HDuck

Wilner: there are just three occasions in which a West Coast team with normal rest faces an opponent that has an extra week to prepare. And two of those are home games: UCLA hosts Wisconsin and USC hosts Ohio State. The unseemly road assignment falls to the Ducks, who host Nebraska, then visit rested Illinois.

Six B1G programs without back-to-back road games: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Penn St, Purdue Win some, lose some, when it comes to scheduling these days.

It's the result of the college football schedule and only one bye this season. Duke plays 8 straight ACC opponents after a bye. Georgia Tech plays 7 then Georgia for No. 8 - gulp. In the Big12, Kansas plays 9 after its bye: Middle Tenn, then 8 straight Big12 opponents. That's just a couple examples. It's happening in more than just the Big Ten.

Ah, remember last year when Deion Sanders proposed that spring practices allow a "controlled scrimmage" with an opponent. Syracuse's Fran Brown said he would be up for it. Then the NCAA awoke from slumber and said no-can-do. Aside from all the logistics of coordinated dates for spring practices, paying for a team to travel, etc., that would fuel the juices of fans a bit. I wonder, in the never ending search for $$$ from attendance, TV, if that rule may be revisited at some point? On the other hand, seems like spring game formats are becoming unpopular with head coaches who just have a final "practice" instead of inviting fans to a scrimmage. And, seems a distant memory now, but prior to the 2020 COVID season, the Big Ten at one time proposed playing the 2020 season in Spring of 2021. Really. Ultimately the B1G played conference games only starting October 24. The Pac12 ultimately decided to play some football starting November 7 with a shortened number of conference opponents.

This season Northwestern plays 11 after a bye. Oregon and UCLA both have the same bye date and play 8 games after the bye. Though, one of UCLA's 8 is a home game vs Nevada. Oregon and UCLA will have 5 at home, and 3 on the road. It could have been 7 if the B1G had scheduled UO and UCLA to play a week earlier while moving the bye date a week later. But, apparently was trying to avoid UCLA having back-to-back road games. Teams with back-to-back road games that involve flying over time zones, but all have a bye in between like UCLA: UCLA: Maryland, bye, Oregon Iowa: Washington, bye, Minnesota Michigan St: UCLA, bye, Michigan Ohio St: Indiana, bye, USC USC: Penn St, bye, Wisconsin Washington: Purdue, bye, Nebraska Teams with back-to-back road games and without a bye, but without flying more than one time zones: Indiana: Rutgers, Nebraska Maryland: Nebraska, Ohio State Nebraska: Illinois, Rutgers Northwestern: Ohio St, Minnesota Rutgers: Maryland, Northwestern Wisconsin: Maryland, Purdue Six programs without back-to-back road games: Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Penn St, Purdue

UCLA has a non-conference game with Nevada on Oct. 31. A quick search said that was the latest non-conf non-bowl for UCLA since the first Sat. in November in 1968 when they played Tennessee. Then, I remembered, UCLA played Fresno State the last game of the regular season in 2024. Like Oregon, UCLA will have 8 consecutive games after the bye, though one will be non-conf. Nevada. Northwestern has a bye the second week, then plays 11 straight. Oklahoma 8 straight after their bye. Syracuse and N. Carolina have 9, and a couple other ACC's have 8 after the bye. There are 3 nine's in the Big 12: BYU, ASU, Kansas. So, the single bye week this season means more teams will have a long stretch without a bye.

Interesting that Oregon and UCLA both have a bye the week prior, so why not schedule the game Oct. 3 instead of Oct. 10? And, put the bye on Oct. 10. Appears it may be to avoid requiring UCLA to play back-to-back road games. UCLA plays at Maryland Sept. 26. Northwestern, with Chip Kelly as O-coord, visits Autzen on Oct. 31.

09/26 – @ USC (Trojans at Rutgers week prior) 10/3 – bye 10/10 – UCLA (Bruins also have bye prior) 10/17 – Nebraska (Huskers host Indiana week prior) 10/24 – @ Illinois (Illini have bye week prior) 10/31 – Northwestern (Wildcats host Rutgers week prior) 11/7 – @ Ohio St (tOSU at USC week before) 11/14 – Michigan (UM at MSU week before) 11/21 – @ Michigan St (Spartans host Huskies week prior) 11/28 - Washington (UW hosts Indiana week before)

"targeted 2029 for completion of the entire project" 2026-28 to complete a project already underway, that (36months +) seems like an awfully long construction window for completion?

2025 season competitor byes...it was really a UO/UW issue: Byes before playing Oregon Penn State Indiana – Ducks also had a bye Iowa – Ducks also had a bye Minnesota (and, Oklahoma State played Thursday prior week) Byes before playing the Huskies Ohio State Maryland Rutgers Illinois Wisconsin – Huskies also had a bye Byes before playing USC & UCLA? One each. Both were Northwestern.

