HDuck

Somewhat related, an interesting column on Army and Navy seeking approval for a 13th regular season game. Their argument is that the annual Army/Navy game comes too late in December to be considered a potential W for playoff eligibility, and that December timeline is unlikely to change. Thus, they feel at a disadvantage (11 games) when compared to Boise State (12+conf championship game) and other potential Group of 5 teams. Though, this season Army did qualify for the conference championship which was played before Army-Navy. Army was 11-1 before playing Navy, while BSU was 12-1 after winning the Mt. West. The 13th game would likely have to fill a bye slot because the cadets & midshipmen are in military training during the summer spilling into early August. Proposal could let Army, Navy play 13th regular season game to fortify future College Football Playoff hopes - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM The NCAA would need to change its rules that hold teams to 12 regular-season games

There was an interesting column on January 9 in The Athletic (paysite) about what Ohio State did differently on defense after the October game. One stat of interest about the Rose Bowl was defensive looks that forced Gabriel to hold the ball about one-second longer than in October which led to more negative yardage plays, sacks. In addition to changing looks in the OSU secondary, just better play from OSU D-linemen. The Ohio State position group that should have College Football Playoff rivals scared WWW.NYTIMES.COM Ohio State's stars are finally showing up in the biggest moments and Jim Knowles' defensive scheme is working.

Oregon is 2-3 vs Penn St. 1960: 12-41 in Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia 1963: 7-17 in Portland 1964: 22-14 at State College 1995: 20-38 in Pasadena 2024: 45-38 in Indianapolis

Since his first season at Penn State in 2014, Franklin is now 1-15 against teams ranked in Top 5 in AP. I'm sure like most coaches he has self-analyzed those losses endlessly, and most were against talented Ohio State and Michigan teams, but at some point he has to wonder exactly what he is missing. When that kid threw the pick, his heart had to drop into his stomach. But, why 24-24 at that point in time? Ducks open the Big Ten season portion next year at Penn State.

"8 sacks 13 tackles for loss, not sure anything else mattered. Oh and minus yards rushing." I read somewhere. Don't know if it is accurate. Ohio State blitzed 3 times. The results in quotes were mano-oh-mano D-line vs Oregon O-line.

Would like to read the impressions of the 8 teams, and the four bowls reps, that were played Dec. 31/Jan. 1. Seemed like the "reward" for going to a bowl game was very much diminished. For example: The Rose Bowl, traditionally a time for pageantry and pre-game festivities, has undergone a metamorphosis this year due to the expanded College Football Playoff format. The Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday, just three days before their New Year’s Day clash, setting up a time crunch that has squeezed out the usual Lawry’s Beef Bowl and Disneyland visit traditions. The Beef Bowl, which had been a cherished pre-Rose Bowl tradition since 1956, won’t take place the week. The event, held at Lawry’s The Prime Rib restaurant in Beverly Hills, involved the teams dining separately on prime rib. One player from each squad would conduct the ‘salad spin’ and perform the ceremonial first cut of prime rib. College Football Playoff’s Tight Schedule Squeezes Out Pasadena Restaurant Family’s Time-Honored Tradition – Pasadena Now PASADENANOW.COM Daily Newsmagazine and City Guide to Pasadena, California featuring local news, breaking news, events, weather, sports news, schools news, shopping, restaurants and more from Pasadena...

Beck is from northern Florida and won high school championships. Other schools are named, including Oregon by one pundit, but Miami probably makes the most sense. And, Beck is developed enough Cristobal probably can't screw him up. Maybe Ole Miss?

