On 2/7/2024 at 10:13 PM, Nevada Dawg said:

I will simply caution (again) to all the star gazers out there that star ratings only matter if the players holding the honors have their heads screwed on right and can get developed in their new homes. Certain schools in recent years have looked like the Milky Way for all their talent without accomplishing much between the lines---which is really all that matters. Notable examples of underachievers IMHO are T$M and the U in Miami in recent years. There will be more such examples, but I am not terribly worried at this point that Oregon will be one of them.

 

If properly evaluated, talent is the lifeblood of success But that success is not pre-ordained.

Right on, otherwise USC and ND would have had a couple titles each the last 10 - 15 years.
 

At the same time, no matter how much you polish 💩 it’s still 💩.

There’s a lot of TBD nuance. Pretty interesting to see things go full circle from massive bundles, to standalone, and back to bundles.

On 2/7/2024 at 1:22 PM, Dave23 said:

$50/a month seam like a lot more than I'd pay. I pay $70 a month for regular cable that includes all those options minus ESPN+. 

I wouldn’t assume regular cable will retain those options for much longer

On 2/6/2024 at 1:20 PM, Jon Joseph said:

The Pac-2 scored a victory in court but the Pac-12 assets are subject to a $72M set off of some kind to Comcast, a possible $3M to the Holiday Bowl, and the severance payment to Kliavkoff. I get it. It is what it is. However, I am still PO'd over dropping a home game with Texas Tech for a road game in Corvallis which will be the most-watched game the Beavers play all season.

Don’t forget to add that they have spun this like they did us a favor by agreeing to play us. Biggest reason I don’t wish them well at all, for a few years at least

I wanna believe, but we’ve lost about 3 “must wins” in the last 3 weeks.

Cool break down thanks!
 

That UW ranking is ridiculous. 6-6 my over/under for pups, I’ll take the under.

League going out with a whimper in hoops, sorry future PAC2 units “earned”….aww.

On 2/3/2024 at 3:02 PM, Jon Joseph said:

Jabba, a 12-team field based on the College Football News early ranking has 5 SEC teams and 4 B1G teams in the mix. This will be par for the course. SEC: Georgia; Texas; Alabama; Ole Miss; and LSU. B1G: Ohio State; Oregon; Michigan; and Penn State. He also has Utah in as the 4th seed as the B12 champ. Rinse and repeat except that I believe USC will be a consistent challenger for a PO spot along with OBD. 

 

Sankey was talking a good game while poaching OK and TX. 1st and foremost, Sankey wants the most SEC teams in the Playoffs as possible.

Oh no doubt, he wants to be the kingpin, but if the regional focus gets too narrow viewership will go down. There are exceptions of course, CSU/CU ended up a top 10 viewed game I believe.

Sankey has in the past recognized the need for regional diversity being represented in the sport, a clashing of regions has been the charm of college football. If it becomes a homogenized NFL lite, why wouldn’t people just watch the NFL?

 

I'm someone that usually watches football for 12 hours plus on Saturdays, but I skipped out on numerous recent playoff games when it turned into SEC or B1G conference rematches. I was far more interested in the final four this year when there was finally some geographic/conference diversity. 

 

I guess the question will be if the regional matchups consistently translate to a national audience, I’m not sure they do. I will say, to me, the B1G feels like more of a national conference than the SEC. We’ll learn a lot this fall.

On 2/2/2024 at 1:14 PM, Charles Fischer said:

My opening post had NOTHING about Taylor Swift making more money off this, or anything about a ruse to help her in any way.  My post was whether the NFL would do something to 1) make more money off advertisers, or 2) increase the NFL audience.

 

You are making a judgement on something that was not written.

I’m simply adding to the conversation and actually agreed with you in my post.

On 2/2/2024 at 9:04 AM, Solar said:

Something simple that everyone can learn about contracts, is every reasonable contract has a remedy for being broken. (Never sign one that doesn't!) Meaning both parties not only pre-agree to the conditions of the new partnership, they also pre-agree to the consequences of breaking the partnership.

