THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Still a lot in the air for Mariners, Pac-12

Mariners boss Jerry Dipoto didn’t get an offer that made enough sense.

So, Seattle shipped 24-year-old minor league reliever Logan Rinehart to Baltimore for Bazardo, an older (27) reliever — and called it a day.

However …

Given the Mariners’ magic potion applied to previously anonymous relievers, expect Bazardo to be the second coming of Paul Sewald.

Maybe Deadline Day wasn’t a loss at all.

It could have been more embarrassing, as the Dodgers discovered when they traded for Detroit starter Eduardo Rodriguez.

The Dodgers must believe that everyone in baseball wants to play in Chavez Ravine — but they wound up empty-handed when Rodriguez invoked his no-trade clause, and became one of the few Americans to choose Detroit over Los Angeles.

After considerable hubbub about what everyone in MLB expected to be a frantic final day of trading, well …

Hardly anything else happened.

The Mets traded Justin Verlander back to Houston, and scattered the rest of the roster around both leagues.

That was about it.

MEANWHILE, in the collegiate world …

The Pac-12 finally showed its proposed media right deals to the conference CEO group Tuesday morning to start what felt like its own deadline day.

The universities’ movers and shakers, including Washington State president Kirk Schultz, didn’t exactly doze through those proceedings, but …

Despite what one source inside the meeting told plugged-in journalist John Canzano (“excited and aligned” was the exact phrase), there was no final vote to accept the plan, and the group will convene again shortly.

Rumors have persisted that Arizona was being tugged away by the Big 12 and its rapacious commissioner, Brett Yormark, despite assurances from UA president Robert Robbins that the Wildcats were standing pat until all the facts from the Pac-12 media deal were on the table.

Oh, and the Arizona Board of Regents, which governs both UA and Arizona State (along with Northern Arizona University), scheduled a special meeting for Tuesday evening.

The message boards went crazy in Tucson and around the Big 12, all on the assumption that the one piece of business in the closed executive session was to give Arizona (and maybe ASU) permission to leave the Pac-12.

If that’s what happened — which would make Robbins look truly foolish — nobody seemed to be babbling about it.

Late Monday night, the regents were as shut off as they’d been in the closed session.

Still …

If you were Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff and you were connecting the dots, things in the state of Arizona might seriously upset your stomach.

THE PAC-12 may not look too good at the moment in this ridiculous game of musical universities — which makes the entire collegiate world look stupid and greedy.

But a conference with a history that dates back more than a century isn’t likely to die easily.

For various reasons, the following schools are not going anywhere (for now) …

WSU, Washington, Oregon, Oregon State, California, Stanford and Utah.

Arizona State might be tied to UA, but in any event, there will be seven, eight or nine proud schools hoping that the media agreements Kliavkoff presented are solid enough to keep them together.

As you would expect in the most forward-thinking portion of the country, the Pac-12 is counting on a huge move toward streaming service as a staple for the nation’s attention.

Although most of the CEO group want some chunk of linear TV partnership, plenty of the negotiation has centered around Apple TV+ as a centerpiece for future viewing.

One thing was absolutely clear on Tuesday, and that was a commitment to “immediate expansion” once the schools had signed off on the media rights.

San Diego State (despite its financial entanglement with the Mountain West) remains an obvious choice, and so does SMU.

Although …

With streaming services, smaller schools with rabid fan bases gain importance compared to cities with massive numbers of households.

(That’s why there’s been conversation about Gonzaga in the Pac-12 — TV sets in Spokane don’t matter, but loyal fans are money.)

If Kliavkoff, who came from the media and entertainment world, has got this correct, the Pac-12 deal could be excellent.

I won’t lie.

I’m rooting for everyone to stick and stay, because I’m weary of academic institutions running hungrily after football money.

And I don’t even have an Apple TV subscription.

Yet.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”