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Bama and TAMU will never admit it but Dan was their top choice or certainly top 3. From what I have read from a few sources is that Lanning as a clause in his contract that in order to just talk to him the program wanting to talk to Lanning would need to pay UO a hefty sum. I heard it's around 20 million which would be insane. So Bama will say that they weren't interested or he wasn't offered the job. Which would be true because I don't think Lanning was ever an option because just getting Lanning would cost upwards of 40 mil potentially and then paying him more to get him away from Oregon. Lanning was never an option for either which is delightful as Duck fans.

DM, good call on Bama and where to rank the Tide post-Nick. DeBoer brought Penix to UW and convinced many draft-eligible players to return, but it was Chris Peterson and not DeBoer who did the heavy recruiting lifting. Bama will not admit it but Dan's recruiting chops is why Dan had to turn the job down before DeBoer was offered. The same with Mike Elko at A+M. This helps to cement your case for Dan being the Recruiting Man.

In this case, Dennis Dodd is correct. Revenue sharing will not cure all of CFBs and Men's CBB roster issues. Revenue sharing in college athletics is coming, but only collective bargaining will provide a true solution - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Setting the college sports landscape perfectly will take more than just giving the players a cut of the money

Oregon Women's Basketball Schedule: Big Ten Opponents Set The Oregon Ducks women's basketball team enters their inaugural season in the Big Ten conference. The Ducks will play 18 games, including two matchups against Washington. Oregon Women's Basketball Schedule: Big Ten Opponents Set WWW.SI.COM The Oregon Ducks women's basketball team enters their inaugural season in the Big Ten conference. The Ducks wil play 18 games, including two matchups against Washington.

Fantastic point. Imagine if Dano was recruiting to a school in Ohio, or Georgia, or Texas.

Now that it appear Oregon's 2024 class additions are finally finished. This is my answer to who is my favorite.

I agree with that, but with the way he is recruiting the high school talent...it is only a matter of another two years before all this superb recruiting at the HS level truly comes to fruition. I also agree with you in that he will always rely on the portal to plug holes, or to add when exceptional opportunity presents itself, but I do believe the number of starters from the portal will be a ton less in three years. And if not? No problem, as Dano has shown already that with the portal he's....

JUST IN: Ducks look to STEAL ELITE IMG RB for 2025 class and Grading Dan Lanning Portal Movement Again, Dierre Hill will make his commitment Friday, May 10 at 12:30 PST

Ari Wasserman, The Athletic's chief recruiting and portal analyst is high on the Two O's Ohio State ranked No. 1 in Ari's preseason, post-spring top 25, and Oregon ranked No. 3. Ari Wasserman’s post-spring Top 25: Is Notre Dame really a top-5 team? THEATHLETIC.COM Where is Alabama ranked in the first season of the Kalen DeBoer era? How far will Michigan fall after losing Jim Harbaugh? 5 B1G/ 9 SEC. Miami the PO No. 3 seed? Notre Dame No. 5? 1st Round - Bye 1. Ohio State 2. Georgia 3. Miami 4. K State 12. G5 at 5. OREGON 11. Penn State at 6. Texas 10. Michigan at 7. Notre Dame 9. Missouri at 8. Ole Miss "Missouri has a pretty favorable schedule?" DUH!

Solar, great take. From a guy who grew up in Boston, I know this to be a certainty: It is easier to shovel rain than snow. November 16th in Madison, Wisconsin, Oregon's eighth game in a row without a break, could be played in bitterly cold and snowy weather on the shores of Lake Mendota. Of course, the same weather issues could be found late in the season at Wazzu, CU, and Utah. Regardless, it's going to be a B1G blast.

I can think of one area where USC would be totally dominate: The American Conference. Oh wait, that's where Tulane plays. USC could totally dominate the MAC.

Great article. Thank you, David. 1 minor correction. Matthew Bedford went from Indiana to CU, briefly, and then to Oregon. Another in-your-face to a guy 'playing for clicks.' One thing I would add to the great facts in your article is the fact that Dan is recruiting to a state without many 4* and 5* recruits. Georgia, Alabama, and other schools located in the Southeast do not have this problem. These two among other SEC powers and Ohio State, Michigan, and other B1G programs compete with Dan for recruits from recruit-rich California, making Dan's success in recruiting California more noteworthy. You also noted that Dan re-recruits at a very high level. In comparison, most of the guys Mari(o) recruited are gone and were not coached up under Mari(o) the way players are coached up by Dan. Oregon finishing in the top 10 in D last season is impressive. I expect the Oregon D to be more salty in 2024 without crippling the offense as was the case when Mari(o) was in charge. Again, thanks for a terrific and timely article.