 

That is why there is no moral or ethical issue with breaking any contract. Whether walking away from a mortgage or discharging a mountain of credit card debt in bankruptcy.

 

Both sides agree to the outcomes of those choices in advance.

 

It may be a statement to make in jest, but it is 100% correct to say that "Contracts are made to be broken."

 

Now those morons that signed iron clad grants of rights are a different story...

I think there is still an out with the ACC, it just happens to be reported at nearly $600M

There’s definitely a vacuum, ask Lane

My opinion -

 

This stuff cracks me up. Swift is a billionaire so I doubt this is all contrived as some specific “groups” are theorizing. She has 300M followers on Instagram and FB alone. She’s got ten other ways to make more $$ aside from what be a very time consuming hoax. No doubt ESPN, the NFL, and Kelce are capitalizing on the situation, as they should, but it seems improbable that she would enter into this as a sham.

 

i mean seriously, a TE from KC isn’t who you’d use if this was pure fiction.

5 wins tops

It is interesting though, that we’ve had hoops and football players transfer to UW (and OSU) the last couple years and it didn’t seem to cause a huge uproar. Probably boils down to our players left to get playing time, their players leave to be at a better program. 

On 2/1/2024 at 12:06 PM, Augduck said:

Just some humor for today- John Canzano in his behind the pay wall column ruminated on all the name calling/social media vitriol etc that took place after Muhammed announced his transfer to UO.   John implied he did not understand it and proceeded to discuss the current landscape of college football and the portal.  

 

All this begs the question, has John not paid attention to the Oregon/UW rivalry the last few years?  Is he not the guy who has Softy on his radio show and hears the absurdities Softy spews on a regular basis during football season and especially the week of the game?  

 

I just found the whole thing interesting.   John is certainly playing the 'help me understand' card which I guess gives him fodder for his talk show and future columns.

I heard some of his show while driving around, similar vein. He’s gotta be in a bit of conundrum overall with realignment. Purposefully obtuse to ring up likes and calls to the show. He’s certainly whiffed on a lot of “sources” the last year and change, more “clownzano” than ever before in my book.

On 2/1/2024 at 11:47 AM, Steven A said:

Yes, but I don't have to watch a whale being born!

Multi—tasking is your friend.

On 1/31/2024 at 10:52 AM, David Marsh said:

There is a big problem with NIL. Namely that schools don't pay players but 3rd parties do. Schools and coaches are technically not allowed to facilitate the deals or know how things are being done...  But most know enough to function. 

 

NIL isn't capped at the NFL level because the NFL has contracts that bind players to an organization for a period of time and those organizations play those players.

 

So NIL money is money for advertisements and things where the company paying the player is getting a major tangible benefit from their payment.

 

Mahomes is paid for his advertisement work and the companies get to put Mahomes on stuff but that isn't how Mahomes makes the majority of his money, it's a side gig. Granted a side gig that pays better than most of our jobs. 

 

For the majority of the players at the college level most NIL deals are their paychecks and primary source of income. And for many all their NIL deals include is some social media posts. 

 

Players aren't bound to teams with the portal so they are free to shop the best NIL deals. 

 

The other major factor at play here is that the pool of players is so much different at the college level than the pro. For the NFL all players need to go through the NFL's gate keeping to be considered worth adding to a team. The biggest of these gates is the draft, get drafted or signed to a team and you're getting paid and may be worth other teams looking to sign you later. 

 

But at college there are thousands of players at varying skill levels. Some good and will get drafted and others good but won't be drafted. NIL pays these players not the schools. 

 

So how do you put a cap on something that schools themselves can't regulate? You really can't.

 

So what would have to happen is that schools and he NCAA pays players and NIL is banned. That way it can actually be regulated. 

 

NIL at the college level is directed at schools but not run by schools. Whereas at the NFL, NIL is directed at a player regardless of their team. 

