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And, Iowa's DBs are not going to be shy about close coverage, bordering on interference. Lanning likes to use the phrase "going to the doctor" after games. I'm hoping they've had multiple reviews of the Indiana x-rays because Iowa is going to double-down on them.

To me, the nostalgia for the Old Pac is akin to Friday night football. Well, we're going to stay loyal and attend most of our Friday night high school games, before we spend Saturday watching the SEC, B1G and Big12. The viewership for Pac12 After Dark across the country reflected that. It was only going to become more of an afterthought in the public consciousness. And, Friday night high school games are showing dwindling interest too. Was UCLA in Pullman - 67-63 and 44-41 entertaining? How many people saw those as televised games? Did they get voluminous post-game coverage? Were they worthy of keeping a conference together because those games tickled our fickle bone? Perhaps it's akin to watching some entertaining 4A Oregon high school games, while the real powers are playing 6A? Listen, I'm a nostalgia guy and post here periodically about games and stats from across the history of college football. I'm sympathetic to nostalgia. But, I also like 60's and 70's popular music while understanding the world have moved on and commercialized a much different genre of music while my age group's interests are waning as we die off. USC recognizing the changing landscape was assisted suicide to a conference that was dying. The "doctors" at ESPN, Fox, etc. had told Kliavkoff in the waiting room, that even with USC/UCLA the chances for survival were slim. You can entertain removing life support, or "enjoy" a slow death. Joining the B1G was making oneself eligible for the Mayo Clinic.

The coach lost control in that moment, and erupted into a fit of rage. Coaching disciplined team play starts at the top. Miami lost its last game because of undisciplined play. Is that a coincidence, or does it shed light on other issues.? Some coaches are simply better at teaching than others.

Thank you, David, for the article and the above, spot-on comment. Tonight at 5:45 PM Pacific, after ESPN milks a CBB game before and after for a larger audience, the B1G should have seven of its 18 teams ranked by the Playoff Committee: Ohio State, Indiana, OBD, Michigan, USC, Iowa, and UW. The Massey computer has these seven teams in its top 25. ESPN's Bill Connolly's SP+, with the addition of No. 22 Penn State (!), and No. 25, 6-3 Illinois, has half of the conference ranked. On the other hand, the AP Poll has every SEC team with two losses ranked, plus three-loss Tennessee. If there are so many great teams in the SEC, how can eight teams have two or fewer losses, and why don't losses in Knoxville count? I expect the SEC will dominate the rankings. Georgia struggled to put away an unranked Florida. Texas won games in overtime versus bottom-tier SEC teams Kentucky and Mississippi State. No. 3 A&M defeated Arkansas 45 to 42. On Saturday, No. 21 Michigan struggled to defeat Purdue in the B1G House. We witnessed Oregon's battle against Wisconsin in 2024 and this season. In 2024, a Nebraska team that Indiana had schooled the week prior came into Columbus and came this close to being the loss that kept the Buckeyes out of the playoff. Lower-level Power 2 teams are capable of giving the top teams a battle. I don't think games against lower-level conference opponents are that much of a problem. If only the top SEC and B1G teams were in the same conference with no easy games, B1G and SEC fans, like NFL fans, would have to handle losing many more games. But as you so perfectly point out, the schedules in these mega-conferences are the problem. From a budding rivalry and entertainment point of view, OBD and not UCLA should be playing Ohio State a week from Saturday. The first meeting of Ohio State and USC as conference rivals will not be played before the Trojans' third season in the conference. Like the SEC, I think the B1G should give each team three permanent opponents. Not only for rivalry purposes, but it would help with travel if OBD, UCLA, USC, and UW played one another every season. If you don't love traveling to New Brunswick, New Jersey, one more season to play every B1G team is no B1G deal. Again, your above comment nails it for me. I'm reasonably certain that Molly Brown enjoyed the champagne on board the Titanic. I am absolutely certain that Molly was happy to board the lifeboat.😁 Thanks again.

We have a potential Season Killer staring us right in the face. My unsophisticated take on our DUCKS this year is they are very hit or miss. I want to know which Dante Moore shows up Saturday afternoon. We can assume that Iowa will stack the box and force Dante Moore to perform. If we get check down after check down, I think it will be a long afternoon. GO DUCKS!

