Pac-12 trying to stay alive; College football, NFL QB Power Rankings

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We got an absolute stunner overnight: The Pac-12 is attempting to revive/survive by adding Mountain West schools Boise State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Fresno State to the current “Pac-2” of Oregon State and Washington State, per CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello. We have full details here, including how much it will cost and which schools could be next.

🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to …

A’JA WILSON

There’s a new greatest scoring season in WNBA history, and it belongs to A’ja Wilson. The Aces superstar passed Jewel Loyd‘s single-season record of 939 points (from last season) on Wednesday with a mid-range jumper that gave her 941 points on the campaign.

Wilson finished with 27 points — she’s up to 956 on the year — as the Aces defeated the Fever, 86-75. (And she’s likely to also become the first WNBA player to score 1,000 points in a single season.)

For those of you who feel points per game determines the true scoring champion, I agree with you, and Wilson is well on her way to that record, too. With just four games left in the season, Wilson is averaging 27.3 points, well ahead of Diana Taurasi‘s record 25.3 average in 2006.

👍 Honorable mentions

• Patrick Mahomes believes imitation is the sincerest form of flattery when it comes to Dylan Raiola.
• Christian McCaffrey says he’s “ready to go” despite Achilles/calf issues.
• Joe Burrow says to stop worrying about how he picks up a water bottle.
• Caitlin Clark‘s signature basketball sold out in an hour.
• Sherrone Moore finally signed his contract with Michigan.
• Christian Pulisic wants Mauricio Pochettino to bring a new mentality to the USMNT. Same, Christian, same.
• By the way, Poch is the highest-paid U.S. Soccer coach ever.
• And Chuck Booth has a USMNT stock watch.
• The Mets were nearly no-hit by Bowden Francis … before winning by five.
• Here come … the Tigers?!
• Derek Shelton will return as Pirates manager.
• USC partnered with a cannabis company.
• There’s a happy ending to the Purdue student who won a kicking challenge to win a car.
• I also enjoyed Shehan Jeyarajah’s story on how Hudson Card ended up with the Boilermakers.
• Dennis Dodd on why we need college football upsets is terrific.
• Hall-of-Fame goaltender Roberto Luongo played in a men’s league hockey game.
• This college basketball team honored 9/11 victims in a unique way.
• Here are bright spots for MLB’s worst teams.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

• Tyreek Hill admitted he could have handled things differently during his traffic stop.
• The Vikings said they felt bad for Daniel Jones. At least Jones isn’t offended by fans heckling him.
• Raheem Mostert is out, and Devon Achane is questionable for the Dolphins‘ game against the Bills tonight.
• The WNBPA called out Cathy Engelbert for her answer regarding social media abuse.
• Reynaldo López (shoulder inflammation) hit the IL.
• Jacoby Brissett was on the losing end of a friendly NC State-Tennessee bet with Jerod Mayo and Joe Milton.
• White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf says “no one is happy.” No kidding.
• MLB suspended Edwin Uceta two games and Kevin Cash one game after Uceta hit Nick Castellanos, causing benches to clear.
• An ex-Suns employee is seeking $60 million in damages and alleging she experienced racial discrimination and harassment.
• Remember that Australian break dancer named Raygun who was … not very good? She’s No. 1 in the world. Here’s why.

🏈 NFL and College Football QB Power Rankings

Now that NFL and college football are both underway, we can run our QB Power Rankings of the pro signal callers of today and of the future. Let’s start with Cody Benjamin’s NFL QB Power Rankings, where the top three remained the same.

1. Patrick Mahomes (previous: 1)
2. Josh Allen (2)
3. Lamar Jackson (3)
4. C.J. Stroud (5)
5. Brock Purdy (6)

Much like his team, Joe Burrow was among the most disappointing Week 1 performers, and he fell all the way from fourth to 11th. Burrow has a history of slow starts, and for the sake of my Fantasy team, let’s hope he continues his tradition of playing better as the season rolls along. Derek Carr (28th to 19th) made the biggest jump of any player, though let’s check back after Week 3 to see how he fares against a team other than the Panthers. For all those wondering, Carolina’s Bryce Young isn’t 32nd. But he’s close.

