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Good call, although Lubbock, Texas, is not a large market. Ditto Tuscaloosa and Eugene. Booster money is fungible. The NFL billionaires play nice with one another because parity means more money for all. With an agreement in place with a players' union, NFL owners have been able to restrict player movement, cap rookie salaries, and impose fines and loss of draft picks for teams that exceed a salary cap. I think that one day, CFB billionaires will learn to play with one another and negotiate salary caps, restrictions on transfers, poaching penalties, and other reasonable restrictions akin to the NFL. A CFB player draft could be on the way. Take away recruiting and portal picking responsibilities, and CFB coaching salaries will come down. Booster money is not restricted by geography. Mark Cuban lives in Dallas but writes B1G checks that are cashed in Bloomington, Indiana. For sure, media markets likely matter when NFL teams are recruiting free agents. Which teams can provide a player with the best NIL opportunities? A team in Jacksonville, New York, or LA? Wreck the Heck Out of Tech!

I blame Nike! Seems like Oregon players have been slipping more than normal this year…

Great comment with excellent data to back it up.

As often happens with great players who are playing behind even greater players, when they get their chance they show what they can do. If we get everyone healthy Oregon has crazy depth at receiver. And guess what, we've got some really good ones coming for next year too.

Come on folks. We need to understand Dan is not about making statements or style points. He is about development. Half way through the third quarter I was pretty sure the entire offensive line was second string. At least for a few drives As for the defense. We rotate 2nd string in consistently through the beginning of games. So what we saw was third and fourth string defense. With a few first and seconds sprinkled in. And we know on defense all it takes is one player being in the wrong spot. This was a chance to get playing time against a good team for some who NEVER play. Something we probably won't happen for the rest of the playoffs for these guys. We will see what the snap count looks like. But the first half was first on first. We saw the result. After the first drives for the second half, very different situation. Go Ducks

Glad someone else saw this too. I love Stein, hope he does well as he moves on, but sometimes he seems to brilliant for his own good. He tries complicated solutions to more simple problems. We had two backs 60+ yards at half time and no one cracked 100 for the game. We should have ended that game with 300+ rushing yards.

A rare injury update from Dan Lanning . . . and a good one at that:

It use to be the moms we’re all saying, I want you to stay close to home. Now it seems some are saying, follow the $$.

Bit of a random idea, but thought I'd get it out there before I forget. With NIL / Transfer portal, I believe that college football will start to look more like the NFL. It will be a challenge for 4-5 teams to hoard all the talent like in years past. I believe parity in college football will continue to rise among the stronger brands/conferences/schools. Increased parity in talent will necessitate an emphasis on premium coaching. Programs with the elite X's/O's coaches will make all the difference in the world. We see this play out in the NFL where a highly-touted QB coming out of college gets drafted by one of the worst organizations, and by association the worst coaches, etc., struggle to start . . . THEN, if they get a 2nd chance and end up with a quality HC/OC, they have a resurgence. I think Oregon is in a great spot. DL seems to be good enough at Xs/Os himself, but even better at finding elite Xs/Os coordinators. What do you think of my theory? How well is Oregon positioned relative to other programs?

Congrats Gat!

I know it will all work out and DL has a plan. That said, I can't help but cringe a little when seeing all that size (even if it's depth and not sure-fire starters) leaving. I'm sure there's size coming in, but basically two 6'5" defensive backs leaving gives me a slight pause. All will be well.

Generally speaking I think that NIL money should eventually lead to teams in bigger markets dominating. More opportunities to tie in with big companies in sponsorship deals. Rich doners will creat exceptions but there is no way Pullman can match the deals that can be done in LA.

Thank you, David. In the 1st half, the Ducks were EduBirdies. In the 2nd half, DumBirdies. Dan and Tosh have a lot of teaching material in hand. Credit JMU for balling out for 60 minutes. UCLA folks had to be happy with the fight put up by the Dukes. Everywhere he has been, Bob Chesney has put winning teams on the field. If he's given the resources, OBD could be battling Trojans and Bruins for SoCal recruits and wins. We have something in common with our UGA friends on the Forum, WRECK TECH! Dirty, New Fashioned Hate! 🤬

I also have reconsidered my opinion on the game. I think the ducks will be fine in terms of effort and preparation.

And the quarter-finals should have been played on Saturday, played on the home fields of the higher-ranked teams, with the semis played on New Year's Day. And if the NFL insists on biting the hand that feeds it by playing on Saturday before the CFB PO ends, Congress should extend the NFL Saturday no-play date.

Captain Obvious here, they really need to fix the calendar so that players planning on entering the portal don't have to do so in the middle of a playoff run. Even if they're unlikely to get playing time, they've still paid their dues and helped the team throughout the season. They should be allowed to enjoy the playoff experience that they've earned.

