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Pac-12 CEO Group approves elimination of intraconference transfer rule & increased student-athlete involvement in Conference governance
SAN FRANCISCO – Supporting recommendations from the Pac-12 Council, the Conference’s CEO Group approved a number of measures at its annual spring meeting on Monday. Among the actions taken by the presidents and chancellors of Pac-12 institutions were votes to provide student-athletes enhanced flexibility in deciding where to study and compete, and to increase their involvement in the Pac-12’s official governance process.

“The Pac-12 mission is to develop the next generation of leaders in academics and athletics,” said Michael Schill, Pac-12 CEO Group Chair and University of Oregon President. “Providing student-athletes with more flexibility in choosing their path and greater representation in the Pac-12 governance process strengthens our commitment to achieving that mission.”

Elimination of Pac-12 Intraconference Transfer Rule
The unanimous decision removes the requirement that all undergraduate transfers within the Conference serve one academic year in residence at their new institution before being permitted to compete. Moving forward, the eligibility of intraconference transfers will be governed by NCAA legislation. The decision is effective immediately for all transfers entering their second Conference institution in the fall of 2021 and only applies the first time an undergraduate student-athlete decides to transfer.

SALT Composition
To increase student-athlete representation in the Conference’s official voting governance structure, 12 additional representatives (one from each institution) will be added to the Pac-12 Student-Athlete Leadership Team (SALT). Previously made up of two student-athletes from each institution, SALT membership will now include at least three student-athletes per school during each academic year, with those three student-athletes representing each sport season (fall, winter, spring).
In October of 2015, the Pac-12 became the first major conference to formally integrate the student-athlete perspective into its formal governance process with the addition of SALT to the Pac-12 Council, which also includes Athletics Directors, Faculty Athletics Representatives and Senior Woman Administrators.

..........and for that matter, if we made the Pac ship. how many would opt-out of that?

I had 2020 as a 9-3 season plus a bowl game where MAYBE 1-2 players opted out of the bowl

could be quite a few more this season and would be a bummer

Eligible and most likely to declare for the 2022 draft (does not include players like Michael Matus/Amiri Johnson/Kejuan Markham/TJ Pesefea/etc that will be eligible but have no logical reason):

DEFENSE
No eligibility remaining after 2021:
Jack Jones/Chase Lucas/Evan Fields/Travez Moore/Shannon Forman/Deandre Pierce
Remaining eligibility in 2022 and/or beyond:
Jermayne Lole/Tyler Johnson/DJ Davidson/Merlin Robertson/Timarcus Davis/D Black/Kyle Soelle


OFFENSE
No eligibility remaining after 2021:
Kellen Diesch/Henry Hattis/Curtis Hodges
Remaining eligibility in 2022 and/or beyond:
Dohnovan West/Jayden Daniels/Rachaad White/Bryan Thompson/Geor'quarious Spivey

Our starting lineup after the u4 game could look DRASTICALLY different (hopefully not)

These are the standings following this past weekend games....

1) Oregon = 17-7 & 33-11

2) AU = 19-8 & 35-13

3) Stanford = 13-8 & 28-12

4) Oregon St = 14-10 & 32-17

4) ASU = 14-10 & 30-16

4) UCLA = 14-10 & 30-16

8) USC = 10-14 & 22-22

Cal beat Stanford two out of three games over weekend and play another game today...

Stanford will finish season with three less conference games since their series against Wash was canceled a month or so ago...

AU travels to Oregon St and Stanford travels to Oregon this next weekend while the Devils travel to USC and UCLA hosts Cal...

This will be the final AU series of the season coming up, while the other teams have two series left, so there is still a lot of room for the Devils to move up in the standings, with playing a poor USC team on the road and then getting UCLA at home to finish off season...

Can the Devils finish strongly to move up into the top 3 spots in the PAC or return to the middle of the PAC somewhere..??

Stay tuned...Go Devils!!!

Not rated yet, but that will be done in a couple of weeks. Right now ASU and Utah only two Power 5 offers and that should change as well

I’ll go with softball 🥎

No way we get past UCLA, but if ASU ⚾️goes to a regional, they will not get past second round either, and at best will be a #2, but probably a #3 unless they finish very strong!

Mac Friday's game recap

The redshirt was never able to crack the two-deep. Showed some development throughout the years but not enough to really be a contributor. If you recall stated weeks ago regarding the scholarship distribution chart that he wouldn't be part of the team moving forward

Mornin Mates...

