It was supposed to be an all-in showdown on the Ninth Island.

No, not the McGregor-Holloway fight, although that one at least had a moment of action before being decided to the satisfaction of no one.

But the battle of public relations between the Mountain West and the Pac-12 never materialized.

No mas? No show. The Pac-12 did not even put in an ante.

Here’s the back story:

Two years ago, 10 of the 12 Pac-12 schools departed for other conferences. Oregon State and Washington State were left behind with each other, whatever TV revenues were abandoned, and the conference’s name. OSU and WSU had two options: 1) beg to follow Oregon and Washington into the Big Ten, or 2) merge with the Mountain West. They chose “none of the above.”

Instead, OSU and WSU negotiated to play football games against Mountain West teams during the 2024 season. Then in September of that year, whether it was through poaching or persuasive marketing, five Mountain West schools — Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State — agreed to join the Pac-12 beginning with the 2026-27 academic year. It took cross-my-heart loyalty pledges and retention payouts to keep UNLV and Air Force from joining the secession. Along the way, basketball powerhouse Gonzaga joined the Pac-12. The Mountain West countered with additions such as UTEP and Grand Canyon, and Hawaii becoming an all-sports member.

Both conferences went to court to argue over poaching penalties and exit fees worth millions of dollars.

This summer, both were supposed to boast about their members, television partners, sponsors and overall well-being.

This week, the Mountain West is hosting media days in Las Vegas. Each of the 10 football programs was asked to bring four players, the head coach, a top administrator, a media relations director, two digital creators and a mascot. (UH does not have an official mascot.) Television and broadcast partners will attend. Commissioner Gloria Nevarez will promote the league’s strengths and five-time-zone footprint in her annual state-of-the-MW address. The two-day event will be held at the Palms, once a celebrity hot spot in the early 2000s. In recent years, the Mountain West’s media days were held at the 21-and-older Circa Resort &Casino in downtown Las Vegas.

The Pac-12 also was expected to launch its football season with media days in Las Vegas. After all, the Pac-12 has embraced Las Vegas as a favorite venue. For the next two years, the Pac-12’s basketball tournaments will be held at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

But Pac-12 officials have been secretive in recent weeks. They have declined to reveal financial details of their new television contracts. And deputy commissioner Rick Hart recently told reporters the Pac-12 decided against holding a media day. The Pac-12 is the only FBS conference without a traditional media day or official preseason kickoff event this summer.

“We could have,” Hart told Front Office Sports. “We talked about it. Those are expensive. … Traditionally, you spend a lot of money, you bring everybody together for two or three days, you disrupt camp or whatever’s going on. Maybe you get the media there, maybe you don’t. Maybe you get 72 hours of publicity alongside all the other leagues that are doing media days. It’s pretty noisy. There’s a lot of static. And then everybody moves on.”

But media event would not conflict with training camp, which can’t open more than a month from the opener. UH, for example, plays Stanford on Aug. 29, college football’s Week Zero. The Warriors’ first practice of training camp is July 29.

The preseason hype probably offsets the cost of a media event. The Mountain West pays for meals and lodging for each team’s representatives. The schools pays for their travel expenses.

To the cynics, there are these conspiracy theories of the Pac-12’s non-plans.

1. If the Pac-12 announces lucrative sponsorships, TV deals and payouts to members, it could enhance the Mountain West’s claim the poaching/secession caused damage.

2. The Mountain West would receive better coverage if the Pac-12 held a media event at the same time in Las Vegas. UNLV and Nevada are Mountain West members; the Pac-12 does not have a member in the Silver State.

Maybe the Pac-12 has an entertaining and superior product. But the proof won’t be in the promotions.

The news Tuesday that David Steele is retiring after 37 seasons as the voice of the Orlando Magic landed like the end of a long, engaging conversation.

Because that’s what it always felt like.

Not like a broadcaster talking at you.

But like an old friend sitting on the couch talking to you.