Knute Rockne had to pull The Gipper out of a pool hall and sober him up to get him to practice. Way back in the day, players would play for two or more teams and be compensated by all the teams they played for. UCLA basketball players were paid. USC football players were paid. Among others, Michigan State's Bubba Smith went to an ice cream parlor in East Lansing on Monday afternoon to be paid. All cash, nothing reported to the IRS. IMO, two years with back-to-back titles do not cancel the SEC's postseason dominance. By every metric, recruiting rankings and players drafted, for example, the SEC is at the top. SEC sports, especially football, have been aligned from school presidents on down for decades. Pay for play and unrestricted transfers are evening things out. It took time for Oregon, with the help of NIKE, to build its brand and put Oregon football on the map coast to coast. It took Texas Tech billionaires one season to open their wallets and have the Red Raiders in a position to win the first B12 title in football and be nationally relevant for more than just having an eccentric coach. The Hoosiers under Curt Cignetti would not be in the midst of a historic turnaround without graduate Mark Cuban and his friends. Without Oracle's Larry Ellison's money, Bryce Underwood would be playing ball for LSU and not for the Wolverines. As many have pointed out, the first question a coaching candidate for a Power 4 position asks is what percentage of 'House settlement' payments are dedicated to football and what resources will I have on the NIL front. The most-watched game of the regular season was the Ohio State at Michigan game. For the most part, SEC games were more watched than Big Ten games. There is a B1G difference perception-wise between the Big Ten and the SEC. Not every game in the SEC is (cue stentorian voice) a battle like no other ever witnessed in the history of college football. In 2025, the Big Ten was dumped on for playing weak in-conference schedules. SEC in-conference schedules were trumpeted. With eight conference games, the SEC had many teams that finished with two losses or fewer, with half the conference ranked in the top 25 all season long. Rankings like this produce results like Bama defeating four ranked opponents in a row, so the FSU loss had to be an anomaly, right? Wins over Missouri and Tennessee turned out to be no big accomplishment, but the narrative never changed. How often did anyone hear about A&M defeating seven SEC opponents without a winning record and losing to a team with a winning record, three-loss Texas? ESPN controls the CFB bloody pulpit and is the SEC's partner. Next case. Six of 18 B1G teams did not finish 6-6 or better. Six of 16 SEC schools did not finish 6-6 or better. The ACC and the B12 also had six teams that did not qualify for a bowl game. I believe the SEC has the bona fides to rank the SEC as the top conference in CFB. We could see Oregon playing Ohio State for the championship, or we could see Georgia playing Alabama for the title. A B1G team winning it all in 2025-26 will move the Big Ten closer to the SEC. But the SEC will remain as the conference with the most on-field decided championships. And it isn't close. Come On OBD - 3 More Wins - Please! PS - Adopt Tony Petitti's PO format, and we will likely see an annual B1G/SEC football challenge and the money that will come with it. This season, a 16-team field with automatic qualifiers would have resulted in the B1G, SEC, ACC, and the B12, all having an additional team in the field. Plus, we wouldn't have had to suffer the whining coming out of South Bent.

Great point.

Oregon had a little over 9 minutes time of possession in the first half. The defense was out on the field for over 20 minutes. Oregon’s defenses in the CK era were conditioned for that kind of load. I don’t think these guys counted on the offense scoring so quickly.

From Ken Woody (underline mine): Oregon’s offensive and defensive linemen’s pad level, follow through and leg drive diminished in the second half—it made their effort look half-hearted. These fundamentals brought success during the season, but were noticeably absent as the game progressed. Although there were a number of backup players in the game at times, Lanning will point out that they were not meeting the standard set during the long, rigorous season. The film will show every bad habit that can undo a good offense and make it sputter, even against lesser athletes.

I’ve calmed down a bit. I kept thinking of JMU as being Portland State or Beavis…they’re G6, but they aren’t chopped liver. We’ve established that we can lose focus when we get up by four TDs against a team that won 12 games. Guess we should avoid getting up by so much 😆

The thing that particularly concerns me is that we gave up 189 yards in the first half -- with JMU getting drives of 63 & 53 yards before our defense stopped them for one FG. But regardless, I am confident that Oregon will handle TT.

I'm hoping and betting on OBD being able to run the ball. Utah averaged 270 yards on the ground this season; TT held the Utes to 101 rush yards. These B12 guys will be fired up over the chance to take down a Power 2 team. Wreck the Raiders!

SoGaDawg, I certainly don’t want to argue, I was just stating my opinion based on the facts as I see them. Take a look a college football championship winners over the history of college football. While the south won a few in the earlier years. They didn’t become dominant until the best available players started getting cars and “jobs” that paid boatloads for little to no work. It is no longer a secret, it is known and acknowledged. Although, it is kind of a moot point now, since, as Mr. FishDuck says, The Best teams are in the B1G!