HDuck

That Miami - Virginia Tech ending last night still makes me wonder. As someone said, if it takes the "review crew" 5 minutes or more, then the circumstances have to be so close that the on-field judgement should not be overruled.

The problem for the two Pac12 hotties were that she was never hot to begin with. With no fond memories of what she looked like then, all she can offer is money. And keeping the money is so important, she took the Memphis boy to McDonalds instead of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse.

Thought it was a 50-50 call. But, since the on-field call was a TD, should not have been overturned.

https://mikefarrellsports.com/college/the-pac-12-is-drunk-dialing-schools-at-this-point Read a different column today that referred to the struggle for the 8th or 9th member as "butt dialing." Personally, I'm not too sure it matters much. At this point it is unlikely the Pac will get another team that moves the needle as far as conference media value. Just pick one and get it over with.

Rutgers wins over Howard, Akron, Virginia Tech Uw wins over Weber St, E. Michigan, Northwestern - loss to WSU on a bonehead play call For this first B1G season, in order to lessen the chatter, perhaps every former Pac12 should win the farthest trip East? Uw at Rutgers UCLA at Rutgers USC at Maryland UO at Michigan

OSU will pay $750,000 to play host to the Demon Deacons during the 2025 season, according to the contract obtained by The Oregonian/OregonLive. In addition, the home team pays the visiting team $100,000 for the 2025 (Corvallis) and 2029 games (at Wake). In a nutshell, Oregon State is picking up Wake Forest's $750,000 buyout to get out of its contract to play at Mississippi in 2025. The Demon Deacons and Ole Miss Rebels had a home-and-home agreement to play in 2024 and 2025. Earlier in September, Wake Forest triggered the buyout provision in the contract for the 2025 game at Oxford, Mississippi. Wake is essentially using the $750K from OSU to pay the buyout. In sum, OSU lays out $850,000 to Wake, and Wake pays the Beavers $100K to visit in 2029. Golly, I wonder how much of that $100K will go to pay travel costs for the Beavers' contingent that travels to North Carolina in 5 years? On the other hand, I'm sure the Beavs feel that $750K net outlay will be more than made up with the ticket sales for their ACC vs Mt.West Plus matchup in Corvallis next season.

When the Pac demanded $50 million, and Apple eventually offered $20-22M with no linear, that's when the Big12, Big Ten, and ACC went pillaging. The parties in a negotiation have to respect their own value, and neither low ball or high ball the other party or the outcome is what nobody wanted.

Might Hawaii try to weasel their way into the Pac? If the Pac could take San Jose St, then have Hawaii for football only, it would have 9 members for 8 annual football games. Blangiardi assembles team to try to gain admittance into Pac-12 for Hawaii football | Honolulu Star-Advertiser WWW.STARADVERTISER.COM Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi assembled a third-party group that has been lobbying for the University of Hawaii football team to gain admittance into the Pac-12 Conference.

Each would need 8 members. Does Pac go after San Jose St, or look toward the state of Texas? Will either Seven look toward UTEP, New Mexico State? Texas State? North Texas? A couple of those might make sense for the Mt. West. Seems 9 members with 8 conference games, and 4 non-conference to be scheduled would be better than 5 non-conference? Air Force Hawaii Nevada – Reno UNLV U of New Mexico San Jose St Wyoming Boise St Fresno St Colorado St San Diego St Utah State Oregon St Washington St As I've stated here before, I hope Oregon doesn't get sucked into a non-conference game with OSU every year. It limits Oregon's options for attractive non-conference home opponents, and as Charles say, "rewards the Pig-2."

