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I agree Jon. How Notre Dame continues to get away with what they do is beyond me. I see a day coming when Petitti and Sankey decide to freeze out the Irish. After all, the whole nine game conference sticking point that most SEC coaches say is impossible, is going to get Sankey pressured into looking at how Notre Dame gets in with no such requirement. We know Petitti wanted that nine game conference slate for the SEC, and ACC, before he would even begin to talk about new playoff models. With the CFP model, I really think SEC coaches are buying this whole top to bottom "SEC is toughest" line. They really think that extra game is going to cost them in the long run. I think it's ridiculous, and the fact a three loss Alabama got into the field this year, and they got in over an undefeated P4 champion three years ago is proof that the committee already gives the SEC the benefit of the doubt. The SEC earned it's reputation, both the good and bad. Twenty years ago, nobody thought Florida had a shot against Ohio State. An undefeated Auburn got snubbed from the BCS Title Game, and nobody saw the SEC as the best conference. But now, it's been two years with an expanded field. The SEC is 2-5 against P4 opponents, and has yet to put a team in the National Title round. Alabama and Tennessee were blown out in their playoff games vs B1G opponents. Texas A&M lost a home game to an ACC opponent, and the only SEC team to make the semis this year, did it by beating a G6 opponent at home, and a fellow SEC team. The SEC had five teams get in the field. Not a single one beat a P4 opponent from another league. There needs to be some acknowledgement there. Just like twenty years ago when Florida was told they didn't belong on the field with Ohio State. Florida proved the critics right, only in a way none thought was possible. Alabama didn't belong on a field with Indiana. Tennessee didn't belong on a field with Ohio State. If Texas had gotten into the playoff over James Madison, they wouldn't have belonged on the field with Oregon. This is reality in 2026. SEC teams need to stop being soft and delusional. If they don't, the reality of 2026 is going to be the reality for many years going forward.

PUPS! 😁

After Portal Picking and Portal Tampering are done, CBS Sports projects the 2026-27 college football (CFB) playoff (PO) field as follows: ... December 30, 2026 - Fiesta Bowl - 2 Notre Dame vs. the winner of 10 Texas A+M at 7 Oregon ... January 1, 2027 - Peach Bowl - 1 Miami vs. the winner of 9 LSU at 8 Ohio State Rose Bowl - 4 Indiana vs. the winner of 12 Michigan vs. 5 Texas Tech Sugar Bowl - 3 Texas vs. the winner of 11 Memphis at 6 Georgia .... Looks like the experts are giving us back-to-back preseason wagering gold mines. The AP Poll 2025 expert pollsters' top 4 ... Texas No. 1 - In 2025, my betting buddies and I questioned whether Archie was the 3rd coming of the Manning family. Good question. Penn State No. 2. - Did anyone else notice that James Franklin's record against top competition matched this ranking? We did. Ohio State No. 3 - One of the B1G's three PO teams in 2025-26. TOSU went 0-1, OBD 2-1, and Indiana 3-0. We wondered why the Buckeyes, after a long layoff was favored over Miami, and put our money where our wondering was. Clemson No. 4 - This ranking matched the number of losses Clemson suffered in 2024, and the same guys who lost four were coming back. $$$ ... With the above in mind. No. 1 Miami and No. 2 Notre Dame - Yes, Notre Dame has to weather the Hurricanes blowing into South Bend and the trip West to Provo, not LA, but when the next toughest challenge is Navy in Gillette Stadium or SMU at home? ... Before the visit to Notre Dame, Miami has a brutal opening. On the road at Stanford, Florida (A&M), at Wake Forest, and Central Michigan, before traveling to Clemson, South Carolina. ... Really? A roll of Charmin is tougher than the spit these two are playing. ... No. 3 Texas - Sark's still The Man on the Forty Acres, right? Frankly, this reminds us of James. Texas is -2.5 when the Buckeyes arrive. We expect No. 8 Ohio State to Buck(eyes) the Longhorns and bring home the Money Line +108. No. 8? Brutal schedule, but this is Ohio State, a team that filled holes out of the portal. No. 8 in the nation has CBSSN behind the prediction 8-Ball. ... No. 4 Indiana - Yes, Indiana has to host Ohio State and USC, and travels to Michigan and UW, but the B1G champ being ranked 4th? Cig will probably smoke us again, but over 10.5 was right on our Mendoza line, but we went Over. No. 11 Memphis ranked ahead of 12 Michigan? If only we could find a line to bet against this? ... No. 6 Georgia? Six? As it so deserves, even with nine conference games, the Dawgs have an easier slate then it played the last two seasons. And Georgia still has the best coach in the SEC, Kirby (He So) Smart. Over 9.5 is a lay-up. ... No. 7 OREGON - We're down with the over 10.5, but with the schedule, it's Moore of a Danno dare; however, Bring It On! ... No. 5 Texas Tech has addressed both sides of the ball in this season's spending spree, and there isn't a B12 roster that comes close, by golly, in the home of Buddy Holly. 8.5 wins? Come On In! ... No. 10 A+M? In 2026, the Aggies will play SEC teams other than Texas that will finish with a winning record. But an Over/Under 7.5? We're down. ... No. 9 LSU? The Bengal Bayous will likely cover 8.5. How about 9-3? Up to you. We want nothing to do with Lame Kitten. ... Money is not evil; the love of money is evil. Not comfortable putting hard-earned dollars down, a gaming fantasy league with the earnings having a bought-for-winner dinner is a lot of fun