In college football, the top spot belongs to the quarterback of the country’s most impressive offense so far: Quinn Ewers jumped from fifth to first in Tom Fornelli’s rankings.

1. Quinn Ewers (previous: 5)
2. Carson Beck (1)
3. Cam Ward (2)
4. Jalen Milroe (3)
5. Nico Iamaleava (6)

And how about this old face in a new place jumping from unranked to seventh?!

• Fornelli: “7. Kyle McCord, Syracuse — It’s nice when things work out for both parties, isn’t it? Ohio State is happy with its decision to go with Will Howard, and McCord is thriving at Syracuse. McCord threw for 381 yards and four touchdowns to lead the Orange to an upset win at home over Georgia Tech. This after McCord threw four touchdown passes in the opener against Ohio. (I wonder if he added the word “State” to them for motivation.)”

Syracuse already has as many wins over AP-ranked teams this season (1-0 record) as it did from 2019-23 (1-12 record).

🏀 Biggest question for every NBA team

We’re inside two weeks until the first NBA teams report to training camp, and all teams will report before the end of the month. So while we’re enjoying the relative calm of the last few weeks of the offseason, we’re also slowly but surely getting into basketball mode. And Jasmyn Wimbish’s excellent “Biggest question for every team” series, broken down by division, is a perfect place to start.

The Celtics and Nuggets report early for the Abu Dhabi preseason games, so let’s start with one of them. Despite a title and a conference finals over the past two seasons, I have real questions for the Nuggets. Their 2024 first-rounder, DaRon Holmes, tore his Achilles, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope left in free agency. Here’s Jasmyn’s biggest question for them:

• Wimbish: “Is Christian Braun ready? — The Nuggets don’t really have the luxury of waiting around for Braun to develop. Their championship window is right now, while Nikola Jokic is at the peak of his powers and they still have most of the roster from that 2023 title still intact. It’s not unreasonable to think Braun is up for the task, it’s just a lot to ask from a third-year player who will need to defend at a high level, while also making and taking 3s at a high clip.”

If it’s not Braun, someone has to take a big step. Here are all of the divisions:

• Atlantic (Celtics, Knicks, 76ers, Nets, Raptors)
• Central (Bucks, Cavaliers, Pacers, Bulls, Pistons)
• Southeast (Magic, Heat, Hawks, Hornets, Wizards)
• Northwest (Thunder, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Jazz, Trail Blazers)
• Pacific (Clippers, Suns, Lakers, Kings, Warriors)
• Southwest (Mavericks, Pelicans, Rockets, Grizzlies, Spurs)

🏀 Men’s college basketball offseason winners and losers

It’s not just the NBA. We’ve slipped inside two months until college basketball is back, and even though it’s been a while, it was a crazy offseason on the coaching carousel and in the transfer portal.

So who won, and who lost as class gets in session and hoops are soon to follow? Well, one state has two long-proud programs in rebuild mode, according to Kyle Boone.

• Boone: “John Calipari‘s stunning decision to leave Kentucky for Arkansas was effectively the first real news of the offseason. Calipari’s move didn’t necessarily come as a surprise, and truth be told, it seemed like a change was needed both for him and the UK program. But any time you lose a coach with a Hall of Fame resume it’s hard to see it as anything other than a loss. That set up the state – both Louisville and Kentucky, which both opened – to be universally rejected by Baylor coach Scott Drew in a span of weeks.”

Kyle did give credit to the Wildcats (Mark Pope) and Cardinals (Pat Kelsey) for finding strong leaders for the next era, but it will be a very different look indeed (and Louisville, especially, hopes so).

You can see Kyle’s full offseason winners and losers here.

📺 What we’re watching Thursday

⚾ Red Sox at Yankees or Rays at Guardians, 7:15 p.m. on Fox
🏈 Arizona State at Texas State, 7:30 p.m. on ESPN
🏀 Liberty at Wings, 8 p.m. on Prime Video
🏈 Bills at Dolphins, 8:15 p.m. on Prime Video