Not to be forgotten is the Whitman County judge decision that penalized the majority of Pac12 schools for "departing early." Whitman Co. judge rules WSU, OSU have control of Pac-12 conference | Sports | kxly.com But, his decision was based on the schools giving prior notice rather than waiting until the end of the Pac12 contract. His interpretation was notice of intent to leave creates the date of departure. Thus, all those schools would have been better off not giving notice and instead "hiding" their intent to leave until the end of the contract. The Washington Supreme Court then denied requests to review the decision. Court denies review of Pac-12 appeal, handing league control to Oregon State, Washington State WWW.USATODAY.COM Washington Supreme Court declined to review Pac-12’s appeal of lower court ruling that gives control of league to Oregon State and Washington State. In his original decision, Libey asked WSU and OSU to be fair in their judgement to the other schools, and to make decisions in the best interest of the conference. Whether the 10 schools have the guts to go back to Libey and ask for reconsideration based upon OSU and WSU actions appears doubtful. But, if they think they have any grounds to do so - particular for Rose Bowl and NCAA Tournament shares - they should do so.

12 wins, or coulda/woulda 2001 – 11-1 – W-Fiesta Bowl - loss to Stanford by 7 2007 – 9-4 – W-Sun Bowl 2010 – 12-1 – L-BCS Game - loss to Auburn by 3 at the gun 2011 - 12-2 – W-Rose Bowl 2012 – 12-1 – W-Fiesta Bowl - 3 pt loss to Stanford in OT 2014 – 13-2 – W-Rose, L-CFP 2019 – 12-2 – W-Rose 2023 – 12-2 – W-Fiesta 2024 – 13-1 – L-Rose - 20 pt loss Maybe 2024 gets it based on road wins vs Michigan, Wisconsin, Penn St? But, 2014 had some big winning margins, as did 2012 and 2010.

?? 2001, 2007, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2024 all have an argument in their favor.

"..allegation is that Oregon offered a Boise State defensive player, but the player mentioned in this paragraph is an OT.." That is a clumsily written paragraph. The coach speaking was referring to NIL offer for a D-player. Then, changed subject to make a comment about one of his O-players. The writer should have made a paragraph break.

Outgoing Boise State coach says Oregon Ducks offered Broncos player $700K to transfer WWW.SI.COM In a wide-ranging interview on KTIK with Mike Prater and John Mallory, outgoing Boise State offensive coordinator Dirk Koetter spoke candidly about the Broncos’

rather than offense? Scoring offense 4-Notre Dame – 37.7 11-Ohio St – 36.4 21-Texas – 34.3 24-Penn St – 33.7 17-Oregon – 34.9 Yards gained per game 17-Texas – 443.9 25-Penn St – 436.3 26-Ohio St – 432.5 49-Notre Dame – 406.6 22-Oregon – 437.4

It's defense as usual? Current NCAA ranking Scoring defense 1-Ohio State – 12.1/game 2-Notre Dame – 13.6 4-Texas – 14.5 7-Penn St – 15.8 16-Oregon – 19.4 Yards allowed per game 1-Ohio State – 244.6 3-Texas – 277.7 6-Penn St – 288.8 8-Notre Dame – 295.4 15-Oregon – 315.9

"It took Harbaugh 5 to 6 seasons to build and recruit the talent at Michigan to beat osu2." It is a different era now with the portal, BUT: - Kirby Smart won his first Natty in his sixth year at Georgia. He inherited a top 10 team that had been 20-6 in two seasons. - Saban won it at LSU in his fourth year - Sark is 38-16 in his fourth year at Texas - Lincoln Riley was 55-10 at Oklahoma, now 81-24 - no championship - Ryan Day is 68-10 at Ohio State, will this be his year? In sum, it ain't easy. Saban obviously had an effect on other program's possibilities, but there typically have been temporarily dominant programs thru the years. In sum, it ain't easy.

"The game in Eugene in October was Oregon’s one Fool’s Gold: That October victory over Ohio State gave the Ducks the false belief that they were better than they were. " The Buckeyes are statistically No. 1 in the nation in defense for total yds allowed per game. They are also No. 1 in scoring defense per game. The two highest scoring opponents were Oregon 32 in October, Oregon 21 on January 1. Based on the preparation for January 1 by the Oregon staff, I'm not sure they weren't biased by the October game. Would be interesting to know how much prep time they allocated to reviewing Ohio State's other 11 regular season games.

