FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A7
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
PAC-12
NBA
West Coast League Baseball
Larry Scott is out
as commissioner
Pac-12 Commissioner
Larry Scott is stepping
down at the end of June,
ending an 11-year tenure
in which the conference
landed a transformational
billion-dollar TV deal but
struggled to keep up with
some of its Power Five
peers when it came to
revenue and exposure.
Sports Business Journal
first reported the news
Wednesday night. It was a
mutual decision between
the 56-year-old Scott and
university presidents who
make up the league’s ex-
ecutive committee.
Scott’s current contract
was set to expire June
2022, but he will not seek
a new deal and instead
finish out this academic
year to assist with the
transition to his successor.
Under Scott, the Pac-
10 became the Pac-12
by adding Colorado and
Utah to the conference in
2011 and created a foot-
ball championship game.
The additions helped
the conference secure a
12-year, $3 billion media
rights deal with Fox and
ESPN that set the stan-
dard in the college sports
market at the time.
“We appreciate Lar-
ry’s pioneering efforts in
growing the conference
by adding new competi-
tive university programs
and accelerating the Pac-
12 to television network
parity with the other con-
ferences,” said Michael
Schill, University of Ore-
gon president and chair
of the Pac-12 executive
committee. “At one point,
our television agreement
was the most lucrative in
the nation . … That said,
the intercollegiate athlet-
ics marketplace doesn’t
remain static and now is
a good time to bring in a
new leader who will help
us develop our go-for-
ward strategy.”
Ready and waiting
— Associated Press
In 2019, Kyle Nobach was an associate head coach for Everett Community College in Washington, the same team he played for prior to
transferring to Oregon State. Nobach was hired to be the head coach of the Bend Elks in fall 2019, but the 2020 season was canceled due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
NFL
QB Philip Rivers is
set to retire
INDIANAPOLIS —
When Philip Rivers first
started tossing footballs
as a high-school ball boy,
he heaved them any way
he could. The throwing
motion stuck — and suc-
cess soon followed.
On Wednesday, the
39-year-old Indianapolis
Colts quarterback an-
nounced his retirement.
After being selected
fourth overall in the 2004
draft, he was immediately
traded from the New York
Giants to the San Diego
Chargers for Eli Manning.
In the 2006 season
opener, Rivers made his
starting debut — and
then the next 251 in a row
including the playoffs.
Rivers won 134 career
games — No. 2 among
quarterbacks without a
Super Bowl ring — and
was eighth all-time.
He also finished his
career ranked fifth in ca-
reer completions (5,277),
yards passing (63,440)
and touchdown passes
(421), and as the Chargers’
franchise record-holder
in every major passing
category.
Rivers, an eight-time
Pro Bowler, had the sec-
ond-highest completion
percentage of his career
(68%) in 2020 while lead-
ing the Colts to an 11-5
mark and their second
playoff appearance since
2015.
He already has a day
gig lined up, becoming
the head coach of St.
Michael Catholic High
School in Fairhope, Ala-
bama, where he hopes to
coach his sons just like his
father coached him.
— Associated Press
New head coach Kyle Nobach eager to get
started with the Bend Elks come spring
Blazers’
McCollum
keeping foot
injury in
perspective
BY AARON FENTRESS
The Oregonian
Don’t feel sorry for Port-
land Trail Blazers guard C.J.
McCollum, who will be out
several weeks with a broken
left foot. He doesn’t need
sympathy.
“There’s a lot of people
going through a lot worse
situations than me,” he said
Tuesday, a day after learn-
ing his foot was fractured.
“So, I’ll be OK. I’ve been
through injuries before.”
All McCollum needs is
time to allow this unusual
injury to heal.
It’s an injury he suffered
against Atlanta on Satur-
day and through Monday
afternoon was thought to
be only a sprain that might
cost him a handful of
games.
That changed by Monday
night and now McCollum is
looking at being out several
weeks.
