Here's your Week 5 podcast, though there are again changes to what Todd and I are talking about (we often record these on Mondays). Wasco will not be playing Fresno-McLane this weekend, and I just spent a couple of hours on the phone trying to figure out exactly why. I'm still not sure, actually.

The story, according to Wasco athletic director Raul Rangel starts back in May, when McLane, which has the game at home, realized it wouldn't have a field to play on Friday night. Rangel says the Fresno Unified School District called him and asked if the game could be moved to Thursday. After consulting with his administration, Rangel declined to move the game. Wasco is a California School Improvement Program participant, so it has a mandate to improve grades and test scores. Instead, Wasco asked if the game could be moved to Saturday or to Wasco on Friday night, in which case the Tigers were willing to split the gate with McLane — or, after the school declined that option, even give McLane 75 percent — but no mutual ground could be found.

Here's the real rub to me: The Central Section is saying Wasco forfeited this game to McLane, because Wasco wouldn't play on Thursday and thus did not honor the schools' contract. That, as you might imagine, rankles Rangel and Wasco. He said the contract specifically mentions the date Oct. 9 — Friday, and so that if anyone is going back on the deal, it's McLane. Section commissioner Jim Crichlow says the "loss" will have no bearing on Wasco's playoff seeding, but it's still a bit of a slap in the face.

My take is that Wasco should be commended for sticking to its guns and putting academics first. It's not easy for kids to travel a couple of hours on a Thursday night, get back at midnight or later and then try to get to class — and pay attention, to boot — the next day. Not sure why the section would feel Wasco is the one at fault here, but there you have it. Rangel even said he sent Crichlow an e-mail when this all started in the spring asking him what he recommended, and Crichlow wrote back asking what the difference between playing on a Thursday and a Friday was. I would hope that was just a slip-up on Crichlow's part and not an endorsement of athletes missing class. Remember, folks, we love our high school sports here, but it's school first, sports second.

Anyway, enjoy the podcast. Week 5 scoreboard post up tomorrow morning.