HDuck

When next Friday rolls around, the Ducks will join a short list of programs which have appeared in 5 or more of the Big 6 bowls: Rose, Fiesta, Cotton, Sugar, Peach, Sugar. The Ducks will be at 5...with only the Sugar not on their list. Bowl participation has changed over the years. Some bowls were an exclusive opportunity for the SEC, Big8, Big Ten, or Pac12 for years. How many years was the Rose Bowl just Pac vs B1G? Those of us with more gray hair can remember when the Big10 only had the Rose Bowl as an option, and there was a consecutive year no-repeat rule. When Penn State was independent status, that benefited their bowl possibilities. And, so on. Now, with more bowls bowl participation is not as rare. That being said, even with conference tie-in's, what are we looking at? Participation in all 6 major bowls: Ohio State, Penn State, Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Miami. Participation in 5 of the six: Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Washington, Clemson, Florida St, Georgia Tech, Syracuse. Others? Don't know. USC? Never in the Peach or Sugar. I'm sure the Toejams would say, "all those Rose Bowls limited our availability." Haarumph. Appears Texas may be the only one with a W in all six.

First 4 seasons as a first-time head coach and doing it at a NW school 49-4 – Chris Petersen - BSU 48-7 – Dan Lanning - Oregon 46-7 – Chip Kelly - Oregon 47-10 - Brent Vigen - Montana State Didn't check small colleges like Linfield for a first-time head coach. No. 4 does make one wonder if Beavis made their hiring decision too quickly? On a separate note, Beavis now has 23 guys in the exit portal and counting. On the other hand, saw a report that next year opponent Oklahoma St has 45 and counting.

What do these 4 coaches have in common? 2007-11 – Cignetti - Indiana 2015 - Lanning - Oregon 2018-22 - Golding - Ole Miss 2013-16 – Cristobal - Miami Clue: 2007-23 - Saban - Alabama

Beating Indiana away from Autzen will be a higher degree of difficulty.

I know it's subjective, but I do think these CFP games have more "juice" than earlier bowl games. More, and more equally distributed talent, for the most part.

"With all due respect, that was last season. Texas Tech is the team that has had the long layoff this year, not Oregon." Perhaps TT gets a wakeup call by watching this tonight. That was the point. There was no similar experience for Ducks to witness during last season's first 12-Playoff.

Could see a bit of trickeration from Mario like there was at the game in Columbus?

The Buckeyes do look a bit lethargic like their opponent did last January 1st. Probably not a good thing for the Ducks, it will catch the attention of Texas Tech.

Sankey's insistence on getting so many SEC teams into the Playoff makes me think after today that he had his eyes on bowel games rather than bowl games? Iowa's four losses this season were all 5 pts or less. Are they the best 4-loss team this year? The top 7 SEC teams all had 3 losses or less...because they play 8 conference games and a softball, yet get the benefit of the doubt on SOS.

I don't know if there is any correlation for Chip (& "Spouse") but ever since he left Oregon the small-town boy from New Hampshire has always picked a large Metro for a job. Philadelphia San Francisco Los Angeles Columbus Las Vegas Chicago Columbus and Vegas are bigger than many people realize.

There is an interesting column in The Athletic that describes the process behind portal management. It is an interview with the Nebraska "general manager" but the principles apply for most programs.

One of the firmer ticket price bowls is upstate on Wednesday. Iowa vs Vanderbilt in Tampa is one of the few bowls holding firm on get-in price. Not exactly an easy drive for Vandy...700 miles....but their fans are feeling some success. Iowa fans always travel, especially when the destination is sunshine and 70 degrees in comparison to snow drifts at home.

Well, I expect they'll want to avoid T teams in bowl games after: Texas, Tulane, TCU, Tech(Georgia) in recent years.

Coach Riley. Geesh.