HappyToBeADuck

Governor Newson is not the kind of leader you would want to embarass or have as an enemy. From all the articles i have read he was blindsided by this move. He is the Chair of the UC Board of Regents. How the (blank) would you feel about this if you were in his high profile position? He makes the decisions he does not have them made for him by others. As i mentioned in other threads this will boil down to money and mitigating Cals financial long term damage.

2002duck, you are probably spot on. Governor Newson and the rest of the Regents can bluster and position all they want. There is a big difference between following protocols and breaking laws and rules. However, when and if lawyers get involved, well anything can happen. So we shall see WashingtonWaddle, you make good sense about other than the money what is the upside for the Trojans? And there is no upside other than the money for ucla. Ucla would fair better by staying in the PAC. Going after SoCal talent that doesnt want to play Purdue, Minnesota etc. Fight it out against usuck for that talent. DUCati855 and willville, you make good cases for let them hang or who gives a ratz azz. Ucla will be a mid level BIG competitor and usuck will compete to make the BIG title game. Being in the West BIG means Iowa and Wisconsin will have their say on the field. But you still hsve to go thru the juggernaut that is tOSU Michigan, MSU and Penn State. ( Those a compelling reasons for ND to compete in the ACC) Drake, you sum it up best. Changes are going to happen and anything can happen. And our Ducks need to make good choices moving forward. GO DUCKS.........the world is truly far and wide. Chart the best course for your journey.

This creates an interesting but concerning situation for the remaining PAC members. Experience tells me that there will be strong voices in the room that want CAL to not be left behind. Especially on those $100 million annual pay days. Why should your sister store play the same game and make twice as much money? Inadvertantly the Regents could create a situation or float the idea of both schools in the BIG or no UC schools to the BIG. If it boils down to just USC moving then the BIG needs another west coast school. Could that be Stanford? Bay area is a large metro area. Could it be Oregon, Washington? Who knows....... What if the BIG just makes it easier and invites the 4 California schools. No Regents problem and massive metro areas. OUCH FOR THE PAC... The Regents are going to use their so called litigation to get CAL a share of the pie. Sad part is USC doesnt give 2 ....s about any the PAC members including the Bruins.

Joshua you are so correct that the out come of just one game can and most likely will set the teams trajectory for the season. in my opinion the most important game of the 2022 season is the game you are currently playing. Nothing else matters. I am not for moral victories but a solid showing against Georgia will not derail a CFP appearance or shot at the Natty. Just win that game is all that matters. A loss against Georgia means every game and opponent remaining on the Ducks schedule is the most important. A second loss and the CFP is most likely gone. Every conference game and opponent is the most important if your goal is the conference championship and Rose Bowl. With the talent on this team and hopefully great in game coaching there is no excuse for any conference loss barring injuries. 10-2 and the Alamo bowl should be the basement for this squad. Disappointing but the basement of expectations. Gonna be fun to watch. GO DUCKS...........

I would rather stay at 10 teams in the PAC than move to the BIG..... The only BIG games i prefer for the Duck are OOC or Rose Bowl. However, the money would be difficult to ignore. Looking down the road and say a Rose Bowl victory, CFP appearance or a Natty what do you think it will take to pay Coach Lanning. BIG type dollars. Would hate to get outbid by Vanderbilt, Kenrucky, Purdue, Minnesota, etc for Coach Lanning. But alas, wherever, whenever or however i will watch Duck football GO DUCKS.....lets make the smart choices for OBD's future.

This type of recruiting is exciting. It wasnt that long ago that the Ducks were hoping to get recruits insise the espn 300. Now we are actively recruiting top 100 players. I agree with Charles that its important to load the class with 4 and 5 stars. Ones that fit your schemes and are teachable. But those 5 stars are sure enticing.

DazeNconfused, thanks for taking the time to put this article together. I really appreciate all the efforts of the fish duck forum writers. This is a great topic to discuss. This is the point where the rubber meets the road for the entire coaching staff. We all recognize that this staff can recruit top talent. However, the question is can they develope these highly talented players? And QB is at the top of the list I agree with you that this is OBD 's strongest QB room ever. Nix should be ready to roll and prove his leadership in the Georgia game. TT and JB, with proper player developement have no excuse to not step up, also. If the Ducks want 5 star talent on campus then show they can develope the 5 stars they have on campus now. GO DUCKS.......

