At some point, the principals in big-time college sports will act on the same set of facts known even to microbial inhabitants of the average intestine: The NCAA is utterly ill-equipped to manage the enormous business machine of college football, and the sooner the relationship is dissolved and rebuilt, the faster sports fans can get into the shower and start to scrub off the slime.

That point is growing nearer.

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Mariners CEO Howard Lincoln has refuted denied my characterization that he lied to me in an October interview regarding the franchise's plans for its telecasts, writing in an email that the club's new deal with DirecTV announced last week is not an "operation" of a regional sports network, but a partnership with majority Mariners ownership that does not include operation.

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The Maloof family that owns the Kings wrote via letter Friday to the NBA that the Sacramento offer was a "significant distance" of the Seattle offer from Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer, yet Commissioner David Stern reiterated that he would give more rope to the bidders from Sacramento.

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The Sonics have been gone from Seattle nearly five years. Looking at it that way, what's three more weeks?

Aggravating, in the view of the more impatient Sonics fans, who were told Wednesday by the NBA that a decision on whether to relocate the Sacramento Kings to Seattle will not be made until early May.

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Perhaps the most intriguing element in the Mariners' purchase of controlling interest in ROOT Sports is that the ballclub seems to have boxed in Chris Hansen regarding regional television options, in the way the baseball execs think the would-be Sonics owner has boxed them in with regard to his proposed arena location, just beyond the south end of the Safeco Field garage.

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David Stern was accurate -- the NBA will not be voting Friday on whether to keep the Kings in Sacramento or move them to Seattle. The NBA commissioner said after presentations April 3 in New York by both cities that the choice was so "weighty" that the league might need more time. Mayor Mike McGinn disclosed the postponement Tuesday at a press conference.

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Rather than waiting around until 2015 to reopen their 10-year contract with broadcast partner ROOT Sports, the Mariners re-opened it in a big way Tuesday -- they bought  controlling interest in the flagging regional sports network.

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Passing through an outdoor mag-and-bag checkpoint to enter a venue in downtown Athens late in the 2004 Summer Olympics, I came upon another of many security moments in those Games that were more sardonically amusing than appalling.

The one staffer in charge of looking at my ID and bag was a uniformed Greek soldier sitting in a folding chair, head back, sound asleep, rifle in his lap, finger on trigger.

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For some of us who haven't been around the NBA in a while, a fair question for Chris Hansen, Steve Ballmer, Vivek Ranadive, Mark Mastrov and all other would-be investors in the Kings franchise at half a bill is this:

What the hell are you guys thinking?

Certainly, that was a question I pondered for Clay Bennett in 2006 when he paid local coffee-grinder Howard Schultz a ridiculous $350 million to purchase the Sonics.

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Giddiness was sufficiently rampant in the Mariners clubhouse Sunday afternoon that a visitor's head needed to be on a swivel to take it all in.

There was the celebration of starting pitcher Brandon Maurer's first career win. The menu included ice water, beer, milk and ketchup in magnum quantities, served starting at the top of the 6-foot-5 rookie's head.

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Another day of moving parts, people and deadlines, almost all reported by unidentified sources in the unprecedented  story of of the tug-of-war for the NBA Kings. Here is a condensed version of Friday's condensation that is obscuring any view of a conclusion to this sordid saga between Seattle and Sacramento:

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I once asked Frosty Westering whether his way of coaching football could work at the major college level.

"Of course," he said, smiling. "It all depends on what the goals are."

He was right, and he also knew better. Major college sports are mostly about gladitorial spectacle, vicarious triumph for others and profit-making.

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My guess is Sacramento longs for the old days, when real-life drama extended only as far as Gov. Schwarzenegger and his housekeeper. Couldn't understand that either, but at least the plot line was familiar.

This business of savings the NBA Kings . . . well, there's been nothing quite like it in sports. Even the effort to save the Sonics in 2008 was pedestrian compared to this net-free, high-wire act.

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Speaking of perfect games, the Mariners home opener came on a pleasant, rainless, windless April evening (!!) before a near-sellout of 42,589, Jamie Moyer was back in town for the ceremonial first pitch, new pitcher Joe Sounders ran his personal record at Safeco Field to 7-0 and the Mariners prevailed over the Houston Ghastlies 3-0.

Even Dustin Ackley had a hit, his second in 23 tries this season as he begins the long, slow climb to make everyone forget the Mariners could have drafted Mike Trout instead.

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The last time Major League Baseball did Seattle a solid was in 1994, when each league realigned into three divisions that put only three other teams in the American League West, none of them powers. Fans witnessed how the Mariners leaped upon that expressway: Four times in the subsequent 18 years, Seattle made the playoffs.

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Who does the NBA tell to drop dead: Steve Ballmer or Ron Burkle?

In a sentence, that difficult question is why NBA bosses went temporarily into a fetal position Wednesday regarding the fate of the Kings, a once-plain franchise that is suddenly Angelina Jolie, Heidi Klum and Kate Upton all rolled into one purple pile of pulchritude.

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Things picked up around the Sounders Tuesday night at the Clink. Coach Sigi Schmid didn't feel compelled to use the words "terrible" and "disease" in describing his team's play. He also didn't choose to use the word "whoopee."

"We didn't play that poorly," he said. "We played all right." His shrug was almost seismic.

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More than 44,000 pledges for full-season tickets were received when Chris Hansen made the ask of the region's basketball fans to help bring back the Sonics, as well as pledges for 268 suites. Nearly a thousand businesses said they were interested in sponsorships. No money backed the pledges, but the expression of sentiment provided more ammunition as the Seattle native pleads his case Wednesday to NBA owners for approval of  his purchase of the Kings to move them to Seattle.

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The occasion of the Mariners' season opener brings up many traditional questions, chiefly: By which summer holiday ( Memorial Day, Flag Day, Fourth of July, Seafair or Labor Day), will the Mariners be functionally eliminated from the division/post-season race (April Fool's Day is a little too cynical).

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Is Brandon Maurer Seattle's next Russell Wilson?

That's asking approximately three tons of any local athlete. Then again, no Mariners pitcher in 20 years has done what Maurer did Wednesday -- make the spring training leap from Class AA to the Opening Day roster. Has to be worth more than a tip of the hat, so a slightly overwrought comparison seemed worthwhile.

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