David Marsh

ESPN games have been awful the past few years. The production quality has been low and the announcers garbage. Oddly enough I thought the Pac-12 network did a better job with production and commentary for those late night games. Just no one could watch them. I would hope those late night games at least make it onto Fox or FS1. The B1G network has better distribution by far that the PAC but it'd be nice not to be relegated to a conference network.

If they have fixed the defense like I think they have them it shouldn't be bad. What destroyed us regularly last year we're those easy underneath throws. I think Lanning has that fixed with new athletic linebackers, and a better front pass rush. The secondary actually did fairly well last year considering those underneath throws were often linebacker coverage failures and a lack of pass rush meant the secondary had to hold up longer which is always difficult. With that said... I do feel the secondary has improved and solved some of their own problems as well.

As it's four teams in the B1G on the west coast the books won't be as bad as I feel they would have been. However... When Washington asked for more money for travel I think we got a hint at the cost. Washington wanted their layout to be closer to 40 mil to start. Oregon has enough support to weather the storm... But we'll have to track the revenue numbers I think.

Key quote here. "And this was something that the board and our key stakeholders encouraged." Those stakeholders... Was one of them Fox???

I find myself that so much of my daily life is wrapped up in Ducks football (for good or ill) and if I was to stop following it I don't know what I would do instead. I would say read more... but I do a whole lot of reading via Ducks news... I guess I could read more other stuff... but I read a lot of non-fiction and do a lot of research for my job so I don't feel like I need to do more of that either. I am hoping that things may snap back to some semblance of what we all love but I doubt that is going to be quick. I actually think it could take a decade or two for people to fully realize what they have lost. I don't have an NFL team or any interest in the NFL (I root for my pro Ducks but I don't follow their teams all that closely). I don't have a NBA team... though I was once a Blazer's fan (when I was in middle school) but now I don't care, their season is too long and the playoff is way to drawn out. I have a connection to Oregon as an alum and that gives this more meaning to me, but so much of that is also steeped in the Civil War and that relationship with Oregon State. I recently drove though Corvallis and had a strange urge to want to paint everything green and yellow. So losing those sort of things will hurt. The Rose Bowl's importance is all but gone and replaced with the playoff which I will probably rant about in a future article. So much is gone... but sadly I don't know what we replace it with besides nothing. Well, maybe FCS football, that is looking more and more like what college football used to be... or at least it looks a whole lot more to the product it has always been. But yet again... I don't have a connection to Portland State (my local FCS team)... so it's the same problem I have with the NFL.

The hype machine is in full effect around USC. They have Riley and a Heisman quarterback. It's been trendy for some time to pick the Ducks low. But... We'll see Trojan, Ute, Husky and Beaver tears very soon.

Surprised ESPN walked away after their one bid in honesty. The pac-12 representatives over playing their hand by countering with 50 doesn't surprise me... But basically ESPN did to the PAC-12 what Knight did to Cristobal. One bid... Take it or leave it... And the walks away. There was no bidding war that I believe was anticipated.

Oh I think they are a mess... But they did try something new which is far more than what can be said about pretty much every other B1G program.

I'd say Maryland is the flashiest brand in the B1G (apart from the new comers) and they don't have anything on Oregon either in the uniform game or on the field. Oregon has disrupted college football as a rising football power and in the uniform game. The B1G is full of a whole lot of boring and traditional uniforms... Oregon isn't that.

Conference champions will get an auto bid .. but most will still fit the criteria I posted. And just because there is a conference champion doesn't guarantee them a good seeding. They just get to get seeded.

They won't. The formula is pretty straightforward and has been in place since the BCS era. 1. Undeafed + Power Conference 2. One loss + Power Conference + Conference Champion 3. One loss + Power Conference + blue blood 4. Group of Five undefeated + conference champion + major quality wins + multiple years proving this = in (only happened once and that required a covid season) 4. 2 loss power conference champion 5. 2 loss power conference with quality wins and ideally a blue blood. I don't see the formula changing. I probably forgot something in my formula there.

But... Oregon State has played Portland State... They have also lost to Eastern Washington. No real need for me to mention that second one ... But Vernon Adams did a number on them and I just wanted to mention it.