Wilner Commissioner Tony Petitti and his lieutenants heard loudly and clearly the frustrations expressed over imbalances in preparation time — specifically, the frequency with which Washington, Oregon, UCLA and USC played opponents coming off byes. For the West Coast quartet, byes were atop the list. Oregon coach Dan Lanning addressed the unequal preparation time on several occasions last season. Washington, which faced five opponents that had extra time, was known to be irked, as well. The issue should be largely, if not entirely resolved with the 2026 conference schedule — not because the Big Ten overhauled its approach but because of the same issue that caused the problem in the first place: the competition calendar. Because Week 1 is hooked to Labor Day weekend and the holiday comes late this year (Sept. 7), the regular season covers just 13 Saturdays, whereas the 2024 and 2025 seasons spanned 14. That slight change makes all the difference when it comes to the number of times a given team will face opponents coming off byes. In a 14-week season, there are two byes per team. In a 13-week season, there is one. There are 36 instances in which teams are coming off byes in a 14-week season and only 18 instances in a 13-week season. The 50 percent reduction should limit the instances in which Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA face far-flung, well-rested opponents.

Based on the opponent rotation created three years ago, USC plays each of the other West Coast schools in 2026. Same for Oregon. Washington and UCLA miss each other, but both play the Trojans and Ducks.

On Tuesday, the date of games will be revealed. It is unlikely there will be any kickoff times revealed this early.

Tough watching the Broncos today without Bo, Forsyth and Troy Franklin. Imagine if they could have played and won today to go to the Super Bowl!! Read today that Bo's prognosis is 12 week recovery. We'll see. Current temp for me is 46 degrees, no snow, but have been checking web cams for locations of friends from Kentucky on the south to upper NY. Conditions for ice making their lives miserable.

As I read elsewhere, remember the 1995 Rose Bowl when Big Ten Champs Penn State refused to wear the Big Ten patch, and refused to wear the Rose Bowl patch? Apparently thought it messed up the tradition of their all-whites. It was controversial at the time. In subsequent years they relented. Now maybe they'll add a patch for Habbersett scrapple?

Was announced today that former Duck Luke Moga has left the portal for a landing spot at New Mexico. 29 Ducks, scholarship or walk-on, entered the portal. All 29 have found landing spots with 23 ending up at Power4 programs. New Mexico has starter Jack Layne expected to return at quarterback. The 2025 season saw New Mexico open with a close loss at Michigan, beat UCLA at the Rose Bowl, and finished their 9-4 season with a close overtime loss to Minnesota in a bowl game. Duck QB Austin Novosad entered the portal and ended up at Bowling Green. Jason Eck, formerly at Idaho, was in his first season at New Mexico. Assisted by O-coordinator Luke Schleusner a long time assistant. As an aside, former Duck staffer David Yost is the O-coordinator at New Mexico State.

It helped that Beck did not throw a very good pass. Not sure why? Hurried? Feet not set?

"So, who's to say these other teams don't get significantly better. If they do, our Ducks may not get any farther in the playoffs than this year." Schedule, injuries, new coordinators, opponents uplifting themselves, young players making mistakes..... I think it is more of a crapshoot than we want to admit. It also takes some LUCK. Indiana scored winning TDs in two games with 1:28 left, and 0:36 left. As a result they went undefeated. The way they played against Alabama, Oregon, Miami they likely would have been champs anyway....assuming they qualified for the playoff. But, if those had been two conference losses would they have played in the B1G Championship? The Hoosiers created opportunities for themselves. An old saying, "luck is where preparation meets opportunities." Hoosiers also had preparation.

The SEC has not increased its number of ranked teams from the preseason AP Poll to the final AP Poll for 7 straight years now. 2019: 6 to 5 2020: 7 to 4 2021: 5 to 5 2022: 6 to 6 2023: 6 to 6 2024: 9 to 7 2025: 10 to 7 Maybe they should stop ranking more than 6 SEC teams in the preseason? In 2025, pre-season ranked teams which did not make the final ranking: LSU, S. Carolina, Florida, Tennessee. Though, Vandy was unranked and ended up in the Top 25. But, those early rankings helped the SEC to build their rankings "resume."

Becker showed it's possible to make catches even when your QB throws into coverage. You don't have to have a two-step separation, or your QB doesn't have to wait until you do and risk a sack.

No. 3 Ole Miss: losses 35-43 at Georgia, 27-31 Miami Fiesta Bowl No. 4 Oregon: 20-30 vs Indiana, 22-56 Indiana Peach Bowl No. 5 Ohio State: 10-13 Indiana, 14-24 Miami Cotton Bowl

And, No. 4 in final coaches poll ESPN2025 AFCA Coaches Poll College Football Rankings, Final R...Find the complete NCAAF Final Rankings rankings on ESPN. Includes the full votes and trend for the top 25 NCAAF teams.

https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll

2026 Big Ten Football Schedule will be released on Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 2:30pm PT on the Big Ten Network. https://fbschedules.com/big-ten-football-schedule-2026-release-set-for-tuesday-january-27/ Oregon 2026 - dates revealed Jan. 27 Home: Michigan, Nebraska, Northwestern, UCLA, Washington Road: Illinois, Michigan State, Ohio State, USC Oregon 2026 non-conference 9/5 - Boise State 9/12 - at Oklahoma St 9/19 - Portland State