https://www.actionnetwork.com/ncaaf/air-force-unlv-expected-remain-mountain-west

all times Eastern 4.21M viewers - Illinois at Nebraska - Fox 8:00 Friday - No. 3 overall last weekend 3.64M viewers - Baylor at Colorado - Fox 8:00 Saturday - No. 5 overall last weekend 452,000 - Purdue at Oregon St - The CW - 8:30 Saturday 2.82 million - Oregon at Oregon St - Fox - 3:30 Saturday ???? - Oregon St at San Diego St - CBSN - which is not part of the weekly ratings 381,000 - Idaho St at Oregon St - The CW - 6:30 Saturday 542,000 - San Jose St at WSU - The CW - 10:00 Friday - the highest rated CW game (Pac or ACC) this season

The new Nebraska AD was complaining today about last Friday night's game hosting Illinois. Apparently, Nebraska canceled classes for the day, there were traffic issues, yadda yadda. So, he was complaining that he really didn't want to have a Friday game except the day after Thanksgiving (only in odd numbered years). In the past, Ohio State, Penn State and Iowa have expressed their "reluctance" in having Friday night home games, but willingness to play on the road. Michigan has indicated it will refuse to play home or away on Friday nights. This season Oregon is hosting Michigan State on a Friday, and playing at Purdue on a Friday. Aug. 30 - W. Michigan at Wisconsin Sep. 6 - W. Illinois at Indiana, Duke at Northwestern Sep. 20 - Illinois at Nebraska - Illini win by 7 in overtime Sep. 27 - UWa at Rutgers Oct. 4 - Michigan St at Oregon Oct. 11 - Northwestern at Maryland Oct. 18 - Oregon at Purdue - short week after Ohio St game Oct. 25 - Rutgers at USC Nov. 8 - Iowa at UCLA Nov. 15 - UCLA at UWa - back to back Fridays for Bruins Nov. 22 - Purdue at Michigan St Nov. 29 - Nebraska at Iowa, Minnesota at Wisconsin 2 - Oregon 2 - Washington 2 - UCLA 1 - USC 2 - Wisconsin, Nebraska, Northwestern, Rutgers, Michigan St, Purdue, Iowa 1 - Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Minnesota 0 - Michigan, Ohio St, Penn St

"I still think we should have tried the Apple deal. We're only getting $30M from Fox et al." Ok, one more time, I guess. UO and UW will receive substantially more from the get-go than they would have sticking in the Pac (minus USC, UCLA, Colorado). AND, more than $30M. Why? Because there are other sources of B1G revenue from which they will get 100 percent shares, not 50 percent: NCAA Tournament shares, Bowl shares, and CFP shares. Starting in 2026 the CFP shares for each team in the B1G and SEC will be worth about $21M alone. The Pac12 CFP shares in 2026? $3-4M each team? $5M? Before we get to 2026, what will be the first year share? About $42M, USC/UCLA about $72M. And, there will be annual escalators. The Apple deal was estimated at about $22M and aside from the downside of no firm linear TV component, the "extra" revenue from CFP, NCAA tourney, major bowl shares would not have been close to the B1G membership. So, did I pull these numbers out of my butt? No, here is a link that describes the fallacy of "half-shares." Washington’s budget forecast provides clues to Big Ten revenue distributions as an 18-team conference SPORTS360AZ.COM The West Coast quartet will join the Big Ten in 44 days. Thanks to a public presentation by one member of the group, we can sketch the financial benefits accompanying the move. Washington... Then, if you are comparing possibilities, think of total ticket sales, and how much UO and UW can push up ticket prices with a B1G slate of visitors. As total ticket sales go up, so does concessions sales and goodies at the Duck Shop. I wouldn't be surprised if I was told DAF donations rebounded a bit before 2024 season so people could get their hands on tickets to a certain game on Oct. 12. I could go on, but that's enough. I'm sorry, but I just get tired of reading "the stuff about half-shares" without the context of total revenue.

Can't remember the Ducks wearing black helmets except with dark jerseys (including green). Road teams generally wear white jerseys though sometimes yellow. Perhaps black helmets and pants, and white jerseys? "Fan color" designation for the game is white. Below, last year at home vs USC...