Today's Topic = Fun Returns to ASU Baseball

For us skeptics, this is more like it as we ask whether we can keep it up down the stretch and, maybe, not only make the playoffs but actually make it to a Super Regional final and beyond..??

The team has shown a lot of resiliency, with credit going to both the players and the staff for plugging away, and now finally taking a series against a team ranked above them in the PAC standings, before the weekend started, and one that was also nationally ranked...

Just as importantly, we are not doing this with "small ball" as the cannons have been fired over the fences, in all directions, by the likes of Ethan Long and some of his teammates, on a pretty regular basis, these days...

Whether it will continue or not is anyone's guess at this time but, from a recruiting standpoint, how great is it to be able to give recruits the following sales pitch...

Come and play for us and you can join the "Home Run Kings Team" of college baseball where number one MLB draft pick - Tork - and now - Ethan Long - have set records hitting home-runs for ASU...

I mean what good HS or JC hitter doesn't want to come to a program that features the long ball rather than the small ball philosophy some programs promote...

When I was growing up in NJ in the 60s, I was a Yankee fan who got to watch Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, etc, knock the hell out of a baseball, all of the time, that was a whole lot of fun, especially since the Yankees won a lot more often than not, featuring those two and other Home-Run Kings...

Hitting wise, the Sun Devils were third in the conference with a .293 BA before this weekend series started against OSU...the Cats were first with a .328 BA...

Pitching wise, the Devils were eighth in the PAC with a 4.72 team ERA while the Beavers were first with a 2.91 ERA (again before this weekend series started)...

And, so far, as we all know, the Devils have scored 20 runs against the Beavers in two games with a lot of the runs coming from home-runs and not through playing "small ball"...

Fielding wise, the Beavers led the PAC with a .981% average compared to the Devils fifth place standing before the weekend started at .976%...

On another relevant note, the Devils were only seventh in the league in committing errors, before this weekend, having committed 39 errors to both AU and Wazzu, tied for first in this negative category, having committed 59 errors apiece...

This mixture of categories has lead the Devils to a fourth place standing in the PAC race that looks like this today...

1) Oregon = 16-7 and 32-11

2) AU = 18-8 and 34-13

3) Stanford = 13-7 and 28-11

4) ASU = 14-9 and 30-15 (nice to have joined the 30 win club once again)

5) OSU = 13-10 and 31-17

So, with a sweep of the Beavers, they will be in 4th place all by themselves but, if they lose today, they will share that spot with the Beavers...

In any event, we are making progress and can only hope and trust that it will continue through the end of the regular season and carry over into the playoffs, where it would be nice to move on to a regional final rather than getting bumped out right away, which is what has always happened, so far, with Tracy's previous teams...

It's much better being a Sun Devil camper to wake up each morning feeling refreshed rather than depressed...

Right..??

G'day Mates and Go Devils!!!

If he does decide to stay close to home...

Ranking the Contenders: 2021 Hoops Prospect Arthur Kaluma

Edited

ASU's Saturday night affair was very far less dramatic than 24 hours prior, but Ethan Long continued to provide the fireworks along with the rest of his teammates at the plate, and with a strong showing on the mound by Justin Fall the Sun Devils capture the weekend series. Zach Keenan's recap

According to stories in the Daily Star this morning, our new commissioner was hired mainly because he knew how to "follow the hockey puck" as a shrewd digital leader in the entertainment business, according to Oregon president Michael Schill, who was acting as the PAC-12 spokesman yesterday, during the announcement of George K as our new commissioner...

According to Schill, "what drew us to GK was his ability to see where the hockey puck was going to go...it attracted all of us"...

This means that George can figure out ways to create money streams for the conference like he did for MLB Advanced Media years ago by "figuring out a way to sell team logos as cell phone screen savers for $2.49 each that lead to tens of millions of sales, that made a lot of money for his employer at the time"...

More importantly he has to figure out a way to fix the "league wide reputation as a powder-puff football league" according to Greg Hansen in his sports column in the Daily Star today...

The big question will be whether a man with a college rowing background, while in Boston decades ago, can figure out how best to resurrect the PAC's football deficiencies to make them more competitive with the top dogs of the college football world in other conferences...

When asked about that he replied "I believe the solution to elevating PAC-12 football is a combination of addressing its structural issues and having a more focused approach on recruiting"...

One structural issue would be to expand the current college football play-off system so it includes many more teams in the playoffs, rather than the current system that only includes four teams...

