Charles Fischer

I am OK with this since they are below the 85 total, but boy there will be some very young teams when you take 32 in a year!

I am in agreement with that, but if you were a great QB who only has this one chance, and Oregon offers 500K over three years, and another school offers 2 million over the same time period....don't you have to go with the best chance to help assure your future? I would not blame a QB for doing that... My FishDuck Friends, I am really not trying to be argumentative, but simply demonstrate how complicated this subject is. And of course we will blame the coach if it does not all go as we want...

I would agree that this is the most preferred tactic, but it relies on a blockbuster year on offense, no injuries, etc. Once the "Oregon Brand" is re-established, then it will not be as much as a problem, but for this year--it is. (IMHO)

That is hazardous to me, as this fall would have a completely different feel if we were depending upon an unproven, inexperienced Thompson versus Nix.

I think that is an easy thing for all of us to say until we have a Jeff Lockie running the offense again... Remember the Alamo?

I would agree; get an experienced QB in the portal, but the problem there is that it destroys the QB room and the recruiting of high school quarterbacks. I mean, who would want to come to Oregon if you know the Ducks will go get a portal QB every year or two? No easy solutions...

A uniform comment here is, “we have to see how it plays out,” and that is obvious. But this is an issue that Oregon is dealing with at this very moment, as a five star quarterback is announcing his intentions in the next two weeks. It is certainly affecting the viability of the Ducks remaining in contention for quarterbacks in the 2023 recruiting class. What strategy should Oregon implement in your view?

A good list, and perhaps next year’s class may add to it eventually?

This team was not as mentally strong as I hoped either, and it showed up in hitting and pitching at inopportune times. Only 64 teams out of 299 D-1 schools get to go to the NCAA Baseball Tournament. The first year for Waz was stopped due to COVID, and both years since--he has taken us to where nearly 80% of college baseball teams don't get to go in both non-COVID years. Now for the next step up... I Love my Ducks!

So...Oregon State could have a big impact in the upcoming conference decisions? Canzano: Pac-12 CEO Group about to get a new voting member WWW.JOHNCANZANO.COM Plus... a special sports event coming soon.

An article about this topic on Monday!

Kinda feels like "Snooker" to me...

Some interesting stuff in here.... Canzano: Mailbag takes on Phil Knight, Damian Lillard and the Pac-12 WWW.JOHNCANZANO.COM Your questions... my answers...