Undefeated Montana State plays N. Dakota State for the FCS Championship. Montana State visits Autzen next Fall to open the season.

Don't want to diminish Ohio State's offense on January 1 by this comment, but I would just add as a reminder the Ohio State defense is No. 1 in yards allowed. The game in October was apparently a one-off in terms of their season long defensive performance. Thus, it makes me wonder what the Oregon staff was looking at in the film room between the game in Indianapolis and Pasadena. Were they re-running the October game on a loop and expecting to see the same Ohio State defense on January 1? I understand that losing James early, and not having Stewart, can affect play calls. But, it just seemed the preparation for what-if scenarios was wholly inadequate.

"He did take part in bowl practice as an early enrollee..." As one joker said, "he's the first Cal QB to appear at the Rose Bowl since January 1, 1959."

Relative to the 11 seasons of the CFP: Oregon was the seventh No. 1 seed to lose but just the third to lose before the championship game, along with Alabama in 2014 and Clemson in 2017. (Obviously, both lost in the semifinals in the 4-team invitational.) The six previous losses by No. 1 seeds were by an average of 12.8 points. The Ducks lost by 20. Only one No. 1 seed has lost by a larger margin than Oregon: In the championship game for the 2018 season, undefeated Alabama lost 44-16 to Clemson. And, some pre-Playoff history: 2013 BCS Championship: Alabama beat No. 1 Notre Dame 42-14 2012 BCS Championship: Alabama beat No. 1 LSU 21-0 2008 BCS Championship: Florida beat No. 1 Ohio St 41-14 - yes, the same Buckeyes program that beat Oregon 41-21. Though when it quickly became 17-0 and sitting in a very subdued Oregon crowd, I was thinking it could end much worse than it did.

As I posted elsewhere in this forum, the Ohio State at Oregon game was an aberration for the OSU defense. The statistics of that game in terms of yds allowed by the OSU defense was wholly uncharacteristic. OSU leads the nation in total yds allowed per game at 244 per game. On January 1 they allowed 276 after allowing 496 at Autzen. The most passing yds allowed in a game in 2024 by OSU were to Oregon. Both Oregon games rank No. 1 and No. 2 in yds allowed passing. The most points allowed by OSU in a game were 32 and 21. Both of the Oregon games. Obviously OSU made adjustments between October and January 1, and the one-off defensive effort in October, led to a team underestimated by the Oregon coaching staff in my opinion. The OSU we saw on January 1 was the OSU that hit the field in 13 of their 14 games. It was a major mistake to believe that the OSU we saw on one October Saturday was the one who would also show up on January 1.

USA Today…we’ve taken a closer look at the top 25 programs in total revenue from its recently released figures for the 2023-24 fiscal year for public universities. A necessary note: This was the final year before conference realignment and the explosion of the Big Ten and SEC’s television deals. Going forward, expect the 18 Big Ten and 16 SEC programs to rise toward the top of the list, while the rest of the country begins to slip. 1-Ohio State - $251,615,345 total revenue 2-Texas - $239,290,648 9-Penn St - $181,227,448 Notre Dame is not a public school 5-Georgia - $203,084,566 13-Indiana - $166,761,471 17-Clemson - $158,283,618 18-Tennessee - $154,566,935 19-Oregon - $153,510,555 Not in Top 25: ASU, Boise St, SMU (private)

https://x.com/FBSchedules/status/1875333095454601605

"...graphic during the game that showed something like 8 of tOSU's 11 defensive starters had something like at least 4 years in their program.." I read elsewhere today an opinion that this Ohio State team may be the last national champion with primarily non-portal players. Yes, the QB came from the portal, but primarily "program grown" roster this season. There are not many holdouts which are avoiding the portal. Clemson?