HDuck

The first round games this year at home stadiums are Dec. 20(1) and Dec. 21 (3). Eugene low high on Dec. 21: 2023: 44/48 2022: 30/47 2021: 40/45 2020: 40/58 2019: 44/51 Ohio State at MIchigan 11-25-2023: 21/36 12-21-2023: 30/43 The Committee "should" love the balmy weather in Eugene.

Hoping for the best, but I concur. If this was a discussion of the USC football team and their transfer portal losses, their decommits, or their underperformance, or loss of key assistants, what would we be saying? The parallels in Oregon women basketball right now is not good.

Told my fiancé I loved her too much to wait until September. In reality I worked backward from the date I knew we would be home from our honeymoon to arrive at an early August wedding. That was over 40 years ago, and I would do the same today. As to the initial question, if you don't have a formal role in the wedding despite your wife's participation, why is it even a question? Just tell her to enjoy herself because she probably wouldn't spend much time with you anyway.

The annual travel estimate that has become "fact" is $10 million. The origin of that number goes to UCLA which invented the number when they were in discussions with the regents about how much the subsidy to Cal should be. They wanted to poor mouth themselves to minimize the rollover payment to Cal. Subsequently, every sportswriter and gossip board on the West Coast accepted that number as accurate and gospel. I've never read another estimate from any other of the 3 Pac teams headed to the B1G. For the writers, it was "let's go with it" without scrutiny. I have no idea how much it will be annually when there is an accounting after the first 12 months. But, that number seems to me to be on the high end when you consider the number of individual teams that will actually travel because the B1G is committed to approaches such as you see with the volleyball team described earlier. Some teams like golf play in multi-school mini-tournaments with 15-30 teams so almost the whole season is travel. Ohio State, for example, played in 3 West Coast tournaments and had ONE tournament at home, along with travel elsewhere. My point is, there are sports which are not home-and-home like basketball. The change in travel dollars for them is not very much. Even if it approaches $10 million that is not a net number. To be comparable to prior years, you would have to know how much was spent on travel to Tucson, Boulder, Pullman, etc. and will no longer be spent. For example, "it will cost us $8 million to go East, but it would have cost us $4 million if all our conference games were in the old Pac12."

The whole travel thing is way overrated by Beavis. For example, the women's volleyball schedule was released today. There will be 4 trips East during the B1G season. 4 trips to 7 opponents. For example, Iowa and Wisconsin will be on the same trip. They are 175 miles apart. Michigan and Michigan St on the same trip. There are about 60 miles apart. Also, Ohio St and Penn State about 300 miles apart. The lone singleton is to Minnesota. The other 3 B1G travel games: UW, USC, UCLA. Uh, they are on the West Coast. The travel destination pairings are like Cal-Stanford, Arizona-ASU. The only long interim pairing in the Pac was Colorado and Utah. But, but, but...you have to get to U Michigan first before traveling to Michigan St...so, "those Pac12 escapees will come back!!" Uh, Oregon volleyball had 3 trips east last season: Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Madison. This coming season: 4 trips. Likewise, both basketball squads will have pairing travel. Some sports don't have home-and-home contests. They have mini-tournaments involving several teams at a single site. The B1G administrators understand the issue. They will deal with it, and do so with a deaf ear turned toward Corvallis. They aren't going to set up paired games Nebraska and Rutgers. Nor, set up a bunch of singletons.

The fees/penalties OSU/WSU would have to pay to take a few Mt. West teams in the next couple years would be steep… https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sports/aztecs/story/2024-01-11/san-diego-state-sdsu-aztecs-mountain-west-pac-12-football-scheduling-agreement-poaching-penalties Likewise, OSU/WSU will be unwilling to risk their full shares of Judge Libey’s Bag by joining another conference https://sports360az.com/pac-12-survival-tallying-the-cash-available-to-washington-state-and-oregon-state-for-rebuilding-the-conference/ Thus, they will wait wait wait, while hoping to cast themselves as "victims" and garner a sympathetic sportswriter treatment. Charles ain't buying it, and neither should the rest of us.