Well with a 10 game schedule.. absolutely no road games. Granted I wouldn't count Oregon state a road game. That's one of the few games played that an away game is a bus trip. With 3 ooc games (9 game conference schedule) I say one away game to say Cal, Stanford, or WSU would be fine.

Hey... I wrote an article about that. Now I think it has a whole lot of flaws to it looking back a year but my dream is we see something good come from this slog... But I'm not feeling too hopeful at the moment. The Eventual College Football Renaissance FISHDUCK.COM The Great College Football Schism is Coming, and it will leave College Football divided between the...

Yes... I gave the summary of the really interesting bits though. So hopefully that gives you a little something.

Today in Canzano's article there were some very interesting tidbits about the whole process. I know many just dislike Canzano but he did go over how the media deal was managed, and just how badly managed it all was that doesn't come as a shocker to anyone. The short version is that there was a group out together to get a deal and they did actually get a 30 mil deal out of ESPN but didn't take it last fall because they thought they could do better. After that ESPN became unhelpful. There was poor communication from this group to anyone. Canzano's sources were always those on the university side of things and they were told a whole lot of misinformation from the sound of it and they admit that now. Also it looks like Fox was pretty much disrupting the whole process. So I feel pretty good about my article which is built on public information and the public narrative as I don't have any inside sources. Plenty of mismanagement on the pac-12 side of things but after one offer, that they should have taken, the two biggest companies in this whole process had no interest in keeping the conference around. If you can access the Canzano article it is an interesting read as to some of the behind the scenes chaos. Canzano: 'The gun was empty': The downfall of the Pac-12 Conference WWW.JOHNCANZANO.COM A tale of hubris and hollow promises.

No one is happy about the conference realignment... Except Fox and ESPN.

It does kinda feel like Fox may be overpaying those LA schools by this logic. Are they worth paying 60 mil? Are they going to add that much value? Oregon and Washington will gather a good amount of eyeballs and only have a half share.

I wouldn't be surprised at all. I just no I don't have any corporate association which other pundits do have. No one from the Fox or ESPN spheres are going to say either had a hand in killing a conference. On3 I don't think is tied to either though. 247 is tied to CBS/Paramount.

Yep! But ESPN did have some money for the Big 12 as the Big 12 has a contract with both media companies. Just like the pac-12 does for another year. This all smells fishy... And this is just from the outside. I have no insider knowledge.

I mean as long as it doesn't hurt playoff chances it should be done. After all perhaps the biggest lesson learned from the mess of a 2020 season was that we really didn't miss the cupcake games. Does College Football Need Its Cupcakes? FISHDUCK.COM In any normal year, College Football is filled with early games against FCS schools that typically culminate with...

When it comes to figuring some of this conference realignment stuff, FishDuck is a whole lot faster. This article was posted today on On3 and as I read it I was reminded of my own FishDuck articles! Here is the On3 article As realignment wheels spin, do TV networks pull the strings? - On3 WWW.ON3.COM Questions surrounding the perceived outsize influence of TV networks in realignment moves grew louder as... But when it comes to to recognizing that Fox and ESPN are the overlords of college football I had them beat by over a year! The New Overlords of College Football FISHDUCK.COM This will come as no surprise to any of you, but the NCAA is dead. It ceded away its power to the major... And just this week I broke down how Fox and ESPN dismantled the Pac-12. How Fox and ESPN Dismantled the Pac-12 FISHDUCK.COM FOX and Disney/ESPN control virtually all of college sports. The Pac-12 has failed to make a deal with either of... So my FishDuck friends... I'd just like to point out that we are all talking about these topics long before other parts of the media. And though I feel like I am shamelessly promoting myself, I would also like to say it is because of the fantastic conversations we have here that often give me inspiration for the articles I write. So thank you all for the wonderful conversations.

Probably thinking about a decent payout from the Ducks to make it possible. The Beavers are going to need the money.

There will potentially be some openings and some reshuffling of schedules. Oregon doesn't have OOC matchups with B1G opponents anymore... And if the Beavers land in or with the MW those matchups open up. It will probably take a few years though. It'd be nice to have the beavers at the end of the season to at least preserve that tradition. It also wouldn't hurt us if we are going to a conference championship game to have the beavers at the end of the year.

I don't think Fox sat back for a second. I think they were actively encouraging the Big 12 to go after the Pac-12. They had a pillaging clause in their media deal!