Another might be to reduce the number of conference games PAC teams play each season to allow for less cannibalism with the resultant production of more wins, against teams they can beat, in order to keep up with what the SEC and other conferences do to ensure postseason participation...

I would also guess that getting better bowl alignments with higher status bowls would also be a structural issue to address...

Additionally, I would guess that moving the PAC headquarters from SF to a more glorified sports destination like Las Vegas would prompt more notice across the country than what being close to the Silicon Valley fosters...

As far as recruiting goes, perhaps the commissioner can send out a memo to head coaches across the PAC that says the days of recruiting "our kind of guys" is over and a more analytic approach needs to be used...

Would the new commissioner provide the necessary intellectual and financial resources to help with recruiting in this digital age..??

We all know that ASU, under Herm, has taken a more focused approach to recruiting and the results have been impressive, at least on paper, so far...

It is very clear that although Olympic Sports are wonderful in their own right they do not pay the bills so the focus of the new commissioner will be on ways to enhance both football and basketball...

So, can a former college "rower" figure out how to make us a better football and basketball conference that generates huge amounts of revenue for each school..??

I guess we'll find out soon, right..??

At the very least, the new commissioner seems very likeable unlike his predecessor...

Go Devils!!!

The Sun Devils took game 1 from the Beavers at Muni in dramatic fashion as Ethan Long hit a walk off home run in the bottom of the 9th inning to seal the 9-6 win.

@Devil Dust seems to stay on top of the conference standings and he will be happy to know that means ASU jumps to 4th and within semi striking distance of 1st place with 8 games remaining.

In game 1 I found myself thinking "these are the kind of games we need to win". The Devils found a way. happy for them.

But as nice as game 1 was, game 2 and 3 matter, as we all know and here are some things that I'll be watching in game 2 as the Devils go for the series win.

1) Justin Fall: The Red Shirt Junior was likely the series MVP against Cal after getting the complete game win on Saturday. But, it took him 133 pitches to finish the game which is absurd for any time let alone a regular season game. I don't have any credibility in these matters, but as a fan of the kid I hope JK takes it easy on him this week. If he only throws 50 pitches how well equipped is the Sun Devil bullpen to handle the Oregon State line up in game 2? I wouldn't be shocked if he was moved to Sunday just to get him an extra day.

2) Defense or Hitting: After several years of poor defense, Smith has a fantastic defense in Tempe this year lead by 4th year man Drew Swift who is a wizard at SS. Catcher and RF are in similar points right now in that Ferri and Murphy are plus defenders but have been a liability at the plate. at catcher Baez is the hot bat but is a downgrade defensively while Higgins in RF also has the much better hitting statistics while Murphy is really fantastic defensively. If you are Smith do you go with the gloves or the bats at C and in RF?

3) 30 wins: If the Sun Devils win Saturday by my count they will win that 30th game which is important to some people.

What are you watching in game 2?

How's everyone's weekend going? Been spending a good amount of time at the pool.

Follow along for updates on game 2 of Arizona State (29-15, 13-9 Pac-12) vs. Oregon State (31-16, 13-9).

Follow for updates for Arizona State (28-15, 12-9 Pac-12) vs. Oregon State (31-15, 13-8 Pac-12) game 1 of 3.

We all know how much Mike Leach loves to involve the tight end in his offense, and as a result Mississippi State tight end 6-5 240-pound Geor'quarius Spivey, put himself in the portal. we mentioned for a while that this is a position that ASU is looking to add a player to the current roster and thus are recruiting him along with Texas Tech, Utah, Indiana, Louisana Tech, and to a lesser extent Auburn. He would have three years of eligibility left, but not expected to play more than two and bring a level of experience that aside from Curtis Hodges no other scholarship player in Tempe has and would still be in Tempe after Hodges exhausted his eligibility. So a great current depth player and perhaps someone who could be your best tight end in 2022.

I'm told a decision should happen before the end of the month, and thus Spivey won't take any visits in June, etc. before announcing. In fact, he's expected to be in the school of his choice during the month of June.

With 13 home runs in the last 14 games, Friday night at Phoenix Muni was in many ways just another typical performance by Ethan Long. Then again, walk-off home runs are far from routine and the freshman continued in his dream season with that feat in a comeback win over Oregon State. Zach Keenan's recap

Can somebody please help me understand how Josh Christopher was such a highly regarded recruit? Not trying to be harsh, but I don't see one thing he does well.

First round of the NCAA's against Michigan 9-5. Just happy to see ASU win in any sport and advance.