This is such a breath of fresh air in the grand scope of whats going on. Congrats to Coach Lanning and staff for working tireless to get Dante's verbal No 1 or No 2 ranking doesnt matter. This is a positive addition to the 23 class. Lets add a few more. GO DUCKS..........

Washington Waddler, IMHO fox and espn may very well be manipulating the outcome they want. Those networks claim its about eyeballs. Its the eyeballs that they personally want, nothing more. Fox and espn both had the LA Metroplex already locked up thru the PAC. At way less money than Fox will be paying the BIG. Let that settle in for a moment...... Destroy the PAC and the BIG12 and you eliminate a high priced bidding war with other networks. Pay 4 schools big money to move to greedy conferences for bigger paydays to create what you want. You get ut, ou, usuc and uclasuc to switch to conferences that they have nothing in common with for bigger paydays. Taking the biggest names out of 2 conferences and then paying less for the scrap heaps left behind. Destroying the big game rivalries in the process. Wait, i was wrong. espn stills has the red river rivalry. Just in the conference they want. This way they now get ut/bama, ut/georgia, ou/florida. Big time, prime time conference games. I resign to the fact that this is simply business. fox gets usuc/tosu, usuc/penn state and honestly uclasuc doesnt bring .....to anything. Playing Oregon, WA and Utah yes. Purdue, Rutgers, Maryland, not really. So its simply preferred eyeballs. Eyeballs with primetime matchups. So where do the PAC and BIG go from here. For what its worth lets look at the numbers and see if we can create numbers. OBDF members you can decide if their are primetime match ups. And no school gets left behind. Not one single school gets left out The LA metroplex is #2 and has 13,214,799 people. Thats a big number. So lets replace those numbers. Heres what could happen potentially with expansion/mergers. #4 - Dallas/Fort Worth 7,573,136 SMU, Baylor, TCU #5 - Houston/Woodlands Sugarland Houston (7,066,141) If you combine #35 (1,990,660) San Jose/Sunnyvale/Santa Clara with #12 (4,732,803) you have #6 metroplex (Stanford, Cal, San Jose State #17 - San Diego/Chula Vista/Carlsbad (3,238,330) Did you know the fastesr growing California Metro Plex is the Central Valley (7,200,000) Buts lets just stick with the San Joquim Valley (3,693,698) Fresno State The remaining PAC members have the following metroplex positions and numbers #10 Phoenix (4,948,203) #12 San Fran/Oakland/Berkeley (4,731,803) #15 Seattle/Tacoma (3,979,845) #19 Denver/Lakewood (2,967,239) #25 Portland/Vancouver (2,492,412) #47 Salt Lake City (1,265,108) Those metroplexes total 40,253,477 people. This number does not include any schools not listed or the expansion schools coming to the BIG 12. Think Ohio and Florida.That number approaches 50 million people or more..... All the current and future conference members matter, just not to fox/espn. espn and fox is it the numbers of eyeballs or the specific number of eyeballs you want in order to control primetime matchups? PAC and BIG 12 put any petty differences aside and create your own monster. Merge and create one conference with 2 divisions. Play your own Championship game in Las Vegas or Dallas. Then play a championship game with the ACC. That will generate a media bid for that game. Think money.......Then send 2 or 3 teams to CFP. Think more money. Dont let espn dictate to you and take pitty money. PAC, BIG 12 and ACC put your hurt feeling, bruised egos and differences aside. Fight back. Merge in some fashion so you can all get out of exit fees. Create 2 conferences with 4 divisions. Make the networks pay. They dont really want Clemson/Oregon, FSU/Utah, ASU/UNC. Unless they get u cheap. As you lay your head on your cushy presidents pillow tonight realize that fox and espn devalued you to a have not situation. They want you on the cheap. Those POS networks want a Texas/Missouri game in Dallas to have more value than Oregon/Baylor or Utah/Houston game. Think about it. SEC/BIG declared war and espn/fox are funding this war. Fight back. Create and innovate to establish what cant be ignored. Sorry again for this rant. But numbers dont lie. Just fox and espn lie about what numbers matter. Recognize your value in numbers.