There's an old saying that baseball is for statisticians. Amazing to me that in 13 of 17 games so far, the winner scored 10 runs or more. Wonder if that has happened in Super's before? One more game on Monday. Margin for combined scores after 2 Super Regional games: 34-12 13-2 – UK vs OR State 25-15 – A&M vs Oregon 17-8 20-12 – third game on Monday 21-17 19-16 and 31-17 after 3 10-7 Would anyone have guessed OSU would have 2 runs total in 2 games? In 58 games prior to the Super, the Ducks had only allowed 10 or more runs seven times. It will be all ACC or SEC in Omaha. 6 of the 7 Super's so far have gone to the home teams.

I'm checking the box score...but, it appears they flew in Cristobal to manage the last 3 innings.

James Crepea: If this were surprising it would be one thing, it's that this is predictable and foreseeable because 2021 and 2023 happened already….These are the blunders that in the ACC or SEC make decision-makers reevaluate contract discussions Oregon leads 8-4 after 6. Surrenders 9 runs in top of 7th.

..."the Ducks scored the fewest runs in the regional."

As of Saturday night there have been 12 games played. 9 of the 12, the winner scored 10 runs or more. 3 teams (Friday/Saturday games) have already advanced to Omaha. Their scoring averages during 2024 were nationally ranked: 4, 12, 13 The teams they beat were ranked: 148, 174, 183 Uh, looks like you better bring some offense. I believe I read somewhere that out of the 16 teams that won regionals to advance to a Super, the Ducks scored the fewest runs. (And, are ranked 130th in per game runs scored this season)

That Iowa team finished 5-5-1, and Hawkeyes third straight season .500 or worse. But, after two Ducks discouraging losses to Hawaii and Utah, any win over a Big Ten visitor was welcome. Looking back, the wins over Illinois in 1993 and 1995 were probably more impactful.

Geesh. He claims just two years as a writer? That means he is still designated to run errands and get the soda and nachos for the rest of the crew in the press box in Columbus. He probably doesn't get to watch much football.

"Oregon State v BSU is not a prime time game. And the only network that has a 9am (PST) slot is Fox and that game won't be on Fox. " Appears it will be at 9:00 am, Fox, Friday after Thanksgiving. Looks like the pecking order for that day: 9:00 am, CBS, Minnesota vs Wisconsin - most played rivalry in Div I 9:00 am, ABC, Colorado vs Oklahoma St 9:00 am, Fox, Boise St vs Oregon St 12:30, ABC, Miss State vs Ole Miss 4:30 pm, NBC, Iowa vs Nebraska which for years had been 9:00 am PT day after 4:30 pm, ABC, Georgia vs Georgia Tech 5:00 pm, Fox, Utah vs UCF

Interesting. I think Nike and Addidas already pony up quite a bit to have their logos on the uniforms. Wonder how they might feel about sharing the real-estate.

In the CFP game, McCarthy had 140 yds passing for Michigan and 31 rushing. Penix had 255 passing and -5 rushing. UM had 303 yds rushing. UW had 46. It was 443 to 301 in total yds, and the score was 34-13. Possession time was near equal, however. Remember some of those games vs Stanford when possession was heavily in favor of the Cardinal and Ducks fans felt the frustration? Especially when cold weather arrives in the Midwest, that approach is the recipe. QBs are just one piece in the B1G approach.

In many recent seasons in the past, Big Ten QBs didn't have to be stellar. They had to be serviceable. Teams made up for it with very good O-lines, running backs and tight ends. Remember the name Jack Coan? Probably not. But, he had better stats for Wisconsin than Herbert in the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin led possession 38:00 to 22:00 and had 120 more yds total offense. The B1G is generally not a fling'em and sling'em league though with periodic exceptions. Opposing QBs are just one piece of what Oregon will face.

The Cal Golden Bears finished the year 36-19. Won 20 of their last 25 games. Of the 64 entrants, 26 had fewer wins than Cal. Some obviously auto entrants due to conference championship, but come on. The No. 11 entrant from the SEC deserves it more than Cal which went to the Pac12 semi-final?