The SEC should have been screaming for 16 teams Probably cost them 4 to 5 playoff spots in the last 2 years. I love what the BIG is doing. Make sure you get to 24, so teams like USC, Iowa, and Illinois don’t get left out due to SEC bias.

A couple weeks back I was thinking about this a bit, is year-to-year pressure more player related or scheme related? So I looked it up and found, since bringing the Georgia defense to Oregon, over four seasons, both Oregon and Georgia have exactly 122 total sacks. That is about 30.5 per year. Oregon had 30 this year. In the last 8 seasons, Georgia has had between 20-37 sacks 7 out of 8 times, the only outlier being the 2021 team that had 49 sacks, which famously had 4 future 1st round NFL draft picks on the DL (T.Walker, Wyatt, Davis, Carter), and 2 future 1st round NFL draft picks at LB in Q.Walker and N.Smith (plus a pair of future 3rd round picks: Dean, Channing). On average, it suggests maybe 30-32 sacks per year should be expected from this D, based on the 12 seasons of data (a good portion of bend-but-don't-break, unless of course you get a D front with 6 future NFL 1st rounders, then, maybe QBs watch out). That isn't to say more sacks wouldn't be great, only maybe not what the scheme tends to generate (absent that obscene amount of talent). Advanced stats seem to try to move further than raw sack numbers. Advanced stats has something called "Havoc Rate" which is basically how much a defense is able to disrupt an offense by generating negative plays (pressure). It is somewhat hard to find, but one site that looks pretty good (CFBD) has the following numbers (generally a havoc rate of 20% or more is considered very good): Oregon: 2022: 15.1% 2023: 17.2% 2024: 19.3% 2025: 18.2% Georgia: 2022: 16.0% 2023: 17.1% 2024: 15.7% 2025: 15.1% For comparison, Indiana was 23.2 this year and 22.0 last year. Texas Tech was 23.3 this year (after being 13.7 the year prior). They further break the number into how much the front 7 contributes to the havoc and Oregon's fronts have been: 7.8 9.3 11.5 9.6 Georgia: 10.3 9.7 11.0 8.1 Indiana's fronts have been 14.5 and 16.0 and Tech's 15.0 this season. I think there might be some evidence in all this that Oregon and Georgia's scheme by design generates less havoc (pressure) than someone like Indiana or Tech. Borrowing from that great 2021 Georgia D (and all those sacks), its havoc rate was still only 20.2 and 12.1 for its front (very good but not Indiana or Tech good). That maybe indicates overall even great front players still trails behind an overall great pressure scheme. Well, if I am reading it correctly 🙂

