes, I’ll get to it. But before I do, I have to point you toward Theo Lawson’s post-mortem on the San Diego State win. As the Aztecs get healthier through the season, they will win more games and make the road victory that much more important. I wonder if the computers take into account who was available when ranking such games. My guess? No. … OK, the school whose athletic teams were known as the ‘49ers, until that moniker was determined to be inappropriate for any sports team not famous for losing Super Bowls, is in town. The Beach, as its called, no longer features former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson on the bench – he’s in Cheney if you haven’t noticed – and that might be why Mark Few is willing to play them these days. Jim Meehan has the preview and the key matchup of the 6 p.m. game (KHQ). … Greg Lee has his women’s notebook today and he leads it with a look at Gonzaga’s challenges. … Elsewhere in the WCC, both Santa Clara teams picked up wins last night.  

Idaho: Before casting my gaze on one of the best teams in the FCS version of college football, I wanted to ask a question. Think the NCAA will change the division’s name now that the FBS has a 12-team playoff in place? The CFP is supposed to decide a champion, right, and isn’t that what the “C” in FCS stands for? Just riffing here, but it seems weird. Anyhow, the seventh-ranked Vandals could take a big step toward an FCS tournament first-round bye with a dominating win in Pocatello against an Idaho State team in flux. Peter Harriman has a first look at the matchup. … Peter also covered the Vandals’ basketball game last night, as Alex Pribble’s team blew out Evergreen State 101-58. … Elsewhere in the Big Sky, despite all the change in the college football world, in the state of Montana, the Brawl remains. … The rivalry around California’s capital is not as intense, but the Causeway Classic has some familial connections this season. … In basketball news, Northern Arizona is off to a great start.

Boxing: Even if boxing isn’t in the public consciousness as much as it once ways – except for the occasional made-for-streaming celebrity bout – it is still a worldwide sport. That offers opportunity for anyone with the courage to grab it. Rick Welliver is happy to put an emphasis on the “anyone” part, as Garrett Cabeza shares in this story about the international cast at Welliver’s gym.

Mariners: Ryan Divish could be the question to my Final Jeopardy question if I ever get stuck, a la Cliff Clavin. “Who is one guy who overhears my baseball conversations with my son.” It has to be true. Catcher Cal Raleigh’s future with Seattle dominates those conversations many times during the season and came up recently once more. Ryan covers the same ground in this story. … When the book on “The Mariner Way” is finally written, there will have to be a chapter on reclaiming traded-away prospects, right?

Seahawks: As frustrating as it can be watching the Hawks bumble and stumble offensively for most of the game, give quarterback Geno Smith a chance to do something special late to win and it happens. Often. That’s who he is. … You have questions? Here are some answers.

Kraken: When will Andre Burakovsky score a goal?

Sounders: Hey, I was promised Seattle would be healthy for its Western Conference semifinal with LAFC. And a flying car. Neither will be delivered by Saturday.

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• Today was easier. Partly because I wrote some of the column on Tuesday morning. And partly because I was motivated. It’s cold outside. Looks ugly. I want to get back into my cozy bed, snuggle down and fall asleep giving thanks for not having to make a commute to work. There are perks for having lasted so long. Until later …