Conference Realignment

You want to talk about driving clicks, nothing does that more than conference realignment discussion. The latest comes from CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodds who writes about the unhappiness of some of the Pac 12 presidents:

Of course, the Pac-12 spun that $509 million payout as the largest in its history. And while that’s true, it’s not how Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson saw it.

“The gap between us and the other [leagues] continues to grow,” he said. “We’ll be competitively disadvantaged even moreso. … That’s real money in terms of being able to compete, support facilities, support coaches and support programs.”

The sky is not falling out West but cracks are beginning to appear in a once-solid foundation. First, there are those vocal critics. Christ, Anderson and new Washington State president Kirk Schulz have weighed in.

“This is a concern of the Pac-12 presidents, and I can tell you it’s a large discussion point with meetings with the commissioner at every single meeting,” Schulz said. “… The Pac-12 schools have got to be competitive with the ACC, the SEC and the Big Ten and Big 12, and we’re falling behind.”

Leading Off

The men’s golf team sits squarely in 5th place, +17 and two shots behind 4th place, Northwestern, as the top 5 teams will advance to the NCAA Championships (official site). Oklahoma State is in the lead at -9, Illinois is -6, UNLV is +7 and then Northwestern is +15.

The softball team is set to play in the National Invitational Softball Championship in the Conway Regional against Stephen F. Austin, first pitch is at 3:00 p.m. (official site). This will be a double-elimination format, so there will be at least one other game as the other two teams that make up the regional are Central Arkansas and UT Arlington.

Texas Tech Baseball

News broke during Tim Tadlock’s press conference that the weekend starters would be Dylan Dusek, Davis Martin and Caleb Kilian, in that order (Thursday through Saturday).

In other news, third baseman Josh Jung has been invited to play for USA Baseball’s 2018 Collegiate National Team this summer (official site). Steven Gingery pitched for the team last summer.

Texas Tech Basketball

South Dakota grad transfer Matt Mooney has officially signed his Athletic Scholarship Agreement, so it’s pretty much officially official (official site).

With the NBA Draft Lottery set, Zhaire Smith is still set to go No. 12 to the Clippers by the SB Nation mock draft and CBS Sports has Smith going No. 21 to Utah. That’s probably a pretty good range as to where Smith could go.

Texas Tech Football

A-J Media’s Don Williams breaks down the inside receivers and as of right now, it appears that the staff is counting quite a bit on the Oregon State transfer, Seth Collins, who will have two years to play two seasons, who will start out at the Y-receiver position:

“I think a dynamic athlete. Super competitive,” Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury said last week. “He’s played quarterback, so he’ll understand conceptually why he’s supposed to be where he’s supposed to be. I think when Keke declared early, we were looking for some more speed at some of those positions inside. We’re hoping he can bring that.”

I have no idea how these inside receiver positions are going to shake out, but this has almost always been positions that have produced. I think Donta Thompson has the chance to be really good as does DeQuan Bowman.

The practice field is being installed and you can see some photos (official site).

From the Chargers site, the Los Angeles Chargers (this is wrong, so very wrong) a story on how Dylan Cantrell and Nic Shimonek have essentially played together from a high school all-start game, to college and now the pros:

“He’s the hardest worker,” Cantrell said of Shimonek. “He comes ready to work every single day. We compete; we always compete in the weight room as weight room warriors. No matter if he’s the underdog or the starter, he’s going to approach the day the same way and approach practice the same way.”

“He wants to win,” Shimonek said of his teammate. “He works extremely hard and is very dedicated. Now that this is our job, we really don’t have a choice but to do that, but I know we’re both looking forward to moving forward.”