And the hits keep on coming. According to Coach Altman, Devon Pryor has a groin injury and could potentially miss the rest of the season. Ege Demir's shoulder injury required surgery that will sideline him for the remainder of the season. What a nightmare scenario. Baseball coach Mark Wasikowski said the program's growing NIL infrastructure credited the Ducks for keeping the team competitive in the modern era. Without it, we don't have a chance. And the same can be said to Coach Altman and the basketball program. Without the proper funding, the outlook is bleak.

Silence is golden.

Hopefully these guys contribute, proud to see players from my old alma mater.

Good points, keep on dumping! There are always going to be exceptions to any rule. Oregon reached outside to get Chip Kelly after the 2006 season ended in four straight losses, and when the anxiety caused by the Helfrich melt-down incited a national search in order to right the ship and regain fan and media confidence. When head coaches replace coordinators, I think they have to take into consideration the current group of players they’ll inherit and their needs. Is the group primarily young, requiring an experienced, guiding hand, or focused veterans just needing fresh ideas? I can’t think of a time when I wasn’t concerned with any new appointment - young or old - until games got played. Wait and see is always tums time. While our recent success has offered that national platform mindset you speak of, it remains as much a gamble as hiring from within. Do you get a Chip Kelly or a Willie Taggart? Free-forming is a good descriptor for this sort of thing. As I wander around this, I keep ending up on the word ‘family’ as the best concept to hold onto when attempting to discern what, or what not makes the engine run smoothly at Oregon. From within or out, you’ll know soon enough whether or not the new guy is a part of what makes us - us.

Elite EDGE Recruit Abraham Sesay Reveals Relationship With Oregon Ducks CoachesExclusive interview with Oregon Ducks EDGE target Abraham Sesay from the 2027 recruiting class. Oregon Ducks On SIElite EDGE Recruit Abraham Sesay Reveals Relationship Wit...Abraham Sesay is a four-star EDGE rusher from the state of Pennsylvania, which is amid one of the better prospect classes that the state has seen. Sesay has qui

Oregon baseball opens season ranked inside Top 25 of coaches pollFebruary is here, so naturally, college baseball is right around the corner. The Oregon Ducks baseball has a promising season ahead of it as coach Mark Wasikowski and his staff try to once again help the program reach the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., in June. The other baseball coaches from around the country seem to think the Ducks have a decent shot at reaching Omaha as Oregon begins the season ranked 23rd in the first USA TODAY Coaches poll of the season. The poll is somehow missing its share of Big Ten Conference teams. Besides the Ducks, UCLA at all the way at No. 2, is the only other Big Ten team in the initial poll. Oregon will start the season with an eight-game homestand at PK Park. The Ducks host George Mason for a four-game series, including a doubleheader on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14. The next weekend, Oregon hosts Youngstown State in a four-game set that begins on Thursday, Feb. 19. Last season, the Ducks were close, but yet so far away, to making it to the CWS as they finished the year 42-16 in the regular season before being bounced out of the NCAA Regionals. Oregon was stunned after losing to Utah Valley and Cal Poly.

Ducks fill out roster with a pair from Central CatholicAutzen ZooDucks fill out roster with a pair from Central CatholicThe coach at Central Catholic is Charlie Landgraf, a walk-on offensive lineman from Jesuit High School in Portland who played on the 2019 Rose Bowl team.

And when it comes to The Strength of Schedule, the B1G isn't backing down. Example: Compare Georgia's 2026 conference schedule with Ohio State's. The SEC is a Gauntlet Like No Other, right? https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2026/02/03/big-ten-2026-schedule-must-see-games-sec-college-football-tv-ratings-war/88480976007/?utm_source=usatoday-sports-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=usatbaseline&utm_t

"Out coached, out schemed, out played." My observation is that it sometimes appears Oregon's staff watches too much video of opponent's prior games and assumes that is what they are going to see. Opponents make adjustments. It was particularly true in the Rose Bowl, and Oregon hadn't prepared adequately for the possibility. In high stakes games you can't wait until the second half to make adjustments, it will probably be too late.

