Joe Santoro: Staying will help Pack prep for MWC

Sports fodder for a Friday morning ... The Nevada Wolf Pack would have liked nothing better than for this season to be their last in the Western Athletic Conference. Anything to avoid another fun-filled getaway to Las Cruces, N.M., you know. But staying in the WAC through the 2011-12 season, as the conference announced Thursday, is probably the best thing for the Pack. It gives them another full year to build up their recruiting base to be able to compete in the WAC in all sports. It gives them an entire year without worrying about competing with Boise State in football. And it also gives the Pack another full year to work on their non-conference scheduling for all sports. The WAC has served the Pack well. Staying another year won't hurt this athletic program.

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You do, however, have to feel sorry for the WAC. The $900,000 exit fee that both Nevada and Fresno have to pay the conference is sort of like dumping money into an 1987 Toyota. As soon as Fresno and Nevada leave, the conference will officially be on life support. The WAC's plan is to replace Boise, Fresno and Nevada with some combination of Texas State, Texas-San Antonio, Montana, Seattle and Denver. That's the best they can do? It's sort of like picking an all-star team with all of the real stars off fighting the Germans. Unless Seattle is the Seahawks and Denver is the Broncos, well, it's not such a good deal for the WAC. Montana is a I-AA school. Texas State and Texas-Antonio rank somewhere between the mating habits of armadillos and Jerry Jones' facelift on a list of things Texans give a hoot about. Is $900,000 really going to keep this old Toyota running?

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The San Francisco Giants are everything that is good about Major League Baseball. First of all, a World Series without either the New York Yankees or Boston Red Sox is always a treat. But the Giants make it special. Don't forget that this team, simply because it had Barry Bonds, used to be the poster team for the steroid era. It was easy to despise them. Now they are the lovable Bad News Bears with beards, a bunch of kids nobody else wanted. They don't have a superstar (or a true all-star) in their everyday lineup. They are just a bunch of grinders and gamers who play the game the way it was meant to be played, with pitching, defense, timely hitting and heart.

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It might feel a little strange for the Wolf Pack football team being stuck back in the WAC next year without Boise State around. The Pack next year will probably feel like the kid who was kept back in second grade for another year when his buddy was promoted to the third grade. Now, Boise isn't exactly the Pack's buddy (more like bully) but you get the idea. It's going to be weird. And how great will it feel to win a football conference next year that doesn't include the bullies from Boise? It might feel a little something like Gerald Ford being handed the presidency after Richard Nixon resigned. The Pack will be in the fancy office and everyone will call them Mr. President. But Boise - and the Wolf Pack- will know the truth. That's why beating Boise this year and winning the WAC is so important.

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Armon Johnson and Luke Babbitt are going to have to earn every single second they get this season with the Portland Trail Blazers. The two Wolf Pack NBA rookies have played a grand total of six minutes - all by Johnson in the Blazers' first two games combined. They used to stand on the court reciting Rudyard Kipling's Law of Jungle longer than that as Pack players. But don't feel too sorry for them. Babbitt is making seven figures this year and Johnson is getting six figures. That's not a bad internship in this economy for a couple guys who haven't even graduated from college.

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Barry Bonds says he wants to get back into baseball as a hitting coach for the Giants. Isn't that nice? Mark McGwire came back to the St. Louis Cardinals as a hitting coach. Why can't Barry come back to the Giants? There is a little matter of Bonds' being on trial soon for telling lies to a federal grand jury about using steroids. But I'm sure they'll just slap Barry on his steroid-free wrists and send him on his merry way. It would be great for Bonds to come back to the Giants. We only ask one thing. Bonds, as McGwire did last year, must sit down in front of Bob Costas and the TV cameras and answer an hour's worth of questions on his steroid use. If he does that we have no problem with him trying to teach Travis Ishikawa how to hit home runs into the bay.