For nearly 40 years — first on the radio and then on television — Steele was there through every chapter of Orlando Magic basketball. He described the miracle moments and the miserable ones. He called playoff triumphs, lottery seasons, buzzer-beaters and blown leads with the same steady voice that fans welcomed into their living rooms night after night, year after year, decade after decade.

National broadcasters become famous.

Local broadcasters become family.

Mike Breen has “Bang!” Kevin Harlan has his unmistakable excitement. Mike Tirico can make any event sound important. They are among the finest play-by-play broadcasters in the business for good reason.

But they parachute into your city a handful of times every few seasons.

The local play-by-play announcer is there for every chapter. He’s there on the random Tuesday night in Charlotte when the team loses by 18. He’s there during tanking seasons when victories are scarce. He’s there when lottery picks become All-Stars, when coaches come and go, when championships remain elusive but hope somehow returns every October.

He doesn’t just witness a franchise’s history.

He becomes part of it.

No one embodied that better than David Steele.

“When I interviewed with Pat Williams back in 1988, I never dreamed it would play out this way,” Steele said upon announcing his retirement. “Now it is time for me to put the microphone down and spend time with my family. It’s been an honor to represent the Orlando Magic, and I am forever grateful.”

It’s fitting that the Magic inducted Steele into their Hall of Fame seven years ago. He wasn’t simply honored because he called more than 2,200 games.

He earned that distinction because his voice became part of the franchise’s identity.

You simply can’t separate Orlando Magic history from David Steele.

He was there from the franchise’s birth in 1989.

He narrated the arrival of Shaquille O’Neal.

He narrated the departure of Shaquille O’Neal.

He chronicled Penny Hardaway’s brilliance.

He described Tracy McGrady’s scoring explosions, Dwight Howard’s dominance and today’s young, ascending Magic team.

He was there for the rebuilds and the rebuilds of the rebuilds.

He was there through the exhilarating march to the 1995 and 2009 NBA Finals, the devastating playoff exits and the countless seasons when hope was all Magic fans really had.

The remarkable thing wasn’t simply that he stayed. It was how he did his job.

Steele understood something many broadcasters never learn. He understood the game isn’t about the broadcaster.

“I really think television is more of a color announcer’s medium than it is the play-by-play announcer’s,” Steele once explained. “The fans really don’t rely on the announcer to tell them what’s going on because they can see what’s happening… I set the tempo and I try to bring out the best in the color announcer.”

That philosophy defined every broadcast.

He never forced excitement. He never shouted simply because shouting had become fashionable.

He respected the audience enough to know they could tell the difference between routine and remarkable.

Which is precisely why his biggest calls still resonate decades later. Nothing illustrates that better than Game 1 of the 1995 Eastern Conference semifinals.

Michael Jordan had returned from his NBA hiatus.

The Bulls appeared ready to steal the opener.

Then came six unforgettable seconds.

“Anderson tries to steal it from Jordan and Jordan dribbles around him,” Steele told his radio listeners. “The clock is down to 12 and Anderson stole the ball. Hardaway picks it up, two-on-one, Penny bounce pass to Grant and he dunks it! Six-point-two seconds to go! Nick Anderson stole the ball! Nick Anderson stole the ball from Michael Jordan!”

Steele wasn’t performing.

He was reacting.

The excitement was authentic because the moment demanded it.

If David Steele raised his voice, you instinctively knew history was unfolding.

Fellow Magic broadcaster Dante Marchitelli, who now succeeds Steele on television, perhaps explained his mentor’s greatness better than anyone.

“Nobody, and I mean this, nobody in the league prepares as much and as well as David Steele,” Marchitelli once said. “It’s not about him. David Steele is about the game and the players, and if it’s a big moment he lets it breathe. He has a knack and great timing and his preparation and the way it all comes together is what makes it, really, a perfect telecast.

“He doesn’t make it about himself, and I think people truly enjoy that.”

That may be Steele’s greatest legacy.

