CARSON – Coming soon to a football stadium near you: CIF regional and/or state football playoff games. Probable? For sure?

Stay tuned.

The high school bowl games are being contested this weekend and next year at the Home Depot Center in Carson for certain. Then the contract with the Los Angeles County venue expires, and it officially becomes anyone's game.

In short, facility managers everywhere, including Sacramento State, are preparing proposals.

CIF senior director Ron Nocetti said Friday that Sacramento State could emerge as a prime contender next year for regional playoff games pitting section champions, with winners earning a state bowl bid. It's too early to tell if a regional site will also be a future state bowl site.

The CIF will examine bids in the coming months. By summer, CIF officials will tour sites.

In previous years, San Jose State and Stanford put in state bowl site bids. Sac State stadium director Steve Tebbs offered an enthusiastic "absolutely" when asked if his school wants such events.

And there's Hughes Stadium on the Sacramento City College campus. Hughes has tradition, having hosted the Camellia Bowl for small-college national championships in the 1960s and '70s and scores of high school playoff games before the field turned to a muddy mess.

Hughes is undergoing a facelift – field turf, new seats, new locker rooms, weight rooms and press box – and will be a player in this bidding game.

State hoop sites

Also of note, the CIF Northern California and State Boys and Girls Basketball Championships, which have been held in Natomas for 20 years, will be taking bids and making site tours after its contract with Power Balance Pavilion ends in March.

Lamb chops

Every time I see Mike Lamb, I wonder which foot he'll have that walking boot on.

Right or left?

Lamb, the former USC football lineman now working for Wells Fargo on a series of concussion awareness programs, suffered a broken foot earlier this fall. He is boot-free now, a good thing since Lamb will have some stadium stairs to navigate today.

Lamb will provide color commentary for two State Bowl games for Time Warner Cable. The one contest he declined is today's Del Oro-Helix game. Lamb's son Logan, a senior, is a starting offensive lineman for the Golden Eagles – and an Eagle Scout.

Appreciating the ride

Sac-Joaquin Section Commissioner Pete Saco has a familiar theme for each of the area teams that have made bowl games – Grant in 2008, Rocklin in 2009, Folsom in 2010, Del Oro today.

"I tell the coaches to take a moment to smell the roses," said Saco, who hatched the bowl idea last decade and admits the "frenzy" is more than he ever anticipated. "It's hard to get a bowl (invitation). Appreciate it, and I think the coaches do," Saco said.

Mighty Moore

Of all the honors one can receive at Elk Grove High, this is as special as it comes: the Joseph Nurre Most Inspirational Award.

This week, it went to Thundering Herd national recruit lineman Steven Moore, a key to the team's 12-1 record and an example of leadership and class.

Nurre, a former Elk Grove football player, was killed in action while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq in 2005.

Angus and company

UCLA assistant football coach Angus McClure, a former Sac State player and coach, will make more regional home visits in the coming days, this time flanked by new Bruins coach Jim Mora.

Among their stops: Cosumnes Oaks cornerback Marcus Rios (just offered a scholarship by Notre Dame), Pleasant Grove lineman Arik Armstead, Sheldon tight end Nate Iese and Moore.

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