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Thanks Darren for your entertaining article today! Amusing and full of memories and dreams for next season. I always look forward to reading your thoughts. One of my friends was a walk on D lineman and back then rules prevented him from the training table. So we would go to the local Buffet on South Willamette and eat. He helped educate me on the fine art of layering my plate and multiple trips back to the buffet. Man, could he consume the food! Me being a middleweight wrestler could never keep up with him. Thanks for the memory!

This morning's temperature in NW New Jersey is 4 degrees. Here are the forecast lows thru Sunday (yes, lots of snow on the ground with these temperatures will not melt anytime soon). Thursday - -2 degrees Friday - -1 degrees Saturday - 0 degrees Sunday - 6 degrees But the highs are better, we get a whopping 20 degree one day, the rest in the teens. Wind chill factors always can make it feel colder, but at this moment no wind today. 🥶 Phew!

Yes, sharing is caring, and, "Friends are better than ICE CREAM!" That line comes from a twisted scu-fi shortstop I read about a cloned, purple dinosaur that runs amok in a shopping mall... Sort of like Indiana did this season.

Here we are in late January, and the football withdrawals are hitting hard. What do I do with my Saturdays? I live up here in the cold of eastern Washington, so I cannot just go outside and find a project in the yard to work on. That is still a couple months away. Thankfully, I do have my Seahawks to ... Some Thoughts as the Football Withdrawals Kick In

Was at the dog park on Monday. Construction has slowed WAY down. Here's a pic of the Ferry Street bridge from Skinner's Butte, during the 1890 flood. The north entrance under water. Autzen would be built, much later.

That is one damned interesting post! You did that past 10:00 PM on a Tuesday night?

Here in Minden, NV (near Carson City), it has been the mildest winter of the 10 years I've been here. The house is at 4800 feet but has had one-quarter inch of snow all Winter. It is chilly with highs of 40-50 degrees but mostly sunny. I have three nearly 11,000 foot Sierra Nevada peaks out my front window that are snow-covered however. My bestie, who lives outside of Boston, has had 30 inches of snow with below zero wind chills the past couple nights. I know this native Californian is missing his old Santa Cruz County home these days, poor devil.

Yeah, I probably should have looked that up. In my defense, I did select for Indiana what I've always felt was the better acronym. I've always thought, "The University of _______" sounded better than "_______ University" • The University of Oregon > Oregon University • The University of Indiana > Indiana University Of course Oregon became a state in 1859 and the UO was founded in 1876, while OU wasn't founded until 1890 and Oklahoma didn't become a state until 1907. Oregon also played its first college football game in 1894 while Oklahoma wasn't until 1895. I see Indiana became a state in 1816 and Indiana University opened in 1820, while Illinois didn't become a state until 1818 and the University of Illinois didn't open until 1867. Indiana also played its first college football game in 1886 while Illinois wasn't until 1890. Are we sure Illinois didn't improperly steal UI from Indiana? (Just kidding of course, I get these things are rooted in history and tradition and I should have gotten it correct 🙂)

Since we have a lot of varied opinions, why not? It sounds like fun. (It gives us something to do) Tie breakers: Indiana's College Football Playoff ranking / Indiana's ranking within the B1G / total points scored At conclusion of regular season before B1G championship game Example: 10 - 2, 9, 3, 400 Anyone up for this?

Yes. And this is the reason many SEC teams are dropping future OOC games vs P4 opponents. I don't blame the SEC teams for doing so. Check out Indiana's 2025 consumption of cupcakes, rinse and repeat in 2026. It's plain as can be. You want better OOC games, go with Tony Petitti's automatic qualifier 16-team PO format.

Dallas cold and icy. Brutal NW winds but improving. Hopefully melted by thursday!!!

