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1-0 Ducks after one inning. We got bases loaded by hits from Jax Gimenez and Dominic Hellman, and a hit-by-pitch on Miranda but could not get much from the opportunity. Drew Smith walked, thus we got a run. Big surprise...lefty hitter Gabe Miranda was in the clean-up spot on the batting order!

Wow, did I get surprised with the starting lineup. Four fielders...I did not anticipate. We have Jax Gimenez at LF, Jack Brooks at CF, and new freshman Angel Laya at RF. And we have Gabe Miranda at first base as I reported yesterday. Will Sanford put them out 1-2-3 in the first half of the first inning, and all three are .300+ hitters. He threw a 95 mph pitch on his first one, so this is a very good start. Great for his and our confidence!

Thanks for sharing Charles....

Good gosh, the Big-10 is powerful in winter sports! Thank you for that Jon, as I had no idea how incredible conference teams stack up in those sports.

Thanks Charles for a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to 30Duck. I never knew why '30Duck' was his moniker until today. Knowing that great Ronnie Lee was the impetus behind it, for me, only makes his name all the better. Charles -- You mentioned that you thought his passing may likely be due to a heart issue. As someone who out of nowhere found himself having triple-bypass open-heart surgery about 15 months ago, I've kind of become a major league evangelist in encouraging those of us over 50 (men & women), to get a simple, non-invasive, cardiac stress test -- especially if cardiac issues run in your family. Prior to my cardiac stress test, I had absolutely no idea that I had any sort of a heart issue. Then I found out I had 90% blockage in two of the three main arteries to the heart, and 70% in the other one. At that time, I was truly a dead man walking. And while it is still, of course, major surgery, the medical industry really has this stuff down. I got a new lease on life and I'm probably good to go for another 30 years (well... that would put me at 94, so something else will probably get me before then 😅). Sorry to go off on this, but there's so much that can be done today, if we find out we have a problem. Thanks again, Charles, for sharing. My condolences to you, to his family, and other friends.

Tonight on Big Ten Network - 7E/4P - No. 2 in the nation, Ohio State Men's Wrestling visits No. 1 Penn State. 16,000 fans will be on hand to watch this B1G battle. Penn State has won a record 77 dual meets in a row. The last dual meet the Nittany Lions lost was on January 31, 2020, 17-19 to Iowa in Iowa City. The effervescent, high-on-life Shane Sparks will be on the call for BTN. This is a real wrestling match, not a WWE fixed wrassling match. All 10 of the PSU wrestlers are All-Americans. Ohio State brings four All-Americans to Penn State. In other winter sports, Michigan State is No. 1 in Men's Ice Hockey, and Michigan is ranked 2nd. Women's Ice Hockey Rankings - No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Minnesota, and No. 4 Penn State. Men's basketball - 2nd-ranked Michigan is odds-on to win a CBB title for the first time since Michigan State won in 2020. Women's CBB - 2nd-ranked UCLA, No. 7 Michigan, and No. 8 Ohio State are ranked in the top 10. Enjoy!

So freakin' dumb to have 24 teams, that's an embarrassment, a 8-4 team has no business being in the playoff. Might as well allow a field of 64 at that point, just have the season go on forever. Basketball, baseball, volleyball, all very different sports where having that many games makes sense. You can play multiple back to backs, you can't do that in football. Just cap it at 16 or 12. I will add that I at least appreciate not having conference championship games. I would hope that under this proposal that we would have games at home sites until the semi-finals. You have to be very wealthy to be able to go to all these playoff games, they can at least make it a bit easier by reducing the amount of games that you have to travel to.

I like the expanded look, but I do NOT like any byes. Expand it to 32 and be done with it, or make it 16 with no byes, no conference championship games, and no conference "play-in" games. They are in danger of making the season too long, and with depth being depleted with most of the elite teams from the portal...more games=more injuries.

Redshirt Review: Oregon offensive lineman Douglas UtuMany 2025 signees found a role last fall. Many top true freshmen didn't, including offensive lineman Douglas Utu. Here's where we think things stand with him after one year at Oregon. https://247sports.com/college/oregon/article/redshirt-review-oregon-offensive-lineman-douglas-utu-274231748/

College Football News: Why the B1G PO plan makes sense - https://collegefootballnews.com/college-football/big-ten-24-team-playoff-why-it-makes-sense

Pitching Depth Takes Center Stage as Oregon Baseball Opens Season Against George MasonOregon opens the season with a four-game series vs. George Mason, led by opening day starter Will Sanford and a pitching staff built on depth and competition. https://247sports.com/college/oregon/article/pitching-depth-takes-center-stage-as-oregon-baseball-opens-season-against-george-mason-274232346/