Most people don't like change. But change is inevitable. Because the B1G has so many teams, we don't get to play each team each year. It will take quite a while to develop new rivalries. However, I already sense a growing dislike from most teams due to our immediate success. I think Oregon is fast becoming that team out west to hate! I do miss being able to drive to away games, but I'm loving the new teams and new stadiums. I love the new teams. It's like every week is a Rosebowl game. Because of all the money now in college sports, we can expect more change to come. Expanded playoffs? Super conference? NFL lite? Whatever comes, as long as our Ducks are included, I'm all in.

“Familiarity breeds contempt.” Familiarity can also make teams careless, and upsets occur (ie. tOSU vs Mich last year). That is the basis of rivalries, and fanbases get fired up when that happens. I don’t really miss the PAC 12. We have started a new chapter, and we really haven’t built up any new contempt yet. Thrashing Rutgers, or Northwestern doesn’t really move the needle for any of our fans. However, a beatdown of our old PAC 12 foes Usuc, and anything purple is always fun. The perennial elite of the BIG needs another contemptible opponent, and it might as well be Oregon. Our team and fans are up to the challenge.

I suspect the preference of which games to watch is largely based on where you spent your younger adult life. If you grew up in the Midwest, and moved to the West Coast, I imagine you would rather watch Minnesota vs Wisconsin than Cal vs UCLA. The unsolvable problem for the Pac: the national population east of the Rockies was more attuned to the former than the latter. The Pac, regardless of USC's periodic success, was always going to have short shrift of network and viewer interest. USC clearly saw that when evaluating their financial future. Fortunately both UW and UO did as well. I'm not sure which West games I might wish for? Cal? Utah? It's a very short list. And, because of that, it is still possible for non-conference. I would rather have some rotation schedule of a couple old Pac12 teams than play Oregon State very season. But, that is more about OSU than about nostalgia for the old Pac.

I wouldn't change our situation in this college football environment for anything. We are in the right conference for the health of our program. Looking at little brother is depressing enough to make me be grateful for where we are.

When Utah and Colorado joined the Pac-12 most fans felt the same way on the west coast. It took about 10 years of rather frequent games to build up a relationship between Oregon and Utah to make that game feel exciting. Oregon and Colorado got a supercharged relationship and rivalry with the Lanning v Sanders narrative but that only lasted a year. I know it will take years to get more excited about the games against B1G opponents. It will happen but it will take even longer for me to get interested enough to watch non-Oregon B1G games. With the Pac-12 I would watch a bad Washington State team and a bad Cal team throw the ball at each other for like 700 yards combined passing. I cared about those teams, not as much as Oregon but I cared enough to tune in. I know it will all take time and rivalries aren't built in a day, week, month or even a year. They take a good decade to form and longer if those games are every other year.

Three Reasons Why Iowa is a Trap Game for the Oregon DucksThe Oregon Ducks face the final four games of their season, and coming off a bye week, coach Dan Lanning and crew face a potential dark horse for the College Football Playoff on the road: the Iowa Hawkeyes. Here's three reasons Iowa might be a tougher test than fans think Oregon Ducks On SIThree Reasons Why Iowa is a Trap Game for the Oregon DucksWith just four games left on the No. 6 Oregon Ducks regular season schedule, coach Dan Lanning and crew won't have a cake walk to wrap up the final stretch. In

It also showed me the value that the very best coaching can bring to a team. The quality of our roster is 5th and Indiana's is 77th. Yet they competed with a fury and a precision that I have not seen out of an Oregon team yet. That D was always in the right place, tackled like professionals and always had a second tackler immediately there. That precision and intentionality overcomes a lot.

The five people you meet in Iowa: Oregon's Kinnick challenge looms largeAutzen ZooThe five people you meet in Iowa: Oregon's Kinnick challe...Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa, Kinnick Stadium, the place great teams go to die.

My hope is the football super conference arrives sooner than later and Oregon gets to go back to facing mostly teams in the west.

