David Marsh

I do feel that is where this is going. Originally this was one very long article that started to explore the two parallel leagues. But I cut out that part and I am saving it for a future article. However, even the older and more traditional model is going to have to change. Whether that is a reduction in the amount of team activity and practice hours or just having some form of universal compensation. The traditional model as is is not going to work but what we have now is also disheartening for anyone that isn't in the top NIL group of teams.

At that point they'd probably drop any academic requirements entirely. Let's face it in the age of NIL some of these kids are only interested in the money anyways. If NIL wasn't a factor would Nico have chosen Tennessee? Would Rashada have chosen Miami? Probably not to both... They aren't going to either of those schools for the education either.

Mike Leach had an idea I actually liked the other day when he said players out of high school declare as amatures or pros and if they are pros they get drafted. I feel a draft of top talent would make things far more fair. But... Once there is a draft there is no illusion anymore that this is pro-sports. So I can see all the major players wanting to hold off on creating a draft indefinitely. That way they can at least continue to pretend this is still college ball. Right now I'm also feeling like the whole recruiting industry is part of the problem. However, there is no changing that either. How many of us get emotionally caught up and involved by decisions that high schoolers make?

This is a great question and one I don't think anyone has an answer for at this time. The transfer portal is already a disaster for student athletes as most who enter never find a new home and scholarship and that alone can be the end of their college careers.

I'm glad this rule change is predicted bit to go through. It would have sent NIL into another level of insanity. It would have also needed to come with rules of being able to sign more than 25 scholarship players a year if there have been too many transfers out of a program. Otherwise some programs might not be able to field a team. In some cases already this is becoming a problem.

1 San Diego State 2 University of Las Vegas 3 Oklahoma State 4 Texas Tech 5 Utah State or Colorado State - one that hasn't been mentioned but I think could work. I left Boise State off the list because they don't meet the academic requirements side of things and Idaho isn't exactly a worth while expansion.

From the sound of it, Oregon is really focused on a quality class over a quantity class. NIL is making it brutal to lock down a whole lot of blue chippers because it doesn't really matter how good of a recruiter you are when someone can swoop in with a big bag of money and change everything. But the other factor that makes this perhaps slightly less annoying is that there is always the transfer portal. So saving some scholarships for transfers is incredibly valuable and the only way that works is if you don't fill up the entire class as it is. So if we lose our on our recruiting class ranking due to a numbers issue I can live with that. The transfer portal is going to be the place to go shopping for the talent to fill those gaps in the roster right away. So far I am very pleased with how this coaching staff has managed to get talent from the portal.

I believe the B1G is also planning on doing away with divisions as the deciding factor as to who makes the conference championship game. As it stands the B1G west would be favorable to USC but if it's just the top two teams in the conference then they'll have to ensure they are better than Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Penn State. Or at least better than all but one of those. As it stands right now I think USC and Nebraska are on a relatively equal playing field. Nebraska is better than their record from last year. Then throw in all of that travel exhaustion and having to play half their conference games in some chilly conditions. Sure they play at Notre Dame every other year as it stands but that's just one game. Even the pros say that travel is the hardest part of the sport. And that's professionals who do it as their only job. Until things change, student athletes still have to be students at least part of the time to be able to compete.

The Bay Area sounds like a fantastic media market. Except it's all about pro-sports. They have the 49ers and the Warriors ... There are still Raiders fans there as well. And just a bit farther out you have the Sacramento Kings. You look at the stadiums for both Cal and Stanford and they are quiet and never really look full. If there are that many open seats for a live game then imagine how much fan passion there is for those teams via TV viewing numbers. Stanford makes more sense than Cal for NDs sake. But even though Oregon's media market isn't as good as the Bay Area, Oregon eclipses both in terms of national branding.

Cardwell or Irving ... Whoever really gets the start and the touches. I feel for receivers though it may be Cota. He showed in the spring game he had some Jeff Mael like tendencies that enabled him to get open or even just make the catch in traffic. Mael found a way to get the ball... I feel Cota has that ability and if it comes out then he is going to be the go to target for the QB... Especially in the red zone. McGee is going to be fun and electrifying to watch. Franklin and Thornton are going to have their moment and like McGee I feel all three can be home run hitters. But for receivers... I feel Cota is going to just make things happen when they NEED to happen.

