Mountaintop View 4-27-22. Araiza, Nevada spring game, D1 break up? Falcon baseball, POTW

Another day, another round of links. Enjoy what we have for you today from around the conference and the college sports world in general.

Also, the NFL draft is beings tomorrow!

Araiza can’t miss.

That statement is true both on the field and in the draft. Matt Araiza is almost a sure thing as a punter, which is pretty much unheard of these days. He garnered national attention this past college football season and won the Ray Guy Award after posting the best season for a college punter ever. How will his must-see punts translate to the NFL? That remains to be seen but a few teams will be interested in taking that chance to find out.

Nevada’s new-look team on display this past weekend.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Nevada’s football program went through a total upheaval in the past few months. The new version of it took the field on Saturday and as with all spring games, optimism and excitement are high. Nate Cox looked the part at quarterback, but competition will come to QB and other positions in the summer with high school signees and more college transfers. Things must have gone pretty well, since 3 visitors committed after being at the spring game, making four new commits for the Wolf Pack just this week.

Is a D1 breakup inevitable?

Matt Brown of Extra Points tackles this and quotes Notre Dame AD Jack Swarbrick’s insight as well. Swarbrick thinks it is inevitable, citing so many schools trying to leave their conference and behind handcuffed by contracts. He sees two groups, one that functions within the traditional academic structure and another that ties sports to a school in name only. Brown wouldn’t go that far, but does think big changes are coming. He sees D1 as too large and therefore too broad to be all on the same page. He thinks a restructure of what it means to be D1, thus creating some natural movement up or down, is more likely. Also, it’s hard to predict what the sport will look like in a decade or who is even making the decisions.

Don’t look now but the Falcons are on fire.

Softball players of the week.

On the horizon:

• Later today: Peak Perspective: Is Mountain West Football overrated?
• Coming Thursday: Reacts: NFL Draft Results
• Coming Thursday-Saturday: The NFL Draft