In an era when too many broadcasters chase viral moments, catchphrases and social-media clips, Steele quietly pursued something far more difficult.

Credibility.

Respect.

Class.

He was prepared.

He was accurate.

He was humble.

And because he never tried to manufacture emotion, fans trusted him when genuine emotion  arrived.

Of course, Steele wasn’t above having fun.

One of the most beloved features of Magic broadcasts became his wonderfully quirky “Is This Anything?” segment, where he’d present some wonderfully obscure statistical oddity before asking broadcast partner Jeff Turner whether it actually mattered. A cheerful “ding” meant yes. A buzzer meant no.

It became one of those inside jokes shared between two friends; between broadcaster and audience; the kind of thing that only develops after decades together.

Orlando Magic Chairman Dan DeVos couldn’t resist using it one last time.

“You can’t have a memory of Orlando Magic basketball without David Steele’s voice being a part of it,” DeVos said. “David handled everything with professionalism and class, and he will forever be entrenched in this franchise’s history. ‘Is This Anything?’ We’d say David was EVERYTHING to the Orlando Magic.”

It was the perfect tribute because it spoke Steele’s language.

As a kid in East Tennessee, Steele would hide a transistor radio beneath his pillow at night, listening to baseball broadcasts after he was supposed to be asleep. Those unseen announcers sparked a lifelong dream and unknowingly shaped the broadcaster he would become.

For nearly four decades, somewhere in Central Florida, children were either falling asleep or on the couch with Dad as another familiar voice drifted through the house.

David Steele’s voice.

One day they’ll realize those weren’t merely basketball games they were hearing and watching.

They were memories being made.

And long after someone else occupies the television chair, generations of Magic fans will still hear Steele’s voice whenever they replay the most compelling moments in franchise history.

Because some broadcasters simply call the games.

The truly special ones like David Steele become part of the family.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen.

Following 37 seasons as the play-by-play voice of the Magic, both on television and radio, David Steele announced his retirement Tuesday morning.

“I can’t thank the DeVos family and the Orlando Magic organization enough for what they have provided to me and my family,” Steele said in a statement. “When I interviewed with Pat Williams back in 1988, I never dreamed it would play out this way. Now it is time for me to put the microphone down and spend time with my family.

“It’s been an honor to represent the Orlando Magic, and I am forever grateful,” he added.

After handling radio play-by-play duties for the team’s first nine seasons (1989-98), Steele was then named the television play-by-play voice for the Magic in March 1998 and spent the next 28 seasons in that role.

“You can’t have a memory of Orlando Magic basketball without David Steele’s voice being a part of it,” Magic chairman Dan DeVos said in a statement. “David handled everything with professionalism and class, and he will forever be entrenched in this franchise’s history. … We wish him and his family nothing but the best.”

Replacing Steele, 72, as Orlando’s new play-by-play television announcer will be Dante Marchitelli, the team said.

Marchitelli, 50, enters his 28th season with the organization and has served as studio host/sideline reporter since 2008. He’s also performed play-by-play duties for select games for the last three seasons (2023-26).

Marchitelli began his career with the Magic in 1998 as a radio intern. He was hired full time in January 2000 as radio producer, working behind the scenes on every broadcast for the Magic Radio Network. Marchitelli was promoted in 2005 to radio manager and also served as radio sideline reporter. He was named assistant director of broadcasting in July 2017, then promoted to director of broadcasting and alumni relations in July 2023.

“I am beyond grateful to the DeVos family and the Orlando Magic organization for this wonderful opportunity,” Marchitelli said in a statement. “Working with David Steele for the past 20 years has been the highlight of my career. He is an absolute legend, and I can’t thank him enough for everything he has taught me along the way.

“This is a dream come true and I’m looking forward to continuing my connection with Orlando Magic fans everywhere,” he added.

The former voice of the University of Florida, Steele arrived in Orlando in 1989 after serving as network coordinator and football/basketball play-by-play announcer for the Gators for seven seasons.

