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Forum friends, we're a member of a nationwide Mega-Conference, and we're reaping the good and the bad. Compare Oregon's conference schedule with Wisconsin's; the Badgers have a far more difficult schedule in 2025 than OBD, even without adding on a trip to Alabama. In 2027, OBD plays at Maryland, Michigan, Nebraska, UCLA, and UW. Plus plays a game on the road at Baylor. The home slate: Iowa, Ohio State, Penn State, and Purdue. Brutal. The conference schedules do, for the most part, balance out over five seasons. Rutgers schedule this season compared to last season is far more difficult. Indiana will have its turn in the box. However, having Michigan and Ohio State as permanent opponents is more difficult than new power Indiana drawing Purdue. When the computers went to work in 2023, preparing schedules for an 18-team conference, did the machines know that Indiana in 2024 and 2025 would qualify for the playoffs? Compare Oklahoma's SEC schedule this season and last to Texas. The Longhorns have far easier conference schedules. Ditto Mizzou and Ole Miss compared to Florida. As to the conference intentionally trying to screw over OBD with a Friday night game after a Saturday game in the Central time zone, check out UCLA's closing schedule. Week 9, at Indiana, Bye, Week 11, Nebraska, Week 12, at Ohio State, Week 13, UW, Week 14, at USC. The conference took the money and gave up total scheduling freedom to the media entities writing the checks. These unbalanced mega-conference schedules are the primary reason I back Tony Petitti's AQ PO model, with the last week of the regular season as PO play-in week. The team that is in 2nd place in the standings plays at 1st place. The winner is the conference champ, and both are in the PO field. Third place hosts Sixth place, Fourth place hosts Fifth place. The winners are in the field; the losers are still eligible for one of two at-large spots in the 16-team field. (The third AL team will be Notre Dame.) The season ends, and the POs start a week sooner than today. As to this season, it is neither Indiana's nor OBD's fault that Penn State has not won a conference game this season. Frustrating? Heck yes. But I sure prefer this to playing Beavis and Wazzu twice in the regular season. GUM UP THE GOPHERS!

And USC hasn't played tOSU in two years. Also got both Michigan and Penn St at home in separate years.

How the heck does Indiana avoid playing: Ohio State, Michigan, USC, and Washington? And they played Old Dominion, Kennesaw State and Indiana State OOC. Pre-season CBS Sports ranked their schedule 2nd easiest in the B1G only ahead of Maryland. I understand unbalanced schedules with super conferences but come on - there has to be more balance.

All this is a capital ($$$) infusion for college athletic departments. I would be surprised if Ohio State went along with this proposal (and Oregon should not either, IMO), as one of the largest, wealthiest and most valuable brands in college football. Locking yourself into a long-term grant of rights seems to be the last thing the top brands would want to do right now given the uncertainty and evolving college football landscape. Just look no further than the top ACC programs. The teams that benefit the most are the B1G bottom dwellers. They are probably paranoid that they will be left out during the next college football realignment (as they should be) and desperately need the money. Under the proposal, there is also an uneven revenue share, which is one reason USC opposes it, as Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State would get more than they would.

Dante always respects the people who have come before him. Oregon Ducks On SIOregon Ducks' Dante Moore Shares Biggest Lesson He Learne...Dante Moore is emerging as another big-time performer in a series of great quarterbacks for the No. 9 Oregon Ducks. The signal caller’s mature decision to spend“The biggest things I learned from Dillon is just preparation and then having joy with the game of football,” Moore said. “He said when you step between the white lines and play football you got to have joy and have fun with it.”

Tez Johnson's NFL continues to shine! Oregon Ducks On SITez Johnson Is Becoming Everything NFL Scouts Doubted He'...Tampa Bay Buccaneers wide receiver Tez Johnson weighed in at just 154 pounds at the 2025 NFL Combine, making him the lightest participant. During the draft proc

And let's not forget🍾🥂 Larry in the conversation. His leadership and foresight was legendary.

If OBD puts a spy out on 4th and goal, he needs to be disciplined enough to actually wait for the play to progress out of the quarterbacks hands... not always easy to do.

I like our defense, but they do have a tendency to have a mind-numbing brain fart when it is 3rd and 7 or more, and the secondary will be inexplicably out of place quite often on such plays.

Having re-watched the game, there is no way Iowa had zero penalties outside of the punt snap safety. Bear was held early and often. Their DBs were occasionally clingier than a needy GF/BF. The push off OPI and hands to the face by the D-line were no such thing. Gronowski threw away two 'Mr Wizard' passes that didn't have a receiver in the same area code, should have been called intentional grounding and would have stalled both of their touchdown drives. They ignored the fumble that the back judge should have easily seen if he had been where he was supposed to be. I won't go so far as to claim a level of bias, but maybe Iowa benefited from a dark uniform 'ninja' effect on a crappy conditions day where OBD white stood out like a beacon. Or maybe somebody had Iowa and the points.

I really like this O line when all starters are in. They are beasts at run blocking. At RB, Noah, Hill and Davison are above in ability than the rest on the roster. And all that running success sets up play action passes too. "The problems for the defense have often come when the offense has failed to set them up for success." The problems for the defense are that they don't have it together on every play. With all the option based offenses, the opposing offenses are looking for a weak spot. Ducks need 3 good defensive plays in a row and they get off the field on 4th down. Consistency is not always there for them. "The Iowa offensive line averaged only .8 yards per rush before contact, and 2.7 yards after contact." Yes. On many plays, the Iowa runner was pushed back. But on other plays, he would plow for extra yards. Those extra yards shorten their 3rd down plays. Gang tackling is how they can shut down the YAC. Indiana's RBs are good at pushing for extra yards also. I loved that great play by Noah Sewell vs Ohio St on that 4th down play where he stood up the RB and got the turnover on downs. Those kinds of plays shut down drives.