Axel you rock. Plain and simple you rock The networks will spin whatever gets clicks. Clicks, clicks and more clicks. I wish CBS and NBC would step up and pay big money and sign media rights for some sort of 2 mega conferences from amongst AAC ACC MWC BIG12 PAC 10 Mid America Sun Belt Once ND, Clemson, FSU, Oregon and Washington are gone to BIG and SEC then fox and espn control college football. You will pay dearly to buy the rights from them to show a marquee game. Lets get it over with. Competition drives the market. fox and espn/abc will shut the others out if possible Just sayin. The writings on the wall.

NJDuck thanks for posting the JC Mailbag article. Appreciate all the OBD Forum team members for digging out and sharing these articles. I have read the article a few times and cant seem to get past the Q & A about possible PAC expansion. This is going to be a personal rant so feel free to ignore this. I just need to get this off my chest. Media partners want teams that bring viewership. Boast alot of TV's and they are interested and willing to pay. Based on that criteria then inviting Baylor, TCU, SMU, Houston and SDSU are no brainers. Dallas, Houston and San Diego more than replace the loss of 5.5 million TV sets in SoCal. But is that the true criteria? Is Fox just interested in the LA consumer? Are LA consumers preferable to Texas consumers? Or are they just out for revenge against espn for infringing on their media rights with the BIG 12? Or both? Do these networks even care about the schools, the athletes, the century old rivalries or any sports beyond football and BB? Do they care that they have caused irreperable damage to 2 Power 5 conferences?. Leaving or forcing 20 plus schools to take the deals they offer for less money.... Wonder when the lawyers start popping up. Obviously this is just my rant on a slow day and i apologize. But I am bothered that potentially Texas Tech, OK State, K State, Kansas, Iowa State, Wash. State, Oregon State and others get kicked to the curb. Simply because they lack sufficient TV sets. That' BS........ 4 schools, 2 networks and 2 networks actively working to hurt others. Forcing rivalries to abandon decades old contests. Destroying the goose that laid the golden egg. You fall in the POS category from my POV...... The have nots helped forge the mega profit center that is college football. There would be no haves without those have nots. For espn to vacate or devalue, on purpose, these schools that they profited from for almost 4 decades is inexcusable. Inexcusable...... These have nots helped you to be what you have become. What a way to treat your partners...... the world wide leader of sports as long as you make me a profit. How much money did ESPN make when game day came to Pullman to cover a have not (WSU ) take on and defeat the juggernaut that is Oregon? And Fox you were a fledgling in college regional sports. The PAC provided quality regional games as did the BIG 12. Where is your loyalty? Sorry OBDF....the more i see and read these articles and see the angst and hurt spreading across this great country, well it all boils down to just a few culprits. 2 conferences 2 networks 4 teams

As in most lists it is all subjective. Without knowing all the writers criteria for his/her final decisions yhen my opinion is thus, subjective. I like LR. He did a great job at OU. He took over the helm of an established powerhouse and did not disappoint. IMHO, OU was and is not the dumpster fire that is uscsuc. His leadership and organizational skills will be challenged. He, like Coach Lanning, has recruited at a high level and utilized the transfer portal very well. The PAC is a wussy conference on the football field of battle. So we shall see which coach steps up. Only one team stands in the way of a NY6 bowl game. That team would be Utah. Thus my vote for top Coach in the PAC would be KW. He gets more out of less and earned his props. Top recognition is earned by results on the field. Not by a coronation aka Colin Cowherd style. Neither Utah or Oregon have an excuse for not making the CFP. Losses to Georgia or Florida will not derail either team. Take care of all the PAC teams and settle it on the field. The winner of both matchups will be off to the CFP. The other a NY6 bowl. And yes you can trust that uscsuc and uclasuc will cash their checks from those games.