He was named Florida Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sports Media Association twice, winning the honor in both 2009 and 2021. In 1980, Steele earned the Ray Reeve Award as TV Sportscaster of the Year in North Carolina. He also won the Best Play-By-Play in Florida award from the Florida Sportscasters Association in 1984. In February 2019, Steele became the eighth person inducted into the Orlando Magic Hall of Fame.

A native of Jacksonville, Steele’s professional broadcasting career began in 1975, as sports director at WJHG-TV in Panama City. He also served as sports director at WLOS-TV in Asheville, NC, and was the football/basketball play-by-play announcer at Western Carolina University.

He and his wife, Sally, live in Orlando. They have three children, Luke, Emily and Betsy, and eight grandchildren.

Marchitelli earned a bachelor’s degree in public relations/advertising from Liberty University in 1998. A native of Woburn, Mass., he and his wife, Lana, live in Windermere and have two daughters, Olivia and Allison.

Following the closure of FanDuel Sports Network Florida, the Magic will announce their broadcast plans for the 2026-27 season in the near future, the team said.

Jason Beede can be reached at jbeede@orlandosentinel.com

On the way to Gillette Stadium to watch the France-Morocco World Cup quarter-final last week, I started chatting with an English reporter sitting next to me on the media bus. It turned out this fellow was a fairly prominent soccer journalist with a number of big books and podcasts to his name, and inevitably the conversation turned to the England national team and its odds of success.

While this reporter “wasn’t really the biggest England fan,” he shared a theory with me. He had covered nearly two dozen major tournaments and the way these things generally worked, he said, is that a team with bad previous luck—or even potentially a curse—could break that misfortune, but first they had to get the monkey (or series of monkeys) that had been holding them down off of their backs.

For American sports fans, think back to Michael Jordan needing to defeat the Detroit Pistons before he could win his first NBA Championship. Or the Boston Red Sox coming back from three games down against the Yankees to win the American League Championship in order to go on and sweep the World Series.

England, we both noted, has a lot of monkeys. It’s been 60 years since the nation that invented the sport won a major tournament, with the team coming painfully close a few times since winning the World Cup on home soil in 1966. For context, the Curse of the Billy Goat was 58 years old when Steve Bartman kept it going, and the Curse of the Bambino was 68 years old when Billy Buckner kept it going.

Now my English counterpart saw the monkeys slowly peeling off. The team’s round of 16 victory over Mexico at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, where Maradona’s Hand of God defeated them in the 1986 quarterfinals: one monkey down. Also, England had embraced a manager from Germany, perhaps the bitterest of England’s football rivals, for the first time ever: monkey number two?

I saw what he was getting at, and mentioned how the team had come back from a goal down late in the round of 32 game against the Democratic Republic of Congo thanks to the heroics of talisman striker, Harry Kane, where in past years the team certainly would have cracked. Typical of the contradictory swaying between world-ending despair and hubristic overconfidence of an England fan, he noted that didn’t count because “they were always going to win that game” against the far lesser opposition. (Eyeroll.)

This reporter didn’t really necessarily himself seem to believe that the monkey-off-the-back theory applied to this England team—or perhaps he was eager not to curse them by stating such a belief—but he didn’t have to sell me very hard.

I’ve thought England was winning this World Cup since about 15 minutes into the team’s first group-phase game against Croatia. England had a penalty kick in those early moments of the game, and typically (and hilariously to me), Kane had biffed it sending it right into the arms of the Croatian keeper. I immediately sent my Premier League fantasy group chat a taunting “LOL.” England was going to England all over again, and as a France supporter, I was delighted. But wait. The keeper was off his line. Kane would retake his penalty. He did not miss again, burying into the right bottom corner with no hesitation. Immediately after this penalty, England looked more confident and dominant than I think I’ve ever seen them play. I’d seen enough, and I placed a small bet ($100 payout) on them to win the entire tournament, the only such bet I’ve made this whole World Cup. They went on to put four goals past the Croatians, defeating the team that had beaten them in the semifinals eight years ago in completely dominant fashion. (Another monkey down?)

