{"id":194420,"date":"2025-06-30T20:37:01","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T01:37:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=194420"},"modified":"2025-06-30T20:37:48","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T01:37:48","slug":"random-thoughts-pretty-random-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/06\/30\/random-thoughts-pretty-random-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Random Thoughts: pretty random edition"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the fast approaching fall sports season, Eggerss Stadium, LeBron James, new additions to Ohio\u2019s pro sports landscape and the new PAC-12.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

July<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard to believe July is here already. Where is the summer going? It won\u2019t be long before fall sports practices officially begin \u2013 August 1 is the date for most of the sports, including football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eggerss Stadium<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Work continues at Eggerss Stadium. New signs are up, new lockers are being installed on the home side of the stadium and the elevator is slated to go in soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Cougars will open the home portion of regular season schedule August 30 against Bath. Before that, the annual scrimmage against Crestview will be held at Eggerss Stadium August 16.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

LeBron James<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like the guy or not, LeBron James will make NBA history by playing his 23rd<\/sup> season. He\u2019ll be 41 years old before the 2025-2026 season is half over and he\u2019s still playing at a very high level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you think about it, he has a lot of mileage on his legs. 22 NBA seasons, long playoff runs in some of those seasons, Olympic play, etc\u2026it makes the feat even more amazing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know some people are clamoring for him to return to Cleveland but that\u2019s probably not going to happen with his contract ($52.6 million for the upcoming season). It would require the Cavaliers shedding at least a couple of key players. If he returns to Cleveland, it\u2019ll be to sign a one-day ceremonial contract in his retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Regardless, the fact that he\u2019s still an elite player at his age is amazing. It\u2019s literally NBA history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio sports<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ohio is apparently getting two new pro franchises. Cleveland will have a WNBA team in 2028. The city previously had a WNBA franchise, the Rockers, from 1997-2003. It\u2019s not yet known if the reincarnated franchise will be named the Rockers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An Arena Football One (AF1) has also announced plans to field an expansion team in Ohio in 2026, but it\u2019s not known where it will be. Cleveland and Columbus are the best bets, with Cincinnati a possibility as well. All three cities had Arena Football teams back in the day. Cleveland had the Thunderbolts and Gladiators, Columbus had the Thunderbolts and the Destroyers, and Cincinnati had the Rockers, whose quarterback for a season or two was none other than Art Schlicter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New look conference<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PAC-12 is coming alive again but it\u2019s going to have a vastly different look.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Starting in 2026, members will be Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, Oregon State, San Diego State, Texas State, Utah State, and Washington St. That\u2019s eight teams, a requirement for FBS membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No disrespect intended, but that\u2019s far cry from previous members, including USC, UCLA, Oregon, Cal, Stanford and Washington.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The college football landscape continues to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, if you have thoughts or comments on any of the above subjects, feel free to email me at sports@thevwindependent.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports This week\u2019s installment of Random Thoughts centers around the fast approaching fall sports season, Eggerss Stadium, LeBron James, new additions to Ohio\u2019s pro sports landscape and the new PAC-12. July It\u2019s hard to believe July is here already. Where is the summer going? It won\u2019t be long before fall sports practices officially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-194420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-25 03:49:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194420"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194420\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194422,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194420\/revisions\/194422"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}