The zombie Pac12? Pac-12 might be resurrected, but former power conference is no longer as relevant WWW.USATODAY.COM The zombie Pac-12 was resurrected, then it ran into an opposing force that we haven’t seen too often in college sports: Common sense.

The Pac is engaged in some deceptive practices as well. Agreeing to the poaching penalty which implies they would not touch the Mt. West schools just so they could fill their schedule in 2024. Now, filing a lawsuit simply to send a message to UNLV and Air Force that they should not count on the money that the Mt. West is claiming will be theirs after the new Pac pays their penalties. i.e. we win the lawsuit and less money for you...you are better off joining the Pac.

Before Jon beats me to it.... the SEC has 3 teams in the top 4. So, two would automatically be 5 and 6 with home games. As long as the SEC plays 8 conference games, this is likely to continue. It does get frustrating that the other 3 conference commissioners always seem to be distracted looking at a shiny object while the SEC commissioner pulls the wool over their eyes in terms of how the rules of the CFP will play out.

The TRANS? Transcontinental if they take USF. Transition if they are all still hoping for a Big12 invite. Transaction looking for money. Transfixed on bitching about former rivals. Transexual if they still long for their original conference and demanding equality.

G5 in the AP poll today 25- Boise St – Mt. West 29- UNLV – Mt. West 33- James Madison - Sunbelt 35- Liberty – Conference USA Unranked American Athletic – Army, Navy, Memphis, Tulane Unranked MAC - Buffalo IF, WSU is undefeated it could get an at-large but it would have to be in the top 12, and five conference champs get a slot (as long as they are top 12). Which means WSU would have to be among 7 at-large. It is No. 26 in the AP today. As of today, Michigan is No. 12 and would likely be replaced by No. 25 Boise St. The other 11 are all Power 4 as of this morning. WSU would likely have to be between 5 and 11. What if the Big12 was No. 13? They would be given the No. 4 slot, and all the at-large would shift down. No. 11 would replace No. 12. So, AP ranked No. 11 and No. 12 would both be out and replaced by the Big12 Champ and the Group of 5 Champ. In many years, the at-large will be the new hotly debated issue. Not only participation, but ranked 5-8 for first-round home advantage. As of today's current AP ranking those 5-8 would all be SEC home games. (2) Georgia becomes (5). (4) Alabama becomes (6). Then Tennessee and Ole Miss. Georgia and Alabama have to slide down to make room for the ACC and Big12 Champs in the top four.

title says it all

Unbelievable game in Pullman. San Jose leads 38-24 end of third. WSU ends up winning it 54-52 in two overtimes. A case of "here you take it", "no, you take it." WSU led 43-38 with 4th Q comeback, then San Jose scored a TD with 26 secs. left and 2 pts for the 46-43 lead. Allowed WSU to go down the field and get in field goal range, bingo 46-46 with 3 secs. left. First OT, San Jose throws a pick. Easy FG in OT for WSU, right? Nope, WSU gets greedy and throws a pick. Goes to second OT. 2nd OT, WSU scores first for 54-46 lead. Then San Jose gets a TD, but misses their mandatory 2-pt conversion. Cougs escape, but San Jose probably should have controlled the game when leading 38-37 (WSU had missed an x-pt)

Watching a bit of SJSU at WSU. The image quality on The CW is horrible. It is a bit strange as the field level camera view seems ok, but when the view goes to regular sky view it is like watching one of those history of college football films from the 1960's.

Illinois now has two wins over then ranked opponents: Kansas and Nebraska. You can probably count on one hand (one finger?) the programs that have that stat after 4 games.

The Columbia Cup? And, get NuttyBuddy to be the primary sponsor? Though they are based in Arizona. Athletic Cup Supporters Protective Mens Safety Equipment NUTTYBUDDY.COM Athletic cup and athletic protective cups from NuttyBuddy. The new sports jock supporter gives unmatched protection and comfort. The unique design is perfect for active sports such as baseball...

UO/UW trophy? A bronze of a husky led dog sled, with a duck and a whip in the driver's seat.