UCLA has a non-conference game with Nevada on Oct. 31. A quick search said that was the latest non-conf non-bowl for UCLA since the first Sat. in November in 1968 when they played Tennessee. Then, I remembered, UCLA played Fresno State the last game of the regular season in 2024. Like Oregon, UCLA will have 8 consecutive games after the bye, though one will be non-conf. Nevada. Northwestern has a bye the second week, then plays 11 straight. Oklahoma 8 straight after their bye. Syracuse and N. Carolina have 9, and a couple other ACC's have 8 after the bye. There are 3 nine's in the Big 12: BYU, ASU, Kansas. So, the single bye week this season means more teams will have a long stretch without a bye.

Upon further review and after a double vodka and tonic, in 2026, like 2024, Oregon is the only B1G team playing eight B1G games in a row. Whether OBD is the only P4 team playing eight in a row is under further, further, and perhaps another cocktail's review. That Illinois is off the week before Oregon travels to the Central time zone to play the Illini in front of CFB's largest stadium scoreboard is another B1G slap in the face. I need to look at the ACC, B12, and SEC conferences, but I will not be surprised if OBD is the only P4 CFB team playing 8-straight, possibly nine in a row if Oregon plays in the 2026 B1G champ game. Another preseason B1G title contender, Michigan, plays seven B1G games in a row. Indiana, USC, Iowa, Illinois, and UW play six. Ohio State and Penn State play five. Rob Mullens, where are you? Portland State's on the schedule, and OBD opens with Boise State? What the Hxxx, blast Boise!

Still might take a few years... After all they play in the best conference and now they have to play an additional game they'll need to be ranked even higher! (Insert sarcasm)

Probably not. We're the is outsiders still in year three. We can get the awful schedules and I think Lanning embraces that. I don't think it's a good thing but I think Lanning is going to spin it into one. Just pumping some sunshine is all.

And don't forget, the SEC now plays 9 conference games. No more padding wins. Half of the SEC will have an additional loss leading to 2-3 less ranked teams. Perception will finally start matching reality.

You could see this coming from 2136 miles away: the distance between B1G HQ in Chicago and Eugene.

A few of my observations: As other have noted, we have a very early bye this year (Week 5) along with UCLA. Only Northwestern has an earlier bye (Week 2 yuck). There is only one bye this year for the first time since 2023. There is no incentive to play in the conference championship game after playing 8 weeks in a row. When conferences were smaller and included divisions, conference championship games were rarely headliner affairs. Now, they are extra playoff games with seemingly no upside (unless you need the automatic bid). Illinois is the only team that gets extra time before playing Oregon (UCLA and Oregon have the same bye) - much better!! All non-west coast B1G teams have exactly one road trip to the west coast in 2026. West coast teams will make 3-4 trips back east across two or three time zones. Ohio St. has a nice trap game at USC prior to hosting OBD and coming off a bye after @ Indiana. Oregon catches a bit of a break with only three B1G trips back east and we get to play all three west coast teams, but didn't do ourselves a favor with the OOC Oklahoma St. trip. Hope it helps with recruiting.

Ohio State and Michigan back-to-back?

OBD plays at Illinois with the Illini coming off an idle week? With OBD coming off a game against Nebraska. If this is a 9 AM body clock start ... Having Week 5 off and then playing nine games in a row if OBD plays in the B1G champ game is just wrong.

It's always important to to know who the previous weeks opponent is. If and that's a big IF USC lives up to their usual preseason hype, the Ducks will be in a good position to go into Columbus and get the W. I'm guessing the Trojans will be trojaning it by then though.

Even if he had thrown it when he did, if he would have thrown it to the goal line corner of the end zone, #7 Moore for IU would not have gotten there soon enough.

David, I get it. Good point. I have to pursue other schedules, but is there another B1G title contender with a schedule that would have the conference champion game being their ninth game in a row?

Thanks. Funny you say that about OU because Oklahoma is exactly what I think of first when I hear that.

Yeah I noticed that. Though in truth I think Lanning doesn't do great with bye weeks. His messaging is fantastic on a week to week basis and he seems to kinda like the grind and bloodied up mentally that goes with the week to week. We lost focus real bad in the bye week before Indiana. So though not great... It is certainly something that I don't think bothers Lanning so much.