Art Thiel is a longtime sports columnist in Seattle, for many years at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and now as founding editor at SportsPressNW.com.
If you follow the turns here, undoubtedly you have reached the same conclusion as me: Sentiment, loyalty and conscience have no purchase in big-time college sports.
In large part, free agency is a grand shuffling of players among teams with the pivot points being salaries and age. Breakouts and busts always happen, but in general during this period we are seeing a swapping of JAGs (Just A Guy).
Does the state of Washington get awarded a "We Do Last Best" certificate? Is there a trophy, like maybe a door blown out of a Boeing 737 Max 9? Do Huskies and Cougars fans meet in Washtucna, hold hands and sing kumbaya?
All within the realm of rules and customs, of course, but the Chiefs' harrowing triumph in the 75th minute of play did not at all resemble, say, the 13th century works of Genghis Khan, his many offspring and the Mongol Empire.
The expectation is that the Huskies late Monday will be trailing by two points with one second left. Then the NCAA penalizes Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh for being an all-around scoundrel. The five-yard advance allows kicker Grady Gross to attempt a 60-yard field goal that bounces once, then again, on the crossbar before falling past the uprights for the win.