mrspenney, good take on the situation. In the long run what FOX and ESPN are doing is culling the herd. What they fail to recognize are the century old regional rivalries that have been part of footballs popularity. I will not be watching any uclasuc or uscsuc under any circumstances once they slither to the BIG...... Not interested in UCLA/Purdue or Usc/Maryland. Those are not rivalries. Those BIG matchups are not interesting. The BIG is not interesting. It's tOSU and everybody else. Last year was an outlier. HEC, the Rose Bowl is PAC champ against BIG runnerup. Probably SoCal fans will watch buy how many. Time will only tell. For certain their will be casualties along the way. Non revenue sports may very well turn into club sports. I believe that GK will do his best and the PAC 10 will move forward together.

The 12( 10 ) pac presidents are administrators not business innovators or leaders. They get appointed to take over what has already been built. They have 3 main functions, IMHO: Dont mess up the status quo..... Keep the alumni happy so donations and endowment funds continue to flow. Minimize scandals that tarnish the schools image. The certainly have more to do than that but i am in a gnarly mood over their poor decision making. Ovet the years they either received bad advice or ignored good advice. Same difference. The 12 schools would not hsve given up control with a 15% equity share. They may have even received some good advice/direction from their new partners. However an equity deal is not a television deal. The 2 are not one in the same. Probably a wise move to decline or at best minimize the ROI to the equity firm based on growth numbers. (My customers only pay me a % of the growth over an established baseline). The money would have needed to be invested wisely to grow the brand to increase the revenue streams. Each school would be receiving 15% less unless revenue increases were above 15%. I dont see how the 12 clowns could mske that happrn. However they did turn down TV partnerships with the networks. They forged ahead into something they lacked the experience to succeed in. The PAC failed miserably with their control of the PAC 12 Neywotk. Rather than partner with a proven neywork. WTH........ It appears from the article that the 2 traitor schools were against the equity stake. Maybe that was good, maybe it wasnt. I just wonder how long they were out to hurt the other 10 members. Since 2006, usuc and uclasuc have absolutely under performed in conference and on a national stage. These 2 schools dont even have an on campus stadium. If they cant even invest in themselves why would we expect them to be emotionally or monetarily invested in the PAC. They both cashed their equity share of the cash the DUCKS generated for the conference. Didnt they? Well past is past. Time to move forward. Let's hope better choices are on the horizon. One piece of advice, dont vacate the so cal and central california TV markets. Still millions of TV's to go get in Cali. The PAC'S greatest asset is the after 7 pm est TV viewing on Saturday night. Give the networks what they need and the money will follow. Not SEC/BIG money but good money. Add a few pieces and go get the table scraps that ESPN and ACC are offering. GO DUCKS......

Yes Duck 1972 and 1ducker1 are right on. Winning draws fans and gets TV sets turned on. Regardless of how we all move forward all schools need to invest time and money into winning. Start competing against our DUCKS and stop just collecting checks. The PAC can stay together and thrive. Just around the $30-$40 million dollar range. Not the $70-$100 million range. GEEZ that just looks bad.

Honest, trusting and up front people always need to be leery of the snakes and vipers. Every indication from AD's and the media was that GK was working his tail off for the conference. ALL of the conference members . George had no way to tell that a handshake agreement with the BIG and ACC meant nothing to the BIG. George had no idea that behind the phony, fake smiles, pats on the back and attaboys from usc/ucla were a set of 2 faced liars. Trust is everything, trust is everything. . . I/we wish GK the greatest amount of success in moving the PAC 10 forward. No matter what course of action is takin... I might remind AZ/ASU where their roots are from before they snub BSU, FSU and SDSU..... As for the traitors. Neither usuc or uclasuc have even held their own in the PAC for along time. The BIG is a gauntlet that just may chew you up. But no hard feelings. What goes around comes around. GO DUCKS......... What ever the outcome or landing spot between PAC, BIG 12 or ACC, Oregon is the prize. Only Clemson is our equal or better in the overall picture as a national brand. Those 2 schools should be talking and leading the way. Sorry that was very arrogant and brash. Boy i have learned alot from the PAC Presidents.