Oh, wow, just goes to show how different people can feel about it. I never watch any games that started after 7:00 pm, except for Duck away games (I usually, but not always attend the late home games), and then I was in my jammies and ready for the 20-seconds walk to bed after. :)

This is a great read. Robby Ashford and Mario Cristobal are featured in this article, so there is some interest for Oregon fans. I was surprised what Ashford went through at Auburn. They are an absolute abomination of a program from the coaches all the ay to the fan base. Tyler Van Dyke tells an all-to-familiar tale of being a QB under Mario Cristobal. From the hot starts to the cold finishes and all of the broken promises in between. ESPN.com'Wouldn't necessarily say I'm trash': A tale of four jour...Chandler Morris, Robby Ashford, Drew Pyne and Tyler Van Dyke are still chasing glory in Year 6.

It’s ironic that you are questioning a guy who evaluated and developed two current NFL QBs, who were both 3-star high school football recruits. One won the Heisman trophy and led Oregon to the national championship game and the other won the Rose Bowl and may be a future NFL Hall of Famer. QB was not the problem under Coach Helfrich at Oregon.

Those are good names to keep an eye on. I wonder if Ross Douglas, Oregon’s WR and passing game coordinator, would get a look or if Lanning would want someone with experience calling plays. Ross seems to be an up and coming coach…

Stats for the main players. Full preview of Oregon Ducks men's basketball ahead of 2025 season Three viewpoints on the season. Oregon Ducks basketball preseason roundtable predictions

Why couldn’t the PAC-12 have had a top heavy conference with national title contenders just like the B1G? Oregon has more than held its own over the past 10+ years. Where has USC been since Pete Carroll left for the NFL? Why hasn’t Washington been consistently good ala Penn State? There were more than enough quality brands in the PAC-12 but for whatever reason they continuously under performed which affected the national perception and ultimately the TV value.

Great article and I agree. I have no interest in watching Maryland vs Rutgers or Illinois vs Iowa. However, I would have absolutely sat down and watched two Pac-12 teams play each other, especially on Saturday night. I really miss those Pac-12 after dark games. 7:30pm start after dinner and two teams that could impact the conference standings kicking it off and playing late into the night. Crack a beer and relax until bedtime. Stanford at San Jose State at 7:30pm. No offense to SJSU, but gross. I’m not watching that.

There is a big difference between humbling/teaching and humiliating a player (or subordinate).

If I had to guess I would say he has the following OC's on his list. Jordan Davis from UNT has the nation's sixth best offense. Landon Koepple from Texas St. has the nation's 15th best offense and John David Baker leads the nation's 13th best offense for East Carolina. Baker is an interesting prospect because he was co-OC at Ole Miss from 2021-2023 and was a 2024 Broyles Award nominee in his first season with ECU. All of these guys fit the mold of young and energetic coaches that Dan Lanning likes. Now, the guy who leads the top offense in the nation could be jobless by season's end if Mike Norvell gets fired, but I doubt Gus Malzahn would come out west nor do I think DL would consider him.

Is there a better offensive coordinator position in college football than at Oregon? We are known for high scoring offensives, dynamic skill players and have as good of a track record developing QBs for the NFL as anyone. Just look at some of Oregon’s recent offensive coordinator’s who went on to get head coaching jobs: • Bob Toledo (UCLA) • Mike Bellotti (Oregon) • Dirk Koetter (Boise State/Arizona State) • Jeff Tedford (Cal) • Chip Kelly (Oregon) • Scott Frost (UCF/Nebraska/UCF) • Kenny Dillingham (ASU) It’s just a matter of time before Coach Stein gets that opportunity and I’ll be rooting for him, except when his team plays the Ducks. Hopefully, Coach Lanning is keeping the list of potential OCs updated in his notebook but I don’t think he’ll need to make too many calls since it’s one of the best coordinator positions in all of college football.

If the PAC had survived it would have turned into the ACC and played second fiddle to the B1G and SEC. One, or at the most two, teams would have made the CFP each year. One loss would perenially put OBD on the edge of elimination. Now they at least get consideration for the playoffs even with two losses in the B1G. It certainly happens for the SEC and the ESPN/Finebaum honks that carry their water. Maybe the evolution of NIL and player reimbursement would level the field amongst the 'haves', of which Oregon is a card carrying member. But witness that a two loss Miami is on CFP life support, and this year it looks like only the ACC champ is guaranteed a spot. Is there any reason to believe a reincarnated PAC would be any different?