(From Official Press Release) (Not included in the press release is how Oregon set the Pac-12 record with 26 hits in an NCAA Playoff game.) Louisville, Ky. — Oregon used a school-record 26 hits to score 18 runs and stay alive in the Louisville Regional on Saturday in an 18-6 win over Southeast Missouri State at Patterson Field. Every Duck starter collected at least one hit with seven recording multiple hits led by Brennan Milone’s career-high five and Josiah Cromwick’s career-best four. Malone went 5-for-6 at the plate on the heels of Friday’s three-hit game. He is 8-for-11 with two home runs, two doubles, four RBI and four runs scored in the first two games of the regional tournament. How It Happened: Milone continued to swing a hot bat in the first inning for the Ducks. Coming off a 3-for-5 regional game one where he hit a home run and doubled twice, Milone lined a two-out pitch over the left-field wall giving Oregon an early 1-0 lead. Oregon (36-24) pushed the lead to eight runs with a huge seven-run second inning. After a leadoff out, Oregon had nine straight batters reach base. Anthony Hall started the rally with a double off the wall in left-center field. He moved to third on a Cromwick infield hit and then scored along with Cromwick on a Sam Novitske double. Novitske made it 4-0 on a Gavin Grant RBI single. After a Tanner Smith walk, Colby Shade ripped a three-run homer over the left-field wall. After Shade cleared the bases with the homer, Milone started another rally with a single, his fifth hit of the regional tournament. Drew Cowley moved Milone to second with a single off the pitcher and a Josh Kasevich hit-by-pitch loaded the bases. Hall snapped Oregon’s string of reaching base at nine, but not without driving in the seventh run of the inning. The Ducks’ right fielder flew out to center field scoring Milone for an 8-0 lead. SEMO (37-22) cut the lead to six with single runs in the second and the third, before Oregon put three more on the road thanks mostly to back-to-back-to-back doubles. Cowley started the double parade before scoring on a Kasevich double who then came around to score on a Hall double. After a Cromwick single, Novitske picked up his third RBI of the day scoring Hall on a sacrifice fly and an 11-2 lead. The Redhawks answered with three in the bottom of the fourth to pull back within six, but Oregon put four more on the board in the top of the sixth to regain command. Cromwick doubled to lead off the inning and scored on Sam Novitske’s fourth RBI of the day coming on a single up the middle. Novitske swiped second, moved to third on a Grant sacrifice bunt and scored on a Smith RBI single. Colby Shade reached on an error on SEMO third baseman Peyton Leeper allowing Smith to move to second before he came around to score on a Milone RBI single, his fourth hit of the day. Cowley picked up his third hit of the day, driving in Shade from second to cap the four-run inning and push Oregon’s lead back to 10. The Ducks tacked on three insurance runs in the top of the eighth. Milone picked up his career-best fifth hit of the day to spark the rally, moved to third on Cowley’s fourth hit of the day and second double before both scored on Kasevich’s first triple of the season. Hall singled to drive in Kasevich to give Oregon an 18-5 lead. Box Score Notes: Oregon ran its team RBI total to 411, the first time in school history the Ducks have had more than 400 RBI in a season. The Ducks also ran their total to 1030 total bases this season, the first time Oregon has surpassed the 1,000 total base mark in a season. Oregon matched a season-high with seven doubles for the second straight day and ran its season total to 120 doubles which ties the school record. Smith set a new Oregon single-season record for hits on his single to center to lead off the game … He finished with his 26th multi-hit game of the season and the 65th of his career, one shy of tying Gabe Matthews (2017-21) for the school record. Milone’s home run was his 12th of the season, moving him into a tie for sixth on the single-season home run list with Tom Dodd (1978) and Dave Roberts. (1978) Hall’s second inning double gave him 15 two-baggers for the season, tying him with Milone and Brett Thomas (2013) for ninth on the Oregon single-season list … He added his 16th in fifth tying him with Tyler Baumgartner (2014) and Danny Pulfer (2011) at the time for seventh. Shade’s home run was his fifth of the season and first since April 15 at Washington. Novitske registered his 10th multi-hit game of the season and the 42nd of his career. He also had his seventh multi-RBI game of the season and the 17th of the season. Cowley put together his 20th multiple-hit game of the season in just 37 starts … He also had his 16th double of the season moving him into a tie with Hall, Baumgartner and Pulfer for seventh … Cromwick finished with his seventh multi-hit game of the season and the ninth of his career … All nine Ducks scored at least one run with eight of them scoring multiple runs … Five Ducks drove in multiple runs led by Novitske’s career-high tying four. On Deck: Oregon will meet the loser of Saturday’s late game between Michigan and Louisville at 9 a.m. (PT) on Sunday.

