---

WAC already missing
Price’s pick

WHILE wondering how "Oahu prices" apply to pay-per-view games at Idaho, Nebraska and San Jose:

» I miss UTEP coach Mike Price already. Maybe new guy Hal Mumme of New Mexico State can pick up some of the slack. Somebody has to lead his team onto the field while carrying a pick.

» Speaking of Mumme, that Oct. 15 Hawaii-NMSU football game needs to be moved to a 1 p.m. kickoff. Not for TV. Just so that -- with those two pass-pass-pass offenses -- the game has a chance to end sometime before 3:30 a.m.

» Wednesday's paper noted that "(Herman) Frazier said reports that he was being considered for the athletic-director jobs at Colorado and Arizona State this spring helped speed the negotiations for his new deal."

Do I -- again, I might add -- have to mention the offer I have on the table from Sports Illustrated? (Fifty percent off the cover price, plus a sweatshirt.)

» Street & Smith's Sports Business Daily is reporting (and our Dave Reardon raised the possibility earlier this month when he wrote from the John Deere Classic) that rumor says Michelle Wie might turn pro this year, in October. And a $10-12 million contract from Nike is probably waiting in the wings.

Wow. That's, like, Riley Wallace-raise money.

» Remember Wie's great "sex change" punch line at the Public Links? A Dayton Daily News account noted that her parents were sitting in on the press conference "and they seemed to shift a bit uncomfortably."

Which just proves my theory that a "funny" teenager is great on TV -- on a sitcom, or with a laugh track of 30 golf reporters in the background. But if your kid said something like that -- and your kid probably would -- it might lose just a little of its hilarity.

» Dear Sports Columnist:

"... Now, here is where you must realize that I am serious. You have heard of the sport of extreme fighting where anything goes? Well, I was thinking -- bear with me -- that they should give those guys swords. I mean, if ancient Rome had gladiators, why shouldn't we? Our entertainment is always pushing the envelope for more thrills. So maybe we should reform our laws to recognize that society has come to the point where we are ready to have gladiators. You may decry it, deplore it, abhor it, but that is what the public wants. Maybe we are ready for gladiators. If not now, maybe a bit later. But the thirst of the public for violence is very clear. That is the direction we are going. Think about it."

COMMENT: Thank you. I love that segment you do after the news on Channel 8.