The Alabama rankings this year are difficult to actually put together. The prep class is Saban's so it's fantastic and the tender portal is mostly DeBoer and it's good in terms of its ranking but it's almost all Washington players! That's not recruiting as much as roster retention in this case. Also Bama got credit for landing Proctor from the portal but he left Bama in the winter and came back in the spring. He didn't really leave. I wanted to throw in stuff about Georgia and Colorado because the two are polar opposites in how they function. Colorado is a revolving door with transfers and is looking to win games exclusively through the portal. Georgia loses some talent to the portal and usually gets a little bit but they are pretty exclusively prep recruits I think if you asked Lanning he'd like to me more like Georgia and use the portal less but I'm not sure Oregon is ever going to be that because of our geography. Oregon is isolated from all the biggest hot beds of recruitment, the closest being southern California which is close but not Oregon's backyard. Certainly not within reasonable driving distance. So I do believe Oregon will need to use the portal to substitute for this geographic disadvantage.

I mean, OU made the playoff 3 times, but gave up an average of 54 in those 3 games. Blue bloods shouldn’t need gimmicks to compete. Gimmicks are what you use when you have a talent deficit to spring some upsets and go 8-4. There’s a reason air raid doesn’t dominate the NFL. Curious to see how this might apply to Chip this year.

Ok, playing football in the rain when it is 36 degrees is about the most uncomfortable thing I've ever experienced, perhaps only beaten by some 10 degrees and blowing trips from my car to the office in work clothes. You still have a point. I continue to think that the diversity of environments in the PAC 12 made road games harder than other conferences. Altitude and humidity are underrated factors. It isn't just the temp. I think playing in November in AZ or Wisconsin is s probably a home field advantage wash for PNW schools. That dry AZ air in November just puts the players to sleep.

Going deeper into this 'best-case' (BC) analysis. With the PO expanding to 12 teams, it is not as meaningful as in prior seasons but BC would see 14 of the 18 B1G teams being bowl eligible. BC, the Ducks' B1G opponents would be a collective 67-41. Three opponents are projected to have losing records, Michigan State, Purdue, and UCLA. Oregon plays seven home games. Five conference home games. Oregon has no P4 OOC games. BC, Ohio State's B1G opponents would be a collective 70 and 38 Three opponents are projected to have losing records, Indiana, Purdue, and Michigan State. Ohio State plays eight home games. Five conference home games. Ohio State has no P4 OOC games. Ohio State and Oregon share three common conference opponents: Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. This is the nature of a conference where seven of the eighteen member schools are not on the schedule. This is also the case in the SEC. BC - Iowa, Michigan, Ohio State, Oregon, and Penn State, all at 10-2 or better, would be on the playoff committee's radar. No P4 opponent OOC will not matter if Oregon or Ohio State finish 12-1 with a B1G title. Oregon or Ohio State would be the 1st or 2nd seed and have a first-round bye. With two losses, the B1G champ will still be seeded in the top four with a first-round bye. Georgia finishes 11-2 and perhaps an OOC win over Clemson would give the Dawgs the 1st seed over an 11-2 Oregon or Ohio State but being seeded 1st instead of 2nd does not mean all that much in the 12-team playoff format. SC could finish 10-2 and be in the playoffs. USC has a Blue Chip roster. Michigan and Penn State are SC's only conference opponents with Blue Chip rosters and Penn State visits SC on the same day Oregon plays Ohio State, 10/12/24. With both games being played in the Pacific time zone the SC/PSU game could be moved to Friday night with this conflict. The Saturday before this game, PSU plays UCLA in Happy Valley, and SC trips to Minnesota. B1G Fun coming up.

I don't know about DL being the best recruiter in the nation, but I think it is pretty definitive that U of O as an organization and alumni is the best recruiter in the country. Recruiting at such a high level with such a dearth of local talent is extraordinary. A tip of the cap all the way around and especially for Marshall Malchow who is continuing to do what he did at TAMU.

I especially like this quote because it's so brutal and true: “Is Lincoln Riley really that much better than any other Air Raid coach? Have we been caught up in the idea of Riley being successful those first couple of years (at Oklahoma) and then applied that to years in which his teams look outclassed and outcoached? I honestly don’t know the answer and I suspect I am not alone. Riley looks like a giant mystery right now.”