The B1G is expected to have 16 Friday night games. The Fox schedule announced today was 9 of them. Theoretically, those 9 are each "the fourth best game of the B1G weekend." The B1G Network and FS1 will also make an announcement regarding the other 7. There will likely be two games Friday after Thanksgiving. Iowa vs Nebraska has become "traditional." In 2023 that game was 9:00 am PT, in 2022 it was 1:00 pm PT and my guess is it will stay a "day game" and not be part of Friday night.

Big Ten outpaced SEC with $880 million in revenue for 2023 fiscal year with most schools getting $60.5 million WWW.USATODAY.COM The Big Ten continues to outpace the SEC in total revenue. The league reported almost $880 million and distributed $60.5 million to schools.

In the final softball rankings before the tournament the Ducks were No. 22. They were assigned to play at No. 2 Oklahoma. In a normal 64-team field, 16 x 4, the No. 2 seed would have No. 31 as their top opponent, i.e. 16 hosts 17, 15 hosts 18, 1 hosts 32, etc. Not sure how Oregon got sent to Norman? Perhaps there is a strength of schedule component used by the Committee rather than rankings? Or, maybe the Committee just wanted to see coach Lombardi in Norman, Oklahoma again?

Last August….Sources told ESPN that both schools will receive approximately $30 million annually when they join the league, a share that will increase by $1 million during the current media contract with Fox, NBC and CBS, which runs through the 2029-30 athletic season. They then would be able to receive full shares. The other Big Ten members are expected to receive more than $60 million annually from the new agreement this year. Previous Big Ten expansion additions Nebraska, Rutgers and Maryland also did not receive full revenue shares immediately. My add…what gets little ink are the other revenue sources which are 100 percent shares: CFP payouts, NCAA Tournament payouts (expect women’s Tournament to go up too), bowl payouts, TV revenue from other non-3 networks airings. There will be more B1G teams in the CFP and NCAA Tourneys than there would have been Pac10, Pac9, PacWhatever which adds to that revenue. When detractors spout “half-shares” that really only applies to part of the total revenue pool. Add…does anyone really believe that Oregon would have the level of season ticket sales in football for 2024 that it now has if it was a Pac10/9 schedule? Could Oregon have raised ticket prices? Would as many hotdogs and sodas be sold? That, and more, are additional revenue streams that are not part of “half-shares.” Travel? Oregon has 3 football games in the Midwest. How much more will that cost than the 3 or 4 (not counting UCLA trip) in the Pac10 that would have been incurred anyway? The number of trips for some sports have been way overestimated based on inaccurate assumptions as well. There are still 3 West Coast opponents, and some sports do not do weekly home-and-home schedules that require travel.

Oregonian columnist Bill Oram brings the whole thing into the world of reality here: "It’s the 99.9% of viewers who won’t be watching that worry me." Column worth a read. Bill Oram: Oregon State’s deal with The CW sounds good, but might hurt the Beavers more than help ARCHIVE.PH archived 14 May 2024 20:41:25 UTC

After the bag they got from the Whitman County judge the Beavers should pay back the $10 million allocated by the Legislature.

Big12 in 1996 included Big8 and 4 teams from SWC. Have left: Nebraska, Colorado, A&M, Missouri. Added: TCU, W. Virginia to get back to 10 teams by 2012. Then added: BYU, Houston, UCF, Cincinnati in 2023 In 2024 lose: Texas, Oklahoma In 2024 add: Colorado, Utah, Arizona, ASU will be 16 teams Going back to the 1996 season the all-games win percentage comparison of bottom 5 of 16: .494 – Oregon St .476 – WSU .472 – Arizona .429 – Colorado .441 – Baylor .421 – Iowa St .343 - Kansas Since 1996 to SEC: A&M, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma Since 1996 to B1G: Nebraska 1996 remaining: Kansas, KSU, Iowa St, Baylor, Tex Tech, Okie State, Colorado