• We're just two days away from the Sun Bowl 9am kickoff. For a couple of days, it appeared that WSU wasn't going to play in a post-season game they had earned the rights to. When Miami pulled out at the eleventh hour, it was clear that if the Sun Bowl was going to happen this year, it was going to take a Herculean effort and a lot of luck. Thanks to the hard work of AD Pat Chun, the necessary effort brought about a matchup that is actually more interesting in the original pairing. The process was filled with rumors that kept writers busily tapping away at their keyboards to publish clickbait on the interwebs. There was the group of teams that were preparing for bowl games only to have their opponents back out because of Covid. Now that we're on the other side of a new Sun Bowl matchup, turns out that those options were little more than rumors and idle speculation from writers who were on the outside looking in. As late as Monday, there were four such teams out there. As late as Monday, none of those four such teams were interested in changing their holiday plans to include a trip to El Paso. Stephen F. Austin State University took to Twitter for a show of bravado by volunteering to play Wazzu. Turns out that was never taken seriously by the Sun Bowl committee. Truth be told, the only option given serious consideration and lengthy negotiations was Central Michigan. Hours were expended to make the match between the Chippewas and the Cougs. During this process, it's reported that Pat Chun did contact the folks at the Arizona Bowl where Cental Michigan was supposed to play Boise State. However, Chun did not express interest in traveling up to Tucson for the Arizona Bowl. Instead, he was being courteous and politely letting them know the long-standing relationship between the Pac-12 and the Sun Bowl committee was going to be honored. In other words, he let them know the Cougs would only play a bowl game in El Paso. The fact that the Sun Bowl payout for Wazzu and the Pac-12 is $4.2 million greater than that of the Arizona Bowl may have influenced Chun's loyalty. Also, the fact that the comparison of a major network broadcast, CBS, would dominate the viewers tuning into YouTube streaming might have swayed the decision. Bottom line, Chun and the Sun Bowl folks made the game happen this coming Friday morning. For Cougar Nation, WSU football will get their chance to put together the final chapter in a storied season of high drama.

• For more info on the Sun Bowl matchup, here's a nice analysis by Pete Flutak of Yahoo! Sports:
  https://sports.yahoo.com/washington-state-vs-central-michigan-200937998.html

• If you have your DVR set to record Wazzu men's hoops opening up Pac-12 play against the UW tonight, don't bother. The game has been canceled because the Cougs are in Covid protocol and can neither practice nor play a game for the time being. Because the game is conference play for both teams, it will be rescheduled once an agreement on a new date can be reached.

• For those yearning for more Nick Rolovich bashing, Barry Bolton put together a nice piece that lionizes the Cougar football team while taking a veiled shot at anyone who dares to defy vaccine mandates. Personally, I can't get enough fun content about Wazzu football and Barry primarily focuses on that side of the 2021 story of this team. Here's the link:
  https://247sports.com/college/washington-state/Article/Pat-Chun-2021-Cougar-football-team-will-be-remembered-forever-179236087/

Go Cougs!!!