David Marsh

Just like the Big 12 before Texas and Oklahoma left, the ACC is only two (maybe three) teams from being a cinferyif left overs. The Big 12 has embraced their conference of left overs branding and has literally expanded it. OSU and WSU both would prefer to join a P4 over a rebuild. Even they know a rebuild won't help them in the long run.

I'm not sure this is "shade" but Oregon's NIL is perhaps the best in the country. Smart gets the Smart discount where he can get players with lower NIL because he has two national championships and can sell players on that. Saban and Bama had the Saban discount. Right now I think DeBoer is getting some benefit of the doubt right now. It'll be interesting to see how that holds.

Going to be honest... That helmet and the 2013-14 helmets were peak design. The newer wings aren't quite as good in my opinion... The ones from 2012-2014 seem to be painted or at least have a smoother design. The more recent ones are nice but the wings look more like a sticker than they did back then. I think it is impart the overall cost. Shinny helmets are expensive I'm sure.

But our current schedule design is to play 1 FCS, 1 G5 and 1 P4. Scheduling is getting a reshuffling for lots of reasons and I see the Beavers slotting into that G5 slot in the long run. We're going to have better andote frequent marquis matchups due to the playoff and B1G by default. Thinking of those big OOC games over the past years. Michigan State, Ohio State, Auburn are the big ones that come to mind. Two are conference opponents now.

These games are a critical part of the larger college football financial eco system. They just shouldn't count towards bowl eligiblity. The SEC would look significantly less impressive if you remove the at times two freebe wins against FCS opponents every year. With that said... Most barely bowl eligible teams looks less impressive record wise when you remove the FCS wins. Personally.... I think these games should be played, FCS athletics need them, but they should be played as Spring Games. It’s Time for a Real Spring Game | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM The Spring Game is just a glorified scrimmage. It’s something all fans know, but we still get excited about...

But what if we keep scheduling OSU and they just never win. Think about it.... With the way these programs are diverging this could be a decades long win streak for the Ducks. Wouldn't if be fun if the Beavers start to see this game as an automatic L every year. Their fans would go crazy and then disillusioned and then resign themselves that they'll just keep scheduling that butt kicking to keep them out of the Big Sky. I think it might be worth the money for that.

Pickett moved his commitment date UP presumably because of the Ducks. And then McNutt set his commitment date two days later. Maybe I'm just sniffing the green and yellow flowers but it smells Ducky to me.

The biggest thing about the expanded playoff, and to a bit of a lesser extent conference realignment, is that scheduling those big OOC match ups during the season are less appealing because there is a greater chance than ever the two teams meet in the playoff. If Oregon were to schedule a home and home with Bama the earliest we'd probably play them is probably 2035ish... We have a good chance of seeing Bama in the playoff before then. As @Jon Josephhasn't done so yet... I'll point it out that making our schedule harder doesn't do us any good, especially when the SEC isn't going to nine conference games anytime soon. I see Oregon keeping the Civil War game around for a while. Then we'll have an FCS opponent, like almost everyone else, until a rule change. When it comes to FCS opponents I tend to like to keep those regional because that money keeps those FCS athletics afloat and I rather see that money go to PSU or EWU than a FCS school is Nebraska or somewhere. Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing Oregon schedule games against historical foes. I wouldn't mind an OOC game against Cal or Stanford or Arizona. There's history there and I'd like to see those games again. I've said it before but I don't have any emotional investment in Oregon v Maryland this season. But I would be far more emotionally invested if we played Cal. As for the civil war game... I think we'll feel a bit differently in a few years about that game. I think it's worth keeping for no other reason than a reduction in travel.

So it seems like they're saying that they aren't just buying players with NIL. But that means ... Lanning is a better recruiter than Sark and Riley? But no... That can't be... That would destroy those fan bases if that were true!

No guarantee of being able to sell those other game seats... You probably could to be honest to break even. But the Oregon game is the only premier game of the season for the Beavers. I wouldn't be surprised to see a good amount of empty seats in Reser outside of the civil war game. But then again I'd have to tune into a beaver game on TV next season to see those empty seats and that's not happening.

