All eyes on Pac-10 officiating this weekend

Most people around the country will be watching USC host Ohio State this weekend. At the same time, ESPN will be televising Oklahoma's visit to UW. This will be the first time the Sooners have played at a Pac-10 stadium since the infamous Oregon officiating debacle.

Duck fans hate the Huskies. Trojans and Bruins don't get along. We despise the Rats. But one thing all Pac-10 fans can agree on is that our conference's officiating in terrible. I don't believe Pac-10 officials are biased, but I do believe they are incompetent.

In some ways, I hope that the Pac-10 officials do screw up a major call this weekend, because it may generate enough noise for change to happen. Of course, putting the words "change" and "Pac-10" in the same sentence is pretty funny.

The Hoff

Must read post from the world's greatest sports blog, Deadspin: David Hasselhoff Is a Crazy, Wild Arizona Football Fan.

If I was recruiting against Arizona, I think I'd just play this video. Unless you're competing for a German basketball star. In which case Arizona is golden.

Could be a rough NFL season for ASU fans

First, a little background.

When I moved to the Valley to attend ASU in 1991, I had no allegiance to any specific NFL team, so I quickly adopted the Cardinals. Sure they were terrible, but they were the hometown team, and they played on campus. I could scalp a ticket to most games for $5 and sit on the 50 yard line of the upper deck. Even if they were the worst team in the league, it was still NFL football.

After graduating, I became a season ticket holder for a few years, primarily to get into the Super Bowl lottery (I got tickets!). Even after leaving the Valley, I still followed them. In fact, I was at the Eagles/Cardinals game at the Vet where Jake Plummer made his pro debut.

All that changed, however, on the day that the Cardinals filed their lawsuit against ASU. Remember, this was just nine days after the citizens of Arizona had given the franchise a $400 million gift. How did the Cards respond? By suing a state agency for over $20 million. Nine days. Un-freaking-believable.

I said at the time, and I maintain to this day, that the lawsuit was unforgivable regardless of its merit. I don't care if the Cards were 100% right that they were due an additional $20 million from advertising. They should have simply held a press conference and announced: "Although we believe ASU owes us an additional $20 million, as a sign of gratitude to the people of Arizona, we are going to forgo all claims to that revenue."

Of course, as we later discovered, their claims were largely without merit, but that is not the point. The point is that the lawsuit should never have been filed in the first place. ASU still racked up nearly $1 million in legal bills, and for an Athletic Department that struggles to make a profit, that's a lot of money.

Ever since that day I have wished nothing but the worst for the Cardinals franchise and the Bidwill family. I have no ill-will to the individual players on the team, but I take great pleasure at watching them lose year after year.

2008 may be different. The NFC West is possibly going to be the worst division in NFL history. Seattle, San Francisco and St. Louis are all terrible. Not just bad, but horrible. The Cruds could go 8-8 or even 7-9 and win the division by 2 or 3 games. I'm trying to find a way that another team will finish ahead of them, but I can't. So unfortunately, it's going to happen: the Cruds will win their division this season. My only solace is that they won't make it past the first round of the playoffs.

The most overlooked game of all time?

So, hands up if you're excited about the UNLV game this week? As I posted earlier, I didn't think the Devils would overlook Stanford, but it's going to be awfully difficult not to overlook the Rebels. I know all the fans will be thinking about Georgia this week, but what about the coaches? Do they sneak a day to prep for the Bulldogs, or do they give 100% of their time and attention to UNLV? It's going to be a very strange week.

Sparky appears to be safe

After last week's controversy, with Sparky gone from midfield at Sun Devil Stadium, the results of the Wired Devils poll were interesting: over 60% of respondents said that ASU should emphasize Sparky and the interlocking AS logo, and just 28% voted for Sparky only. I don't think Sparky is being eliminated, but I do think the University realizes that outside of Arizona, he may not be the most marketable symbol.

As the photo shows, Sparky is still present on the new basketball floor, but this time the sunburst ASU logo is the center of attention. Some people hate this logo; I quite like it myself.

Changes to Wired Devils

As you will probably notice, some changes are happening at Wired Devils. I have found it difficult to maintain a current blog 24/7, so I am returning the main site www.WiredDevils.com to the links page. However, I have added a new feature: real-time links to the headlines from various news sources and blogs.

I will keep blogging, but will no longer feel embarrassed if I go a few weeks between posts. The URL of the blog is wireddevils.blogspot.com but I will link to it from the main page.

This change also allows me to make use of Blogger's toolkit, including their polls service. This week you can vote on your preferred logo: Sparky, AS or both.

Thank you for your continued support of Wired Devils. I am continually amazed by the number of visits I get each day.

Annual NFL Pigskin Pick'em Contest

Have some fun this NFL season by playing Pigskin Pick'em on ESPN.com. I have created a Wired Devils group so that you can compete against other ASU fans. No prizes -- just for fun!

This game challenges you to select the winner of each game throughout the 17-week NFL season. No points spread to worry about -- just pick the winner. Best of all, it's FREE to play.

Click here for the group page.

Remember to pick against the Cruds every week!

Pac-10 falls even further behind

A must read column from Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Excerpt:

I was still getting calls late Monday night about the SEC’s staggering 15-year deal with ESPN that will reportedly pay the league about $2.25 billion. That deal, coupled with the 15-year deal the SEC has signed with CBS will give the league financial security for a long, long time.

In addition to the SEC, the Big Ten and Big XII have pretty impressive TV deals in place. Meanwhile, the silence from the Pac-10 office is deafening.

Devil Dome pics

A severe storm hit Tempe last night and pretty much destroyed the Devil Dome. Thanks to tiptap for the picture. Additional photos here and here.

The most important game of the season is...

Forget UGA, forget U$C. One game stands out as the most critical on the Sun Devils' schedule: Stanford. That's right, the trees. Why? Because it's the Pac-10 opener, and this game has historically been a strong predictor of the season.

Consider these numbers (which count conference games only): since joining the Pac-10 in 1978, ASU has lost the conference opener 17 times, and in those seasons has gone a combined 57-70-2 (a 45% win percentage). However, in the 11 seasons in which we have won our first Pac-10 game, the composite record is 56-31-0 (a 64% win percentage). We tied our opener in 1983 and 1986 and finished a combined 9-4-2 in those seasons.

Since 1982, ASU has only once (in 1999) lost the conference opener and finished with a winning record in the Pac-10. Conversely, 1994 was the only season where the Sun Devils won their conference opener but finished below .500 in the Pac-10.

So feel free to overlook NAU, but don't overlook the Cardinal. September 6 in Sun Devil Stadium is the most important game of the season.