Thanks to mspenny for sending this to me...Jon Wilner answers questions in his mailbag... If you are Washington, Oregon, USC and UCLA, would you lob a call to the Big Ten or SEC for a “football only” conference? — @dsteven7 This issue has several layers, so let’s start at the 50,000-foot level and work our way down to solid ground. The Hotline (Wilner) has long believed major college football will eventually bifurcate into two divisions: — An upper tier of 30 or 35 schools that are willing to make the economic commitment and academic sacrifice to join what would essentially be a mini-NFL (with players as employees). — The remaining 80-90 schools that prefer a more traditional model. The upper division would be SEC-heavy, of course, and probably would include a few Pac-12 programs. But that is clearly eight or 10 years away, at least. Were the four schools you referenced interested in reaching out to the Big Ten or SEC, their only near-term option would be to join those leagues as football-only members — not in a broader alignment within the FBS. Moving to the 40,000-foot level, we have a timing issue: The SEC has media rights contracts and membership locked in place, with Texas and Oklahoma set to join in 2025. Meanwhile, the Big Ten is wrapping up its media deals right now — deals that depend on knowing the makeup of the conference. Could something materialize in the next 12-18 months that sets the West Coast quartet on course to leave the Pac-12? Sure. But we are fairly confident that any current chatter is mere speculation. And keep this in mind: It all starts with USC. The Bruins aren’t going anywhere without the Trojans — and maybe not even with the Trojans — and the Pacific Northwest schools have little value to the Big Ten or SEC as stand-alone entities. If you’re the SEC or Big Ten, an expansion to the West Coast only makes economic and competitive sense if the Southern California media market is included in the deal. That means USC. At the same time, the Pac-12 with USC is a vastly better fit for the Ducks and Huskies than the Big Ten or SEC without USC. Were those schools to become disconnected from California, the repercussions would be damaging on multiple fronts, not the least of which is the academic affiliation with Stanford, Cal, UCLA and USC. Closer to ground level, let’s address a practical challenge for all four schools in their pursuit of membership in the SEC or Big Ten: the Olympic sports. It’s not realistic for their soccer, tennis and softball teams (to name three) to schlep across the country for competition. That said, if the quartet joined the Big Ten or SEC as football-only members, would their Olympic sports remain in the Pac-12? Would they get booted out? Would there even be a Pac-12? At that point, the conference probably collapses … — The Arizona and Mountain schools would beg for membership in the Big 12. — The Bay Area schools might give up major college football. — Oregon State and Washington State would seek a landing spot within the FBS, with the Mountain West likely atop their wish list. Now, to be absolutely clear: We don’t view this scenario as a realistic outcome in any way, shape or form … at least not for another eight or 10 years. (My add... cut that in half....4 years ago would Wilner have predicted Texas and OU to the SEC? The NIL? The outrageous coaching salaries? The transfer portal?) Let's keep these kind of OOC games! Why not dump the two boring out-of-conference cupcake games from Pac-12 football schedules? Would doing so help in negotiations for the new TV contract? — @TerryTerry79 My initial reaction is that not every team plays two “boring” non-conference games. Colorado faces TCU, Air Force and Minnesota this season. Stanford plays BYU and Notre Dame. Utah has Florida and San Diego State. USC plays Notre Dame and Fresno State Oregon plays Georgia and BYU. (There are other examples in 2022 and every year.) Are you suggesting formalized scheduling standards that would require Pac-12 teams to play only Power Five opponents? If so, there are two obstacles to that approach: 1) Stronger competition inevitably leads to additional losses and creates a more challenging path to the four-team playoff. 2) The availability of Power Five opponents is limited. Not only are schedules set years in the future, but many schools in the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC would balk at upgrading their non-conference lineups. If the goal is to eliminate cupcakes for every Pac-12 team each year, there is only one option: Play a 10th conference game. The Hotline believes that model deserves serious consideration. It would add value to the Pac-12’s media rights inventory in the next contract cycle (starting in 2024) while theoretically inflicting limited damage competitively. Once the playoff expands to 12 teams in the 2026 season, there will be room for teams with two or three losses. The implementation of scheduling standards — or a 10th conference game — probably won’t be well-received on the front lines, where job security is tied to wins and losses. To the best of our knowledge, only one head coach has publicly supported the concept of every Power Five school playing at least 10 games against Power Five opponents: Nick Saban. Wouldn’t it make more sense playoff-wise for the Pac-12 teams ranked the highest in the penultimate playoff committee rankings to play for the championship instead of the teams with the best conference records? I can easily envision the committee ranking a team with a more difficult lineup ahead of a team with one more conference win.— Jon Joseph Basing the title game participants on CFP rankings was, in fact, one of the options discussed before the Pac-12 settled on conference winning percentage. However, there was resistance on multiple fronts, including: — Handing over such a momentous decision to outside observers. — Allowing non-conference performance to impact the process (given the disparity in schedules). — Reducing the impact of head-to-head results. — The logistics of the decision. The penultimate CFP rankings are unveiled on a Tuesday, which is far too late in the week for the Pac-12 to set its matchup for a championship played three days later. Imagine a situation in which one team is ranked in the top 10 — a lock for the championship — while two teams are ranked close together in the teens, creating uncertainty over the pecking order until Tuesday afternoon. That would be a competitive disadvantage for the highest-ranked team, which must spend 72 hours preparing to face either of two opponents. Can we avoid "Couging" it? We all know Jimmy Lake was the reason why recruiting sucked for Washington, but do you think Kalen DeBoer can turn it around? — @therealericyang Two immediate thoughts: — Landing a commitment last month from four-star Bay Area receiver Rashid Williams was an important development for the Huskies, who desperately needed a headline-grabbing recruiting victory to spark momentum. — Recruiting success (for every team) in the era of name, image and likeness depends on booster involvement and the aggressiveness with which donor collectives are willing to dangle NIL deals in front of high school prospects. The schools — err, collectives — aren’t supposed to use NIL opportunities as recruiting inducements, but many are doing exactly that and every recruit is concerned, first and foremost, with his earning potential. How much money should I put on Washington State winning the North? — @Ron_Pasco First, we should remind readers that winning the North in 2022 carries no competitive advantage. Conference record, not division affiliation, will determine which teams meet for the championship. In fact, the Pac-12 might eliminate the divisions altogether before the season begins. Are the Cougars good enough to qualify for the title game? I would slot them on the third level: Tier 1: Utah and USC Tier 1A: Oregon Tier 2: Washington State and UCLA We wouldn’t rule out WSU playing for the championship, but it’s not one of the most likely scenarios.

