Charles Fischer

Mullens said he wants each year to have a strong Power-5 opponent, (Texas Tech is ranked and will be tough at home) a middling Power-5 teams such as Hawaii, Fresno State, Wyoming, etc., and a FCS opponent such as Portland State, Eastern Washington, Southern Utah, etc. As Jon wrote--Mullens said it is hard to get great team to come to Autzen. “It’s louder than any place I’ve ever been, and that includes The Swamp at Florida, The Shoe in Columbus, and Death Valley at Louisiana State. Autzen Stadium is where great teams go to die.” J. Brady McCullough, The Michigan Daily

Amen David. You can build a big brand, a National Championship team in a so-so conference as Clemson did years ago when the rest of the ACC was weak. If Lanning continues to succeed and create the buzz he is--the conference we are in will not matter. And if we can get half of all the revenue from post-season bowls? We might end up making more staying the Pac-12! Hey recruits...forget the conference and look at the team you would be playing for!

Yep.

Unknown, as I could not find anything either. He could be a "silent" commit for either 2024 or 2025, but this whole thing would not be surprising, as it is Texas A&M and the SEC...

That makes both of us!

Boy the West Coast was hosed! No Arizona State, no USC, UCLA...only five Pac-12 teams made it? The State of Oregon did well, but we all got hosed. UC Irvine went 8-1 versus the Pac-12 and was left out? EVERYBODY on the show admitted that the major metric used...the RPI, is highly flawed and needs to be changed as NCAA Basketball did with the new NET rankings. All-Time Hit Leader Tanner Smith returned for his senior season and deserved better...

It is not as bad as going to No. 2 Florida, as most projections had us at. But why not in a regional of the No. 10-11-12, etc.? Because of no respect for our conference; eight SEC teams host and only ONE West Coast team hosts? Our first opponent, Xavier, is a team Oregon played at the beginning of the season and swept them four games at PK Park...

I am very impressed with all the time and thought you put into this, but IMHO....and I've talked to some Notre Dame fans...I do believe they will stay independent and not link up with a conference for more games than what they do with the current ACC. They make great money now, and it will be bigger, but they also do not want to be locked into decisions they don't agree with. (This is what I was told from a philosophical and religious standpoint) It would be great if they went along--but I believe it is low probability.

How did Oregon operate on the football field during WWII? I thought it would be interesting to look at that on Memorial Day, and fortunately we have a FishDuck article to turn to. Long-time history writer for FishDuck, Jim Maloney passed away in the last year, but he left us a ton of great historical articles in this section of the History of Oregon Football, in the massive Oregon Football Repository for us all to learn from. This article shares some information about Our Beloved WWII Ducks that I did not know, and I offer my gratitude to Jim again for what he gave in time/research at no charge to this site over many years. The Fighting Ducks Came Marching Home FISHDUCK.COM www.ohsu.edu Oregon's 1942 football season had turned out to be a major disappointment, finishing 2-6 with a roster that had managed to beat the eventual Rose…

I saw this play in the game and wondered about diving further into it--but you have! The old offensive-lineman in me was critical of how the downfield blocking could have been better; they effectively made only one block, but the play went well. Thanks Coach!

Oregon State is ranked 10th and NOT one of the 16 host sites? They got hosed—bad. No respect for their program or the conference.

Pac-12: Stanford, Utah and Washington (3) Big-12: Oklahoma and Oklahoma State (2) SEC: Tennessee and Alabama (2) ACC: Florida State (1) Conference of Champions

I thought in one of the many interviews coach was made reference to a nerve issue in Stoffel’s finger.

Austin Anderson, one of the relief pitchers is from Roseburg! The catcher who made the alternative team, Bennett Thompson, is from Medford! We love to see the Oregon players, do well!

In the gradual rebuild of the Oregon Baseball program, Coach Waz is trying to show the fans and recruits steady progress upward. Again it has been gradual with the transition from a "Small-Ball" team to a hitting team again between making PK Park more hitting-compatible, along with recruiting bigger players who get stronger in Oregon's weight room. The amount of offensive records broken under Waz is more than we have time for, but it is impressive and proof of the progress. But Oregon has had some real bad-luck injuries with pitchers, and yet the Ducks have overcome many of the handicaps that come with that. Oregon went into the Pac-12 Tournament without three of last year's starting pitchers due to injury who returned this year in Isaac Ayon, RJ Gordon, and Andrew Mosiello. To make it worse--we only had ONE stud starting pitcher this year in Jace Stoffal, and he has been out for three weeks due to injury! Four starting pitchers out? That usually spells disaster... Yet this coaching staff was able to make it work with a ton of freshmen and relievers who came through in clutch situations in Phoenix this weekend. We are at a big disadvantage going into the NCAAs, and the hope is that two of the injured pitchers can still join the rotation for Oregon. In the meantime...we have a ton of freshmen/sophomore pitchers who have acquired so much game experience that they will be quite savvy next year. It is a shame, because as good of hitting team as it is--with three stud starting pitchers--Oregon would seriously in the discussions of making Omaha, and challenging for it all. Waz recruited the pitching talent, but some bad luck injuries kept this team from its full potential. This is the first conference championship of any type...regular season or tournament for the Ducks in 60 years. For all the injury setbacks--this is something huge for Waz to point to when talking to recruits, and certainly raises the interest of the fans locally in Eugene. The future is bright for Oregon Baseball! (We find out where Oregon goes to play this next week on Monday morning at 9:00 AM PDT on ESPN2)