I do think they'll regret their decision.... Or at least those who actually have to travel... Namely the athletes and coaches. I also can see the fan base being pretty unhappy with it in the long run. Short run the USC fans will lord it over us and say Oregon is dead and laugh at us. But we'll see how happy they are when they are irrelevant in the B1G.

As a fan base we really need another win. Feels like we keep losing out these days. Turns out relationship building is too old school for the NIL era.

Kelly's time at Oregon is an anomaly! He caught lightning in a bottle with this scheme and style of play. It attracted big time recruits like DAT. After he left recruiting slid a little bit on average as Oregon cooled for recruits as what they were doing wasn't as unique any more. A Defense of Helfrich's Recruiting Legacy FISHDUCK.COM Mark Helfrich is generally considered the worst recruiter in modern Oregon football history. He is a coach who... Simply put ... The Kelly years were better than the Helfrich years but not by much and neither were outside the norm when you look at the Bellotti years.

I think the big reason for the comparison is that Connerly may not start as a freshman where Sewell did. And that is just fine. Give him some time to develop and see the field but if he isn't needed for every down that is just fine too. Next year he will need to be a big part of the offensive line as we will yet again be losing 5 starters at the end of this season.

And if this happens then NIL for high school recruits will lessen. Why spend multi millions on a player who might not succeed at the college level?

Dicky knows where wide receivers what happens in a Cristobal offense. All block, no rock

Dicky was on record saying he wasn't interested in Oregon when MC was here because the offense was so anti-receiver. Amazing what NIL does to change people's minds.

The biggest game changer in recruiting (outside of NIL) will be if conferences share the revenue and pay their players. This wouldn't be revenue sharing across the board but linked to the conference you're in. So being in a conference that doesn't payout as big will kill recruiting entirely. Though at that point the notion of college sports is dead.

I'll be honest I have felt some of the dread. I mean it's no real secret that Oregon has lost recruits due to NIL. It is also no real secret that many recruits are opting for the biggest pay day over where they would actually like to go or be with those they would actually like to be coached by. If the goal is still the NFL for these players then Oregon needs to show they get players to the NFL. Right now the big thing I'm looking for that will start to reshape now NIL works, at least on the high school recruit end, is how many of these big money players are busts. Either in not making the leap needed to the clege game or just not putting forward the work ethic needed to earn themselves a starting job. After all ... If you were given a contract worth millions that could potentially set you up for life how motivated would you be? Considering you were of course an 18 year old kid just out of high school with potentially a massive ego because you were just given millions of dollars because you are good at a sport at the high school level. If there are lots of busts then maybe NIL starts to cool a little bit. Donars don't want to see some three star out work and beat out their multi million five star.

True... But it wouldn't have taken much for his comments to basically say... "We'd welcome both schools back with open arms" or something of that nature. It just feels like there is a lot of bad blood sort USC.

Anyone else feel it is telling how GK said he'd and the rest of the PAC would welcome UCLA back with open arms but that comment didn't seem to stretch to USC? Oregon and USC have had a vigorous rivalry as of late. New power vs old blood sort of thing and both fan bases would love nothing more than to cripple the other. Now it really does feel like as Oregon we are the good guys. I know I'm rooting for everyone who plays the Trojans this year. On the one hand I'd love Oregon to get the chance to smash USC in the championship game but I think I'd rather them have such a miserable season that they don't even reach the championship game.

Alabama is stacked with talent... There's always next year if we need a runningback thanks to the transfer portal. Nothing is over now... Even after enrollment.

Yeah.... This year I'm going to just read and watch the Duck stuff later. I don't need to hear about how great USC is going to be especially when they are traitors to the conference.

I was half expecting to see USC at the top of that list... Because HYPE! After all we all know USC will win the national championship this year. The media has dubbed it so.

The pac has a better media market even without the LA schools than the Big-12 does minus Oklahoma and Texas. Right now the Big-12 has the edge in media dollars but from what I have seen is that those projections should shift more towards the PAC. The problem is the runaway super leagues of the B1G and the SEC that are eating up all the media dollars.