Quotes like below from the article above never get old... "Riley might have made appropriate staffing adjustments, but the residue of last year’s failed 8-5 season likely contributed to Harmon choosing Oregon over USC. The Ducks are closer to a national title than the Trojans are. Harmon’s decision can be seen as rational in that context." Interesting note....the author of the article, a hardcore Trojan, actually shot pictures for FishDuck when we played at USC years ago... And he is still helping me with quotes like that!

It will be interesting to see how each of the four former Pac schools adjust to playing at Big Ten venues on a week-after-week basis. It is much different than being tasked with winning games at half-filled Tucson or Palo Alto stadiums. Lincoln Riley is left scrambling after Derrick Harmon loss to Oregon TROJANSWIRE.USATODAY.COM USC’s margin for error is much smaller without Derrick Harmon on board.

And they got Riley at a bargain for $11 mil per year plus bonuses...chuckle chuckle

And USC is stuck with Lincoln Riley, whose teams do not play defense, and doesn’t seem to be a great recruiter.

HappyToBeADuck Posted 12 hours ago Jon, thanks for posting these 2 articles. They give us old Ducks fans a chance to learn a little more about our new conference opponents. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................... Thank you, Happy. Saturday Tradition is the B1G's Saturday site, it's free, and well worth checking out. Great take and one point you made that should be emphasized is that no one knows how the PO Committee with a 12-team field will deal with SOS, if the Committee deals with SOS at all. Historically, it's been all about Ws + Ls and that's it, except for: Do not let your stud QB suffer a late injury when the SEC's PO appearance is on the line. Michigan has the 5th most difficult schedule in 2024. Oregon has the 11th most difficult schedule exacerbated by playing 8 games in a row without an idle week. The last 4 games in this gauntlet include trips in November to the Eastern time zone to play Michigan and a trip to the Central time zone to play Wisconsin. Missouri's schedule is ranked as the 66th most difficult out of 134 G5/P4 teams. Missouri has the easiest schedule in the SEC, only two preseason top 25 teams are on Mizzou's schedule: at Bama and home vs. Oklahoma. If Missouri finishes 10-2 and Michigan and Oregon 9-3, with no 'bad losses' what will the committee do? With the SEC continuing to play 8 conference games in 2025, and with no change in the schedule except for home conference games being away games, Mizzou will again have an easy schedule. In 2024, Missouri's P4 opponent is Boston College in Columbia. In 2025, Kansas visits Mizzou. The other six OOC games are scheduled wins against Cupcakes. In addition to the critical element of being chosen as one of seven at-large teams, seeding will matter. Joel Klatt, with ties to the B1G and not the SEC, predicts that five SEC teams will make the 2024-26 PO field and four B1G teams will make the field. On the surface, this appears to be reasonable. However, with the way the seeding works out, Texas would play the G5 team in Austin, Ole Miss would play Penn State in Oxford, Alabama would play Michigan in Tuscaloosa, and Oregon, the one SEC outsider with a 1st-round home game would host Missouri. I stand by what I have posted before. I believe a 12-team field will cause the committee more headaches for the next two seasons than the committee dealt with the last ten seasons with four teams except for 2014-15 and 2024-25. I believe the PO selections in 2024-25 could easily lead to schools mutually agreeing to drop difficult OOC games. And if SOS does not matter, why should the ACC and the SEC play more than eight conference games? In 2025, Oregon plays possible B12 defending champion Oklahoma State in Autzen. Oregon is scheduled to play Oklahoma State in Stillwater, where the Cowboys rarely drop a game, in 2026. Why play OK State instead of San Jose State at home in 2025 and 2026? Does it make sense to play a road game versus a difficult opponent than a home game versus a lesser opponent? In odd years, Oregon will play five B1G road games. IMO, that's enough difficult games. Does it make sense for USC, in addition to the game at Notre Dame, to play Ole Miss, Ohio State to play Texas, and Michigan to play Oklahoma in Norman in 2025 as currently scheduled? Win the B1G and you are in even with an FCS team and two G5 teams on the schedule. A lot of uncertainty. One thing I do believe is close to a certainty is that the PO format will be adjusted come 2026-27. Thanks again for the great comment.

The long-term exposure to SoCal exhaust fumes is a main contributor to cognitive impairment. It is common to find the afflicted to share their nonsensical thoughts on social media. Many will also demonstrate a superiority complex that is loosely based upon ancient history.