 

Mahomes would still be in state farm adds even if he played or another team. 

 

Division Street is paying for Dillion Gabriel because he's going to be at Oregon. They wouldn't pay him anything if he went to Washington. 

 

NIL can't be regulated. 

Great post! NIL is pretty much binary, it is or it isn’t. Your analogies are very helpful.

On 1/30/2024 at 2:41 PM, NJDuck said:

 

 

 

Agree that’s great for us if true, as it’s nonsense. Another DL add would be nice, but “major need”? Drama mama.
 

What’s funny is how arbitrary the teams on this list are and who isn’t on there. ND? Michigan? Texas? No needs?

 

Other thing that cracked me up a bit, “meet their 2024 goals”. What’s the goal of FSU, shooting for undefeated again? Oklahoma, PSU, and LSU? Are they contenders? Goals to do what, win 9 games?

I mean Oregon State thinks they can go undefeated as a goal, why not put them up there? 🙃

Not to be a downer, as I appreciate the enthusiasm, but to me that game felt like a possible deathblow to our at-large hopes. Prior to the UA game I thought we needed to win out at home and have no more than 2 road losses the rest of the way to get an at-large bid. Starting out with an underwhelming loss at home (to a team both OSU and WSU beat at home) in that stretch does not bode well.

 

We might be able to still squeak in if we lose to Arizona again, but run the table otherwise. We also have a decent chance of winning the PAC tourney for the auto, but that’s always a tough thing to count on.

 

I believe that being so much more inside oriented now completely changes our offensive flow and how teams defend us, and also makes us less effective at defending the 3. Difficult transition to make in late January.

 

I do enjoy watching this team and will continue to do so, but we just don’t have any “quality” wins when it come to the tourney.

On 1/28/2024 at 11:02 AM, bbmichaels said:

I'm actually not a portal hater. I like adding depth and letting the competition work things out.

 

I just have hesitancy in regard to this particular get. Optics seem to suggest that they outbid Texas for his services. How much did they spend? Might it be it at the expense of getting the next guy who might have filled a greater void or been a bigger upgrade?

 

He's a proven solid CB. Maybe he'll end up as CB1. But they have brought in several other promising CBs via the portal already. Is he that big of an upgrade? Worth the price tag and the crowded CB room? I hope so. I'm just not blindly over the moon on this one.

 

At the end of the day I trust Lanning, and I hope that the Division Street coffers make it all a moot point.

There is no salary cap yet

UW probably couldn’t field a team next year without transfers, I’m sure they’ll start all underclassmen to do things the right way. They sound exactly like the Beavers…hmmm 

Football definitely first. I used to consider it a failure if I saw fewer than 9 games per season in person, but that went away for me about 15 years ago. (TV, children, and living on the other side of the country for a bit all contributed to this)

 

I used to be pretty fanatical about men’s hoops, but that has faded a lot, still watch most games, but don’t go crazy if I miss us playing Cal.

 

The rest I’m a complete fair weather fan, if a team is in the hunt, I’ll pay attention. Definitely was different when I lived in Eugene.

On 1/27/2024 at 5:56 PM, bbmichaels said:

I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I wonder about the price paid, considering the competition for his services. I also wonder how the other DBs feel about it.

 

I'm excited to see him on the team, but I can't help wondering if the cost (both financially and from a morale standpoint) is worth the difference between him and the next option already on the roster

 

We’re going to lose players in the spring portal as well, have to build the best roster you can, when you can. Secondary wasn’t exactly a strength last year, if anyone in waiting was actually that good they would have played.

 

That being said, this is exactly why I usually only pay attention to the macro aspect of recruiting and don’t  get attached to any names until the season starts. 

We’re obsessed with going inside, guard play is what actually matters and I think our chemistry has been submarined. Shelsted will not score 15+ with this lineup. The D and transition game have gone downhill. Arizona lost on the road to OSU and WSU…this ain’t good.