See McCollum / A9
WOMEN’S COLLEGE
BASKETBALL
Submitted photo
BY BRIAN RATHBONE
The Bulletin
O
Full interview
pening day for the Bend
Elks is a shade over four
months away, when they
are scheduled to make their return
on June 3 at Bend’s Vince Genna
Stadium against NW Star Academy.
It will have been nearly two
years since the Elks last took the
field, after the West Coast League
canceled its 2020 summer season
due to COVID-19. New head coach
Kyle Nobach has been patiently
waiting for his first crack at leading
a baseball team.
For the complete interview with
Bend Elks coach Kyle Nobach, visit
bendbulletin.com/sports.
“The team is all ready to go, and we
are just waiting to play some baseball,”
said the former Oregon State outfielder
on The Bulletin Sports Talk.
Because no college baseball was
played last spring or summer, Nobach
has had to rely heavily on recommenda-
tions from college coaches in order to fill
out the Elks’ roster.
The team will be made up of mostly
college players from throughout the
West Coast. Perhaps to no surprise,
the Elks’ roster will have the maximum
number of Oregon State players that the
WCL allows. (Nobach was a member of
the Beavers’ 2018 College World Series
championship team.)
“It’s really just using the connections
with the coaches that I’ve really gotten
to meet in my life and building the team
from there,” Nobach said.
“We are a little on the heavy side
“It’s really just using the
connections with the coaches
that I’ve really gotten to meet in
my life and building the team
from there. … A lot of guys just
want to play ball and get out
there. We are all hungry.”
— Kyle Nobach, Bend Elks head coach
(numberswise), and I think a lot of
teams in the West Coast League will be
doing that as well. A lot of guys just want
to play ball and get out there. We are all
hungry.”
In building the team, Nobach has em-
phasized bringing in players he has pre-
viously coached to help lay the founda-
tion for success.
“I thought that was crucial coming
into the summer, having guys who have
been around me and can build a culture
in the short amount of time that we are
with them,” Nobach said.
See Elks / A8
Ducks tighten
rotation for
2nd half of
the season
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
EUGENE — With a lon-
ger break between games
than usual, Oregon has had
a chance to recharge mid-
way through its season and
examine some changes it
needs to make.
Losers of three of their
last four games, all to
ranked teams, the No. 13
Ducks (9-3, 7-3 Pac-12) are
tightening their person-
nel rotations entering the
second half of the season,
beginning Friday night
(5 p.m., Pac-12 Network)
against Washington State.
Kelly Graves liked the
way his team practiced to
start the week coming off
a 57-41 loss at Arizona last
Thursday.
“They were competitive
practices, the most compet-
itive we’ve had in a while,”
Graves said. “I think we’re
trying. They’re engaged
and I think they realize that
we’ve got to be better this
week. I can tell there’s been
a little better focus.
See Ducks / A9
NFL PLAYOFFS
Bills’ defense is among those
peaking in the postseason
BY JOHN WAWROW
Associated Press
ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. —
Leslie Frazier’s faith in his Bills
defense never wavered even
at the lowest point of Buffalo’s
season.
It was mid-November and
the Bills were entering their
bye week on the heels of a
32-30 defeat at Arizona. Im-
mediately dubbed “The Hail
Murray,” the Cardinals won on
Kyler Murray’s desperation 43-
yard touchdown pass to DeAn-
dre Hopkins, who outleaped
three defenders in the end zone
with 2 seconds left.
Frazier, Buffalo’s defensive
coordinator, recalled collect-
ing his thoughts on the flight
home when frustration turned
to hope in coming to the real-
ization of how the experience
could become a valuable moti-
vating tool.
See Bills / A8
Jeffrey T. Barnes/AP file
Buffalo Bills’ A.J. Klein (54) strip sacks Seattle Seahawks quarterback
Russell Wilson (3) during a game in November in Orchard Park, New
York. The Bills’ defense has been surging in the playoffs.