*** 1:20 p.m. update: Fox Sports’ Jeff Goodman reporting that Maryland basketball coach Gary Williams is retiring. I wonder if Terps will call Sean Miller, and if he’ll listen.
*** 10:55 a.m. update: Oregon fans: This is a list of rising seniors only, with the exception of Luck/Burfict/James. Read the criteria in the introduction … But thanks for proving my point about your righteous indignation.
*** Note: This was initially scheduled to be posted on the Hotline earlier this week, but I depayed because of the big news on the TV front. I’ll have more on the media deal in the next 24 hours.
Welcome to the Hotline’s annual NFL Draft look-ahead, a ranking of the top Pac-12 prospects for next April and exercise in semi-futility.
The conference looks to be light on elite offensive and defensive linemen but should be loaded at safety in 2011, with four early-to-mid round prospects.
Stanford QB Andrew Luck, who is on track to earn his degree next spring and will almost assuredly enter the draft as the top overall pick … and Arizona State LB Vontaze Burfict and Oregon TB LaMichael James, because I can’t see either player staying in school one nanosecond past the end of the season.
Action: West Coast Conference closes in on new TV deal with ESPN (to start in 2011-12).
Reaction I: We’re probably a month or two from the deal being finalized, and there’s little chance that the dollar figure will ever become public. But the guess here is that the WCC lands one of the best TV contracts, and maybe the best, of any basketball-only conference.
Reaction II: And by that I mean the best in both the dollar figure and the exposure. The conference is already doing very well on the exposure front — 13 of St. Mary’s 14 league games are on TV this season, for instance — and it should get even better now that it’s adding BYU.
Reaction III: One of the two mysteries surrounding the revised WCC is how the round-robin schedule will work with nine teams. I’m not sure we’ll get the answer until the spring/summer, but my guess is the Thursday-Saturday schedule will remain in place — although fans should expect to see some league games on Mondays.
Reaction IV: The other WCC hoops mystery is the format for the basketball tournaments. Will there be a “play-in game” … will only eight teams participate … will the double-bye configuration remain? Those answers may come sooner rather than later.
I made several references to Cal’s 2004 fate during Stanford’s late-season climb up the BCS ladder, mostly in the context of whether the Cardinal would get screwed … err, squeezed … out of the BCS the way the Bears did.
They’re clearly the best the Bay Area has produced in the past 10-15 years. I’m not familiar enough with Cal ’91 or Stanford ’92 to have a good sense for how those teams would compare and won’t get into that discussion here.
No doubt, Cal ’04 vs. Stanford ’10 is a tough, tough call.
Based on response (on the blog and via email) from outraged Baylor fans, I probably should address why the No. 10 Bears aren’t on my ballot — and haven’t been for several weeks.
They are 6-0 and, in my estimation, one of the 15 or 20 most talented teams in the country. But the ballot isn’t a projection of how the Bears might finish in the Big 12, or how deep they’ll go in March Madness.
It’s a reflection of what teams have done to date.
As I written many times (in regards to my football and basketball polls), I emphasize quality wins and even quality losses. I favor teams that lose close games to top competition over teams that do nothing but beat creampuffs.
Quick note regarding the “Conference of Quarterbacks,” which is just that this season … and many thanks to Merc writer Dan Brown for passing along the information from the NFL.
* The Pac-10 leads all conferences with eight projected NFL starters (none named Leinart).
Arizona’s Derek Anderson (Oregon State), Buffalo’s Trent Edwards (Stanford), Carolina’s Matt Moore (OSU), Cincinnati’s Carson Palmer (USC), Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers (Cal), Kansas City’s Matt Cassel (USC), Jets’ Mark Sanchez (USC) and Pittsburgh’s Dennis Dixon (Oregon).
* California leads all states with nine projected starters (none named Leinart).
NFL Draft preview: A big first round for the Pac-10?
Based on some quick research and quicker projections, it looks like this will be one of the league’s best first rounds of the decade (thanks to USC, of course).
* Four locks for the first round (USC’s Mark Sanchez, Brian Cushing and Rey Maualuga, plus Arizona’s Eben Britton).
* Two more possible first rounders (Cal’s Alex Mack and Oregon’s Max Unger).
If by chance they all go, the seven picks would constitute the league’s second-highest total of the decade behind the 2003 class, which had eight players go in the first round.
On a chilly night early last week, Stanford Coach Jim Harbaugh could barely contain his excitement over the performance of freshman quarterback Andrew Luck, who tossed five touchdowns in the Cardinal’s Spring Game.
Five days later, on a warm Saturday afternoon, Cal Coach Jeff Tedford gave a matter-of-fact review of quarterbacks Kevin Riley, Brock Mansion or Beau Sweeney following the last of Bears’ spring workouts.
Quick, slightly-random, definitely-bleary-eyed, insta-thoughts covering college and the NFL, focused mostly on local talent and with a decided slant towards Berkeley.
Action: Ex-Cal, current Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson celebrates one yard too early and has apparent touchdown nullified against Dallas.
Reaction: Veteran Jackson watchers probably were not surprised to see the showboating move. He was arguably the most selfish player to come through the Bay Area this decade.