Oregon's defense should be even better this year than last year. In terms of playmakers on offense I'd say both teams are even. They have some big time playmakers but so do we. Where I think this comes down to here is quarterback. Both teams have QBs who transfered from the Big 12. Will Howard is their likely starting quarterback. But I think Gabriel is the better quarterback here for the Ducks. I've even heard on a pay site forum recently that the competition at Oregon might be a whole lot closer between Gabriel and Moore than we think! I think Oregon will have the better QB play and that'll be the deciding factor in this game.

There isn't enough content for a media day... A media morning maybe. But all the attention is not on the potential of the programs and hyping up the upcoming season but instead on whether they'll be even remotely relevant in the next few months... Let alone years. If the Beavs and Cougs want to survive they'll need to have one make the playoff this year and look like they can compete once there. Only then they may get a shot at joining a conference.

Came across this today. 2025 Industry Football Team Recruiting Rankings WWW.ON3.COM A list of the top 2025 Football teams in order of recruiting rankings solely based off of the On3 Industry Ranking Look at the far right column it has average NIL. I don't know where they get their data from but it's clear that Oregon is certainly competitive but they aren't the top payer. It might change if the Ducks keep landing give stars though.

Also... Look at the 5 stars for Bama! Or lack there of. On other services Bama has five stars. Oregon has five stars on every services... Granted they aren't always the same five stars. It's interesting that Rivals doesn't have a five star in Bama's class.

It's the fact that Cal is in a conference. That's about it in this case.

But using your head requires academic prowess...

You may direct these Beavers to read my lovely article from yesterday! The Reality of NIL in CFB Recruiting Today | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Dan Lanning and Oregon have been on an absolute tear these last few weeks. It has delightfully resulted in... Oregon has NIL absolutely paying to get them in the recruitment game. But winning a recruit hasn't changed. It's all relationships and Lanning has the personality for it.

Anyone see that McNutt (one of the top safeties in the country) schedule a commitment date to July 19th. Two days after Pickett (July 17th). It kinda smells like a double five star commitment is coming soon. And with this new commitment... Oregon has momentum!!!!

Gotta pay to play. And being stuck in the Big 12 certainly doesn't help matters. Even if their collective had the money they can't sell being in the B1G or SEC.

But unlike the NFL the biggest problem with NIL in the college game is that it's based almost entirely off fandom. And let's get real as fans we are not reasonable people. We all want our team to win the national championship and if we had the resources to do so we'd all be involved in these high profile NIL collectives. Whereas the in the NFL (and pros in general) players look for the best bidder during free agency. But in the pros with NIL that is attached to players for promotional reasons. Patrick Mahomes could be with ANY team in the NFL and State Farm would employ his NIL for their ads. There is a market for the best players to pursue NIL and it's separate from the organization they're with. For college the NIL game usually has little work involved outside of play for a given school. NIL is connected to teams in a way that it just isn't for anything else. @Solarmentioned he didn't agree with my definition of stabilized in the NIL market. The truth is that this is as stable as it gets. The market has smoothed out and mostly calmed down and sure there are those who wish to throw money all over the place and disrupt the market but there cannot be any true regulation on this. Even when paying players direct from the university comes into effect that doesn't stop the NIL dollars from flowing.

This gives some insight into Oregon's NIL. I feel it supports my article quite well which I wrote before I saw this.

A tidbit of info I came across on a pay site several days ago was that it is believed that coaches will cont as ct other coaches to see if the NIL proposals are real. This is to the benefit of both schools because they have some knowledge of what that player is worth and to avoid the player or agent trying to squeeze more out of them. The market has certainly calmed over 2022. TAMU and their collective learned that you can't buy a class and buy a championship. Tennessee was rumored to get their starting QB for about a million a year out of high school and though he may be great I don't think anyone would say he has lived up to that paycheck yet. I would say that the market has stabilized only because I believe there are a lot fewer instances of players being purely bought. I am sure there are still cases but development and traditional recruiting are still he most important aspects of landing a player.

Tomorrow on FishDuck I have an article about NIL and how Oregon isn't buying players as USC and Longhorn fans are insisting these days. Our NIL is critical to our recruiting success but it is only part of it.

Among other bad calls in that game.

Keep in mind also that the NIL is handled so well that Oregon doesn't lose players we want to keep for the most part. Oregon has one of the best retention rates of top talent in the country as well as a solid NIL program for recruiting.