Again, personally, I do not like this team and I want them to lose, to the point that I’ve annoyed my coworkers with my cheers against England. When the team was losing for 68 minutes against that DRC team in their first knockout game, I was slacking Slate’s World Cup group chat maniacally, prompting one colleague to ask: “Jeremy, why do you hate England’s soccer team so much?” (My response was patently demented: “A little thing called ‘the battle of Agincourt’!?!? Ever heard of JOAN OF ARC!!!”)

So yeah, I do not want to see England win the World Cup. Unfortunately, I’m more confident than ever that it’s England’s year. Never in my lifetime have I believed that. But, tragically, this team is different. In addition to Kane, they have a second genuine game-changing player in Jude Bellingham, whose back-to-back braces did more than any other player to carry them into the quarterfinals. The vibes on this team, unfortunately, are also superb, far better than any other I remember. They are dancing in the locker room. They are joking about Viagra. Their fans are serenading them with tearful renditions of actually good pop songs, “Hey Jude” and “Wonderwall,” rather than their treacly and schizophrenic past anthem. As Fox Sports analyst and France and Arsenal great Thierry Henry put it after England’s Norway win, “what we cannot doubt with this team is the mentality that they have and the grit.”

If you don’t believe me, think about the monkeys that continue to line up and fall down. Forty years after losing a World Cup quarterfinal 2-1 thanks to the Hand of God, the team was saved in Saturday’s 2-1 quarterfinal victory over Norway by the Sky Cam of God. Next, they face the Argentina team, of that Hand of God fame, which would normally be the place you’d think the journey would end given the recent knockout history between these teams. This Argentina team, however, is far weaker than past teams. They’ve needed dramatic comebacks and refereeing help to beat by far the weakest opposition any semifinalist in the field has faced. England have their best chance-ever to beat them on the highest stage. I think they’ll do it.

I’ve shared this theory with a friend and colleague who supports England. “JINX NO JINX JER,” they text shouted at me.

I don’t think by writing this, though, I can jinx England. If I could, I would, mind you. I’m writing this in a Kylian Mbappé jersey. I want England to fall. As proven by IsHowSpeed, though, you can’t jinx a team you actually want to see lose.

There is little such concern about jinxes and curses from a French fanbase that has seen their team hoist the World Cup trophy more than any other in the past 30 years. With good reason. France is the best team at this World Cup. They are the total package. Their attack of Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Michael Olise, and Désiré Doué is magic to behold. Their bench is stacked with attacking players like Bradley Barcola and Rayan Cherki who would be starting on any other team. They dominate the game in midfield possession. They have conceded just two goals this entire World Cup, with clean sheets in the last three games. France, who still has to face the Lamine Yamal-led European Champions of Spain in the semis to get to a final in New York, should be unbeatable, and France fans know it.

If and when, however, England eliminate Argentina, that will be a pretty-darn big monkey off its back. And if you need one more for the final, how about 250 years later on American soil taking down the country that helped defeat them in the American War of Independence? (Or, if you prefer, overcoming the team that beat them in the Euro final two years ago.)

Book it. England is winning the whole thing. Maybe in penalties. It’s coming home. Ugh.

“Freestyle Biomechanics: The Science Behind The Strokes,” a book by former University of Hawaii swimming coach Jan Prins, is now available via Amazon.

The book focuses on freestyle, but also touches on “the three other competitive strokes,” said Prins, who earned a doctorate in kinesiology at Indiana in 1978 and still teaches at UH. “(It) covers … every freestyle movement from stroke pattern, body position, flutter kick, hand entry to recovery and much more.”

It is the culmination of nearly 50 years of coaching, presentations, research and video workshops Prins has conducted for competitive swimmers and coaches.

“It will become a continuous shelf reference for all swimmers, especially triathletes and adults,” said Garry Rodrigues, swim consultant to USA Triathlon for the 2028 Olympics.