Great observation here. If the Ducks go up by two TDs at any point, then Iowa is forced to start passing. Iowa’s passing attack looked downright dreadful; the Ducks would have blown them out.

And none of the finger-pointing is at the prior athletic ADs at OSU and WSU who did not build their brand, and in fact were massively overpaid in their revenue share when looking at what they brought to the conference.

More Fun Facts about Our Beloved Ducks... Never mind...we have a tech issue going on that I have to work on...

I mean... Yeah... Oregon is the program that has made the transition to a new conference the easiest and is thriving. Not just in football but other sports as well. But I'd also like to say ... Oregon was fine staying in the Pac-12 if everything were to align to stay. uSC and UCLA jumped ship... Then Colorado... And then the rest of the four corners schools had offers from the Big 12. Washington said they'd leave and they'd need to take us... And we went with it. We were 5th out the door. So if we are finger pointing. Sure we'll take some blame but only what we're due.

I think it really is better. The problems for the defense have often come when the offense has failed to set them up for success. Just think if two more of Oregon's drives ended in touchdowns? They certainly has a couple drives that felt like they should have resulted in points if not for a penalty followed by a third down drop and that third down play that resulted in Dante falling down. Those two drives score touchdowns... And the defense looks even better. That final drive by Iowa should have been stopped for sure. But holding an opponent to 16 points is darn good.

Poor Beavis...

A ton of great information to give us updated perspective. I love one of the comments..."Oregon out-Iowa'ed Iowa." So true, and it is another rite-of-B1G-passage for Our Beloved Ducks. Oregon had three offensive linemen with good grades: Emmanuel Pregnon 82.2 Isaiah World 73.0 Poncho 71.2 Going into the week--Iowa had the best run-blocking grade in the nation, and as PFF said, "Iowa is the best, by far, offensive line in the nation and likely to win the Joe Moore Award." Three best offensive linemen averaged better grades than the Ducks: OG Bean Stevens 90.8 C Logan Jones 80.0 OT Trevor Lauck 77.7 Yet Iowa only averaged 3.5 yards per rushing play, while Oregon averaged a mind-bending 7.2 yards per rushing play. Insane! In the freezing rain, at Iowa, and against a Hawkeye defense? To put this in even better perspective, Iowa was No. 1 in the nation going into this game for the lowest amount per carry given up, only 3.3 yards per carry, yet Oregon averaged 7.2? Whew! The Oregon offensive line averaged 2.9 yards per rush before contact, and 4.4 yards after contact. The Iowa offensive line averaged only .8 yards per rush before contact, and 2.7 yards after contact. Perhaps our offensive line is better than we fans have felt? They reported that Oregon had the most efficient offense in the nation in terms of EPA per play going into this game. On Defense: Brandon Finney Jr. has the highest overall grade for the season of any freshman corner in the nation, and he created the crucial fumble that stopped a Hawkeye drive. Oregon only had four missed tackles the entire game and continues to lead the nation in fewest missed tackles. The job that the Duck defensive line did to stop the offensive line of the Iowa was....amazing. A low yards-after-contact number (2.7) points to superb linebacker and secondary response, and tackling. Perhaps our defense is better than fans are giving credit for? Lots to ponder...

One other thing I don't understand....USC played 3 road games in Central and Eastern time zones in 2024, and are also playing 3 in 2025. That total of 6 is less CT/ET road games than the other 3 West Coast teams must play. Their last CT/ET zone road trip was Oct. 19 in 2024, and Nov. 1 in 2025. Ducks was Nov. 16 and Nov. 8. UCLA is Nov. 2 and Nov. 15 in those two seasons. UW is Nov. 9 and Nov. 8. So, why is USC "special" in scheduling?

CBS's Tom Fornelli's Week 11-12 PO Take - https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-playoff-rankings-projections-fornelli-acc-champion-sec-big-ten-big-12/

That jump to add Texas State may have been a bit too premature? Since 2015, Texas State is: 3-9 - 2015 2-10 2-10 3-9 3-9 2-10 4-8 4-8 8-5 8-5 3-6 this season Should they have added North Texas? New Mexico? Wyoming?

Week 11 - SP+ 1. Ohio State/ 2. Indiana/ 3. Oregon/ 12. USC/ 15. Iowa/ 18. Michigan/ 20. Penn State/ 21 UW/ 23 Illinois/ 25 Nebraska

Would that be the Texas state program, aka Sam Houston State, that just beat the front runner of the Pac what-the-heck conference?

This is a seriously BIG club (pun intended). Give a quiz to all the Ad's for an explanation. Or, maybe hire Larry Scott to negotiate a deal that exceeds all expectations until the next round of media deals in a couple of years.

I understand why the deal raises some concerns. A $2.4 billion deal is not an under the radar transaction. It could make political waters somewhat choppy for collegiate sports. To over simplify, it is a high interest loan. The deal looks to sell an “estimated 10% of assets” to a pension fund. The pension fund now shares media revenue for twenty years. Including participating in any future increases/decreases as media contracts are renegotiated. My guess is that the fund is expecting the revenue share returns the original 2.4 billion in capital, with another 2 to 3 billion profit. If capital is needed, this is one way to acquire it. But, it is not the only way.