Pac-12 Tournament Champions - University of Oregon Athletics GODUCKS.COM Oregon beats Arizona 5-4 to claim the title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament

No sweat. And as it turns out...the game began on ESPNU!

Right, as I wrote. But again, my Infinity TV listing does not show the game on ESPN2, but shows it on ESPNU at 7 PM. I am recording on both channels to be on the safe side. I like to record and then start watching later to zip through the commercials.

I believe very, very strongly that the viewership of the Pac-12 in all sports is so vastly understated with SO MUCH upside, that once a streaming element is added? Our viewership will explode--especially Oregon's viewership on a global basis. This will put the Ducks in a very advantageous bargaining position in five years when choosing between renewing with the Pac-12, or considering other conference offers. Whoever we decide upon--it will be a boatload more than now. Streaming over five years can manifest that upside of which I believe is there!

Read the Pac-12/Big-12 Truth post I wrote, as Canzano puts those comments by the CU AD in context. That article is a short version from CBS of what Dennis Dodd would do--a Drive-By Smearing.

It was great, bounce back pitching from a freshman, and studly relief pitching, and hits at the most important time! —————— Pac-12 Tournament Champions - University of Oregon Athletics GODUCKS.COM Oregon beats Arizona 5-4 to claim the title and an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament We have a great story with a State of Oregon player in sophomore catcher Bennett Thompson from Medford, who began to play more as the season went on and is now batting .383? Whew! He has had some important hits for us, and it needs to continue! Another player who played sparingly and now cannot be out of the line-up is freshman Drew Smith who came in at third base when Sabin Ceballos was hurt, did a fantastic job, and is batting so well at .397 that he is our DH and a future star! Again...seven of the nine starters last night are hitting over .300 and one who was not, Gavin Grant, went 4-5 at the plate last night. Fun team to watch! Can the pack of freshman pitchers come through again?

Below is from today's John Canzano article and has the most truth, the most sense of anything out there right now. Q: Fast forward to June 30. Pac-12 Commissioner George Kliavkoff has presented best media offer to Pac-12 presidents which has come in at $18 million per school. What happens next? A: $18 million? Per school? What happens next? Your alarm clock goes off. You wake up, nightmare over. I reached out to a source with direct knowledge of the Pac-12’s negotiations and asked “still feeling confident about beating $31.6 million per school?” The answer came back: “We are.” Q: What is your gut feeling about the Pac-12 future? A: My educated opinion has not shifted or wavered — the Pac-12’s 10 remaining members will stay together. The conference will announce a shorter-term media rights deal that ends in 2029 or 2030. It will add San Diego State, and maybe, one other school (SMU). And we will do this dance all over again in five years or so. Q: Any truth to the rumor about Colorado being iffy with the Pac-12? A: Let’s recap. Colorado athletic director Rick George has said numerous times that his school wants to be in the Pac-12. He told Jon Wilner and me in our podcast: “Why would you want to be in a conference where there’s 16 to 18, when you can be in a conference that is 10 to 12? Your opportunity, particularly when the top six-rated conferences have automatic (College Football Playoff) bids and the top-four have automatic byes, why would you leave?” This week, he told Brian Howell of The Boulder Daily Camera: “You’ve got to believe about a third of what you see out there. We’re members of the Pac-12, we’re proud members of the Pac-12 and we’ve got to see where our media rights deal lands and where our conference goes. In a perfect world, we’d love to be in the Pac-12, but we also have to do what’s right for Colorado at the end of the day. We’ll evaluate things as we move forward.” Is that a flip flop? The gloom-and-doom crowd may be reading it that way because they’re hoping and wishing, but I’m not going there. Unpack his words carefully. I hear George reiterating that his school likes being in the Pac-12, wants to stay in the Pac-12, and still needs to see the final deal. The AD is right — Colorado and every other school must do what’s right for itself. I also think George might be pandering to the CU crowd that desperately wants the school to explore other options, particularly the Big 12. His comments walk that line. Remember, George also told Wilner and me that no Pac-12 school is leaving for a couple million more in media rights money. It has to be game-changing money to even be a consideration. For that reason, I don’t think Colorado is going anywhere. GK at Pac-12 Baseball Tournament having more fun than negotiating with ESPN...

The helmet avatar of Curtis is West Virginia… Note also that the poster has a bias-preference, as many Big-12 fans want Oregon to join them.

Right.