Oregon's Elijah Rushing could have a BREAKOUT 2026 season

Elite Linebacker Recruit Brayden Bonik Details Receiving an Offer From OregonFour-star linebacker recruit Brayden Bonik from the class of 2028 breaks down his Oregon Ducks offer with reporter Caleb Sisk from Oregon Ducks on SI. Oregon Ducks On SIElite Linebacker Recruit Brayden Bonik Details Receiving...Four-star linebacker recruit Brayden Bonik from the class of 2028 is generating more buzz as a linebacker prospect on a national scale following what was a very

Defense! Washington and Perich are on the 1st team, early AA D. The love for Texas and the SEC? Manning and not Dante or Sayin at QB? As I recall, we watched this movie last season, no? Texas is -2.5 against Ohio State, a reverse of last season's odds for the game in Columbus. Texas finished a fortunate 9-3, with the Longhorns escaping defeat at Kentucky and South Carolina. I trust the data used by Pro Football Focus to identify the best players; I do not trust rumors and hearsay. And, when in doubt, go with the SEC guys, especially when you work for the SEC's 'partner.' Coming into 2026, I have the same question for Texas I had for Penn State in 2025: Sark is still the Texas coach, is he not? And I also have the same question I had for Clemson last year: the same guys returning for Clemson are the same guys who lost 4 games in 2024, right? Maybe the portal players coming into Texas will be all that? I'll believe it when I see it, including Cam Coleman being as good as Jeremiah Smith at wide receiver. As Indiana proved last season, it's not the parts, it's the sum of the parts. ESPN.com2026 college football Way-Too-Early All-America teamFrom Arch Manning to Jeremiah Smith, these are the best of the best at every position.

Do not overlook our opponent, as they won 40 games last year, the most in 16 years, and they return a ton of players and welcome a bunch of portal transfers. They ended up in the runner-up in the Atlantic-10 conference, and they have a senior pitcher who is pretty good, and I expect to see today. Speaking of pitchers....the Friday starter was named by Coach Waz as Will Sanford, and you could knock me over with a Duck-feather. I was skeptical if Sanford would even be a starter, let alone the Friday night guy. He was heralded as a major prospect coming out of high school, but had some rough outings last year. But players get better! Head Coach Mark Wasikowski said, "He's pitched really well. His stuff is improved, just everything that he's been able to roll out there... the kid earned it, and so my expectation is for him to just go out there and pitch the way he's pitched, how we've seen him, you know, in Fall scrimmages and Spring scrimmages. He's just been really elite." Will Sanford Sanford said his focus is on setting the tone every weekend, the same way those pitchers before him did — and that his mindset is shaped by what he learned from last season. "Take it week by week, but I just really want to set the tone each weekend for us," Sanford said. "And, you know, just have a great season." "Last year, I felt like I failed a lot. So learning from them and seeing how they hold themselves, how they go pitch to pitch, and how they respond to adversity — it kind of takes what they did and lets me apply it toward this year." The Saturday double-header will have starters Collin Clarke, and transfer Cal Scolari as I expected, and the Sunday starter is unknown at this point.

Bad defense certainly didn't help, but I would imagine it had more to do with new/young QBs learning the Duck offense, then the season ending collapse. Given the pace Kelly/Helfrich liked to play, there always were plenty of snaps, so the offense always had the ball some. TOP of course wasn't good, but it never really was back then. 2011: 25:20 2012: 28.39 2013: 25:58 2014: 27:14 2015: 27:18 2016: 26:00 Snaps by offense/snaps defended: 2011: 72.5/76.9 (-4.4) 2012: 81.4/75.8 (+5.6) 2013: 74.8/80.2 (-5.4) 2014: 74.5/78.0 (-3.5) 2015: 76.0/80.5 (-4.5) 2016: 74.3/80.8 (-6.5) My wild guess is that teams really didn't get a lot better defending it until it got widely adopted down to the high school level. Kids grew up facing it before college. Oregon's best run with the offense was arguably 2012, 2013, 2014; or, after 5 years of Oregon putting it on tape. In the back 5 years of the offense (2012-2016), the offense averaged about 2 points and 53 yards more than the first 5 years. Perhaps one could speculate: Fine tuning offensive players to system > Teams figuring it out I've kind of always attributed Helfrich's ultimate downfall not quite so much to just bad recruiting, rather having an unusually large percentage of busts and bad actors at the top 1/3 of his classes. He actually got a fair amount of guys a lot of top programs were after who also should have been a good fit for his offense, there just were a bunch of busts (among the skill guys): Jalen Brown (143), Mahalak (177), Carrington (130), Griffin (60), Jonsen (73), Lovette (121), Merritt (123), Ofodile (120), Wallace (164), Wilson (four star, top 2 dual threat on ESPN, On3), and so on (Wilson and Jonsen were top ranked dual threat QBs - never played, Taj Griffin another LMJ, Lovette and Merritt were the #3 and #4 WRs in the nation, Carrington of course gets bounced from the NC game, and so on). If we wanna go all positions, throw in names like Prevot, Austin Maloata, Kaumatule, Okun, Osay Dunmore, Leiato, Tyrell Robinson... ( I definitely have a complicated relationship with the Kelly/Helfrich era 🙂 )

Not really much else to say that hasn't already been said...30Duck was a great Oregon supporter and wonderful part of the FishDuck community, he will be very much missed. Thanks Charles to posting this.