Greta comment, Gat. But if the goal is to send the most teams to the postseason, and it is, why can't Sankey look at the final PO Committee rankings and see that under Tony Petitti's 16-team AQ PO format, the SEC would have had more teams in the mix? Sankey's OK with Notre Dame in if ranked No. 12 or higher, but not with Vanderbilt, and possibly Texas, being in the 2025-26 PO field? Ditto for the ACC's Jim Phillips and the B12's Brett Yormark. The ACC and the B12 would have had two, not one, teams in the field. Sankey, Phillips, and Yormark allowed two G6 programs to be in the field. Sense, meet Less.

At Kentucky (???), Will's off to a good start, filling the Stein with a fine brew of portal players. Notre Dame QB, CJ Carr, was in a tough battle for the starting job with Kenny Minchey, who flipped his 'commitment' from Nebraska to Kentucky. No dummy is Will. Without an adequate War Chest, Will wasn't leaving OBD. Bear Bryant won an SEC championship at Kentucky, so ...

Fantastic article Jon, as you featured the coaching chops of these coaches like none other. I love some of the word-play you had fun with, but boy--you demonstrated how the price of poker just went up B1G-TIME in the conference with these coaches. The new coaches are all very hard workers....grinders, who are going to make our schedule even more challenging and entertaining. Thanks Jon.

Thank you, Charles, for another fantastic editing job. 👍👌❤️ No surprise with Smitty's comment being spot on. The B1G is no longer content with being No. 2 in football. In today's college football world, you can break the bank trying to win a title, but a group of people, starting with the head coach, have to meld the new players with the old and have them play as a cohesive unit. Have them play as a team and for one another, not just for the money. Mike Norvell has assembled terrific talent at FSU. In year one, the Seminoles went 13-0 before being scalped by the PO Committee. But the last two seasons? LSU was one of the biggest spenders in 2025, and things started so well with a win at Clemson's Death Valley. Coach Brian Kelly was fired before the end of the season. Under Lane Kiffin, LSU is spending more dough this season than any other program, and breaking its academic rules in the process. Jordan Seaton was allowed to enroll two weeks after the enrollment period ended. It's all good. Jordan's studying will occur in the football facilities, not in the classrooms. Kiffin, in job number three in the SEC, has a Natty grace period about as long as a gnat's life cycle. Everyone on the Bayou is hoping Lane wins it all. Everyone else, especially folks next door in Mississippi, is hoping Kiffen comes up lame. Saint Nick's coaching rehabilitation facility is no longer open. After rebounding at FAU, Lane may have to try his luck at FIU. Please! And Texas Tech is doing it again, with the understanding that both sides of the ball matter 😁. And there's a Hurricanes warning in Miami: Rules, we don't need no stinkin' rules. Don't try to Duke it out with us! Campbell, Chesney, Fitzgerald, and Whittingham are now on a B1Gger stage with a B1Gger bankroll; watch out!

I think I was referring to Ka'ai and Araghi both look very young. Probably upper 20s or low 30s. I have no qualms about Hampton and Mehringer in terms of experience only potential execution.

Thanks for clarifying Will 😆

The question is did he and or Lanning learn from it?

No kidding.

How did we do in the portal? Winners and Losers From Oregon Ducks' Transfer Portal Efforts

Will Stein Doesn’t Hold Back On Indiana And Curt Cignetti Out coached, out schemed, out played. Pretty good game plan.

Cole Thomas, although a walk on, returned 4 kickoffs and 1 punt for touchdowns last season for Central Catholic in Portland. Oregon Ducks On SIOregon Ducks Secure Commitment From In-State RecruitWhile the Oregon Ducks and Dan Lanning are beginning to work on recruiting the class of 2027, a few 2026 commitments continue to trickle in for the Ducks, and c