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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!

When fortunate I saw names in the defensive backfield I've never seen before. Honestly I'm not that worried. The Ducks blew out JMU in the 1st half and for all intents and purposes would've piled on another 34 in the 2nd half with the starters if needed. The end result was never in question but fans like a blowout and didn't get one so now the sky's falling. Give JMU credit for keeping the pedal to the metal and not letting up. I doubt we'll see any kind of let down agaisnt TTU.

I am confident that these guys will not stop our running game.

Yes, and the fact that Stein seemed to have forgotten that we have a fabulous running game and abandoned it for the pass.

Ah-hah! So allowing mighty JMU to put up 509 yards on our defense was our genius Rope-A-Dope plan all along. I like it! I'm going with this and heading over to my happy place 😉. Regardless, I am still confident that OBD will beat TT.

Oregon fans worried about one key injury status ahead of Orange BowlAutzen ZooOregon fans worried about one key injury status ahead of...Orange Bowl opponent Texas Tech enters the quarterfinal College Football Playoff clash with the Ducks as the nation's best run defense.

Are we the most dangerous? Offensive, maybe yes but not that second half D. Why Oregon Is The Most Dangerous Team In The College Football Playoff

Lopa is now the sixth Oregon player to enter the portal this year, joining Laulea, WR Justius Lowe, CB Jahlil Florence, CB Dakoda Fields, and S Solomon Davis.

Two Good Ducks made the list. Saturday BlitzRanking the Top 10 performances in the first round of the...The First Round of the College Football Playoff is in the books as we're now down to 8 teams pushing for a National Championship. While it's all about the team,

Texas Tech defense huge problem for Will Stein, Dante Moore and OregonAutzen ZooTexas Tech defense huge problem for Will Stein, Dante Moo...Here's the reality: in their last game, Oregon's defense gave up 509 yards and 34 points to FCS James Madison in the College Football Playoff.

Oregon faces additional depth challenge as five defensive backs enter portalAutzen ZooOregon faces additional depth challenge as five defensive...The college football calendar is cooked. With the Transfer Portal opening on January 2nd in the middle of the CFP. players have a difficult choice.

This was a Chip Kelly game. Blow their doors off in the first half and then fart around in the second half. Sometimes Oregon would start slow and then blow their doors off in the second half. It was very seldom that Chip’s (and Helf’s) teams put together a solid 4-quarter performance. I still remember Aliotti getting mad at Mike Leach for not rolling over in the second half of the 2013 game.

It used to be that if you could recruit Florida, Texas and California really well then you were going to have an excellent program. I think the same rule applies today, but I would add Georgia, Louisiana and Alabama to that mix. This is why the southern teams have dominated for so long. Ohio State and Oregon each have 25 players on their roster from the SEC footprint. OSU has always recruited the South pretty well due to their brand. Oregon has come along lately due to NIL and their rising stock as a CFB brand. If throwing money at players is all it takes to win then the Texas schools would dominate. Much of Oregon’s success with NIL comes from helping players manage their brand. The wild card in all this is Cignetti. If he keeps winning with 3-stars and portal players I would expect a few NFL teams to make a run at him. His ability to evaluate and develop talent is perfect for the salary cap environment.

Ed O confirming your theory. Of course, he also spent a few years at USC as well.

David it certainly was a tale of 2 halves. After the long interception return from the Ducks red zone, an entirely different Duck defense finished out the game.The players seemed to channel the ghosts of a past 2nd half collapse in an Alamo Bowl! Because the announcers did a poor job of telling us who missed tackles, missed coverages or assignments, it is hard to tell who and how many #2's, 3's or 4's were in on those let down plays. Some of those players because of redshirt rules may have not played since October. Either way execution went out the window. DL and staff will have the players full attention this week. Coupled with a quarter and a half of bad duck film to review.. The good ducks will show up in Miami and give TT all they can handle. Either way, congratulations to OBD's first CFP victory. Let's get #2....... Go Ducks.....

Oregon took down JMU in the first round of the college football playoff and the first playoff game in Autzen. However, the game was a tale of two different Duck teams. Good Duck Let’s start with the good stuff. For two and a half quarters, there was plenty to be happy about. Even Mr. FishDuck took a break from his ... Good Duck, Bad Duck in the First Round of the CFP

If I was a gambler, the one game I would've picked the favorite to cover a three score game in a playoff, would've been this one. It seems like Oregon just lost focus after going up 48-13. James Madison didn't have the speed on the outside to challenge Oregon. The Dukes averaged less than two yards a rush in the first half. In the second, they were averaging over five. That's more than Indiana, USC, Penn State, Iowa, or Washington. I like to give credit to the opponent, but Oregon just lost gap integrity imo. It's a good thing I'm not a gambler, because my first bet would've been on Oregon covering. I think Oregon is a 1.5 favorite right now over Texas Tech. It's still early, so we'll see how the line moves.

They’ve earned being the “primary” receivers. They’re as good as any we e had in recent years.