The NCAA said, "No!" to Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss's request for a 6th season of eligibility due to a medical condition when he played for Ferris State. No surprise that a Mississippi judge told the NCAA to go to its room and said, "Yes" to Trinidad's request. The judge issued a temporary restraining order against the NCAA that will allow Chambliss to play for Ole Miss for what should be the 12-game regular season. Good luck to the NCAA attorneys petitioning for an early trial on the merits. Mark your calendars for Week 3, Saturday, 9/19/26, when LSU and Lane Kiffin travel to Oxford, Mississippi. Expect to see the GameDay crew in The Grove with Herbie and Chris Fowler on the call. They won't say it out loud, but the SEC coaches who will play Ole Miss in 2026 cannot be happy with this decision. As a CFB fan, I'm pumped to watch more of CFB's Houdini escaping from the clutches of players trying to bring Trinidad down. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ole-miss-qb-trinidad-chambliss-injunction-sixth-season-ncaa-eligibility/?eid=c7d8647c6247db8d08c59fe44bc30380a147aa90b9e33099045cd46ddc6a485b&ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=524936&

I think that is inevitable. Winning on the road consistently against teams that have fans that hate your team is not easy.

Money will ultimately decide. The fans vote with eyes on the media broadcasts. Media execs are probably already in the ear of the conferences, they will offer a bag of money, and that will be how this plays out. The Basketball tourney started at 8, went to 16, and finally landed on 64 in 1988, and if you count play in games 68 now. The difference is that the NCAA is on the sidelines with the current CFP, and probably wants more control/money out of a deal.

The B1G has a businessman at the top. This proposal would rain more money down on top-level CFB than any other alternative proposal. What I don't like: 24 instead of 16 teams, although the first round would be playoff play-in games like we see with the First 4 in the CBB tournament, quarterfinal games in bowls, and not on campus, and I would prefer a system with automatic qualifiers up to a point, which would result in better out-of-conference games and the additional money that would come with an SEC/B1G Challenge. I've read three articles to date on why the Bama vs. Ohio State series in 2027-28 should not be canceled because of "The Good of the Game". Hogwash! ADs are paid to look out for the good of their program, and both Bama and Ohio State will have challenging in-conference nine-game schedules. I reiterate, have a system with automatic qualifiers, and quality OOC games will follow. I do like the elimination of conference champ games that are close to meaningless with today's expanded PO. I also think that a move to 16 teams would result in Week 0 becoming Week 1 and bring other positive and necessary changes to the CFB calendar. This proposal could be for leverage only; an attempt at bringing the SEC back to a 16-team AQ format. What effect will the SEC playing nine conference games this season have on Greg Sankey's PO format thinking? I'm rooting for many three or more losses SEC teams. And I hope beyond hope that No. 12 seed Notre Dame knocks No. 11 seed LSU out of the PO.😁

2026 College Football Odds: Notre Dame, Oregon Best Early Bets to Win CFPI know what you're thinking: Indiana was barely crowned the national champion, and we're already on to the next. That's how it works in betting. If you see a number you like and have the stats and information to back it up, why not go ahead and sprinkle a few bucks on a couple of college football national championship contenders? Whoever had the foresight to wager on the Hoosiers winning it all this time last year is laughing all the way to the bank, which is at least some incentive. To be fair, I don't see another Indiana-type team on the radar making that kind of run, but here's why I don't mind holding tickets for Notre Dame and Oregon for the next 10 months. https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/early-college-football-title-picks-2026-27

🤔 Hmm 2026 Pac-12 football schedule: 'Flex week' provides unique advantage in College Football Playoff raceHere's how the Pac-12 flex week works and why it could help the reimagined conference push a team into the CFP https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/2026-pac-12-football-schedule-flex-week-college-football-playoff/

Big Ten eyes 24-team CFP, no league championship gamesThe Big Ten is circulating an internal document that lays out what a 24-team College Football Playoff would look like, including the elimination of conference championship games, a 23+1 selection model and an additional weekend of on-campus CFP home games. With the College Football Playoff format remaining at 12 for the 2026 season, the drumbeat of potential CFP change will inevitably echo through the coming season. The document, obtained by ESPN, includes other interesting details, such as the committee being tasked with not having any rematches in the first round. ESPN.comBig Ten eyes 24-team CFP, no league championship gamesThe Big Ten is circulating an internal document that lays out what a 24-team CFP would look like, including the elimination of conference championship games, a 23+1 selection model and an additional w

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