It has certainly been a roller coaster of a ride for all of us. It's one thing to take a 5☆ recruit from ND, LSU, TA&M or Michigan. Thats Top 15 recruiting When and if Young committs to Oregon that would be at the top level. The top top level. Pulling a recruit from Alabama or Georgia is and would be outstanding. Thats what it takes to pull a top 5 class. Along with top dollar NIL money.

This is great news. Hopefully the first of a few more 5☆ players committing to Oregon. I know its along way to LOI day but well done Coach Lanning and staff. Will be interesting to see how many 5☆ and high 4☆ Usuc committs really want to play in the midwest. Or the massive amount of 3☆ players that committ to ucla Gonna be wild ride. GO DUCKS ........

Thanks for your input sad Big12 fan. So glad that this Forum allows us to share our thoughts and feelings. I like your alignment proposal but feel sad that rivals would get left behind. Many on this forum feel that way, too. While others want to move forward with new visions Probably no right or wrong proposals at this point. One thing is certain and you can take this to the bank. The PAC 10 braintrust will make the worst decision possible for its members and your members, if possible. What they lack in vision they make up in arrogance. When you are circling the drain our presidents would rather drink drano or caustic soda. Heres hoping both conferences land in a better place......... Keep sharing your thoughts, feelings and opinions......

Dont know if it will be a conference game but looking forward to the matchup. West Texas fans are crazy good andclove their Red Raiders. sad Big12 fan, what are your thoughts about TT and San Diego State being part of a revised PAC 12? No rumors or any false conjecture, just wondering. Anything and everything is on the table at this point.

This could be a positive sign for Ducks fans. Of course a coach should be excited and supportive of any possible recruit. Couple this with the O around the SC (Sportcenter Logo) in the twitter announcement and my hopes are high. I would cross my fingers but this old gray beards arthritis wont allow it. GO DUCKS.......lets land this 5 star

Jester its the first time i have heard, read or even seen a mention that 6 is the magic number for the ACC. My advise is to take a day or 2 off from the madness we cannot control or have a say in. Kick back tonight and tomorrow night, have plenty of your favorite brew and watch the replays of some of your favorite Duck games Take solace that the Ducks, no matter where they land or stay, will be kicking butt on the gridiron and courts for years to come. GO DUCKS..........

At this point, its safe to believe everything is on the table. From the big dogs down (ND, Clemson, Oregon) to the last conference member. Even the fuskies....... These type of deals take time and the best negotiators keep their mouths shut. None of these so called reports/sources had an inkling of the Texas/OU or usc/ucla moves. Moves that shook the foundation of college sports. They didnt have an inkling. Why would they have any insider info now? However, if you can take the head spinning, these reports are fun to ponder. And this is the place to safely ponder and discuss.

David, yes Oregons brand definitely stretches beyond its footprint. It is, as you mention "National". ESPN, FOX and all others, i believe, recognize this. They just don't want to pay for. Get it on the cheap........ If strength comes in numbers, well Oregon simply has no one to bring with them. Washington is not a glamour name anymore. Since Don James retired they have made just one good coaching hire. And what have the other PAC members done to improve their product? Other than late night Saturday games what does the PAC offer the networks? Just games.... Oregon cant go it alone and deal from a position of strength. Even with Phil and Penny. Ask yourselves would you invest in the PAC brand? Hec it was weak even with usc and ucla. Going to take some innovation and solid negotiations by the PAC. They dont hold enough cards. Hec Oregon is their only card.

Great comments and thoughts about Moore. Its refreshing to discuss football and football players amidst all the turmoil. Regardless of where, when, why and how our OBD land well the future is about the players. And what does it take to land a Top 10 recruiting class. Year in and year out. Programs who the Ducks would normally win the recruiting battle with are paying top dollar thru the NIL framework. No 5☆ QB should pick Tennessee over Bama, the real Dawgs, tOSU or Oregon. As long as we have the dollars to pay top recruits then we can get top 10 classes. Coach them up and get to the CFP annually.......... This is something within Oregons control.