A joke about last week’s Pac-12 matchup between Oregon State and Washington State on ESPN’s College GameDay didn’t sit well with former Cougars quarterback Ryan Leaf.

In the final moments of Saturday’s show live from Notre Dame, the desk was making picks for that day’s games when the Cougars/Beavers matchup came up. Desmond Howard, Pat McAfee and guest picker Vince Vaughn all picked the Cougars. It was when it was Lee Corso’s turn to pick that the joke at issue with Leaf came up.

“In the ‘Nobody Wants Us Bowl,'” Corso said alluding to the fact that Oregon State and Washington State are the only two schools in the Pac-12 that have not been invited to join another conference. “Nobody wants them. Poor guys.”

Thursday on Good Morning Football on NFL Network, Leaf followed the lead of Cougars head coach Jake Dickert, who after the game took issue with the joke. Leaf used some time to call out GameDay further for not using the moment about the game to speak positively about the direction both programs were going at this point in the season.

“They’ve always been a show that celebrates college football,” Leaf said. “Instead they chose to make it a joke because Washington State and Oregon State unfortunately don’t have a conference. And it is the ‘No One Wants Us Bowl.'”

Leaf said his love for GameDay and the guys that work on the show hasn’t changed, but he just couldn’t ignore the fact that the show squandered a chance to elevate that matchup on a national stage.

he added.

This isn’t the first time Ryan Leaf has spoken out on the College GameDay crew’s coverage of the game. He and Kirk Herbstreit exchanged barbs on X (formerly Twitter) over the segment on Sunday.

Washington State and Oregon State have banded together as the rest of the conference eroded over the summer. Both university presidents have expressed a commitment to making sure a premiere west coast conference rises from the ashes of the Pac-12.

As speculation continues to swirl that Showtime will be scaling back boxing coverage in the near future, Showtime Sports president Stephen Espinoza isn’t divulging any details.

Speaking ahead of this weekend’s Canelo Alvarez/Jermell Charlo fight on Showtime PPV, Espinoza said word that the Paramount Global network will be getting out of the boxing space has been talked about for several years. The network just continues on.

“It’s the same rumor we’ve been hearing since 2018, and it’s usually guys who have a rooting interest against us who are spreading it,” he said. “You just shrug it off, we continue doing what we’re doing, we weren’t going out of business in 2018 when guys were saying it, our response then was, ‘We’re just going to keep making good fights,’ and that’s what we’re doing now.”

Espinoza has faced questions about Showtime’s future in boxing as his public war of words with UFC president Dana White flared up again this week.

White basically said if boxing on Showtime goes away, he’s not gonna care.

“F–k Espinoza, and it’s about time that shitty product is off the air,” White said.

Stephen fired back in a press conference on Wednesday, turning the focus on where it should be: Canelo’s fight. He pointed out that the fight has already done $20 million in ticket revenue, something White wishes the UFC could pull off.

“That scumbag has absolutely nothing to do with the success of Canelo, Ryan Garcia or Terrence Crawford,” White said. “Those guys are mega stars and they are the ones responsible for driving the gates in their fights. For him to even try and take any credit at all shows you exactly what an arrogant, delusional POS that guy is.”

As sports media continues to try to appeal to a younger generation of sports fans that follow teams, games, and players differently than their parents did, a premium has been placed on where and when cameras and microphones get access. Nick Saban isn’t sure that is a good thing for the players and coaches.

The seven-time national championship winning coach made his regular visit to The Pat McAfee Show on Thursday. He was asked what he thought about Dan Lanning’s pre-game speech to his Oregon players ahead of their victory over Colorado.

Lanning told his team that Deion Sanders and the Colorado Buffaloes were “playing for clicks” while his team was “playing for wins.” Whether or not the line was disrespectful has been the subject of debate all week.

“I understand what Dan Lanning was trying to say and it’s probably good for his team to hear in some ways, but it probably wasn’t good for everybody else to hear,” Saban said. “And, you know, that’s always the argument. Where do you draw the line and say, ‘okay, there’s got to be some time when you can talk to your team and say what you have to say, and it’s really not for everybody else to hear’?”

Saban said that he understands that college football, like all sports, is a television product. The people on the field and in the locker room deserve some consideration though.

“I know the media wants to have access to all these things because it makes it interesting for the fans,” he told McAfee. “And I appreciate that and I understand that, but there’s still this sacred time where you should be able to talk to your team and say things to your team to motivate your team that maybe they’re not disrespectful about the other, but it’s not for somebody else to know.”