Why don’t you start? What are your thoughts about it, or lack of it?

Boy I hope the Oregon Coaches see this....fantastic observation!

I think this is “bargaining” blather, as you have to appear uninterested to leverage a higher price. It is smart to try to offset the “must-sell” leverage against you to get a better price. It is just posturing…

Canzano: Questions and answers about Phil Knight's pursuit of the Trail Blazers WWW.JOHNCANZANO.COM $2 billion-plus offer on the table.

Wowsa. It makes me wonder...per year?

He is 6'4" and 300 pounds--and is a freshman who did not play in 2021 due to injury. I am assuming he is a PWO, (Preferred Walk-On) and adds depth the offensive line for now.

It was just reported that the game will NOT be on ESPN+, but on ESPNU instead--cool!

When I have pinned posts...I want to get everyone's attention, and I will alternate colors as well. While I've used Fuchsia as a color, using purple is jarring on the eyes, especially for this Oregon fan. But if there was ever a time to use it...it is now, when I am compared to Stalin! "Everyone on this forum as the right to express their view, in fact...I want to see all opinions here, on every topic. This way we learn from each other and become more savvy fans. But nobody, (including, Mr. FishDuck, Sir Charles, the Exalted Emperor, the Magnificent Monarch, the Supreme Dictator-for-Life) has the right to denigrate others who offer a contrary view." None of us here wear halos, in fact I've messed up too at times. But we acknowledge our error, learn from it, forgive each other and move forward. This community makes me feel so comfortable where I can actually do that. Thank you to everyone for that.

Wow, that explains everything and thus we will see the "old" Will we knew from before!

When dealing with new members who are pushing back on the rules...I could not count how many times I've written in emails what you have above. It really is the foundation of what I want to accomplish here, and I really appreciate your pointing it out.