Charles Fischer

It's official: USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten WWW.LATIMES.COM USC and UCLA are leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, a shift that will move college football's 'Power Five' closer to a 'Power Two.'

How betrayed do you feel? Not even a shot at trying to work it out? USC to Make Historic Move to Big Ten Conference in 2024 - USC Athletics USCTROJANS.COM USC will take the historic step of joining the Big Ten Conference in 2024, a move that will position USC and its student-athletes for long-term success in both athletics and academics.

Made me laugh!

In the Mountain West, and that's so wrong. So the players are demanding more money, and now so are the individual schools.

Well, those four would be what I mentioned in the post above yours I would assume. (UO, UW, Cal and 'Furd) The only way to preserve the conference is for the have-nots to take a big cut in conference revenue....to pass along to the brats in SoCal, but not as much as what the Big-10 would give, but enough to keep the LA schools on-board. Sure ramps up the hatred when we play them, huh?

A league would want the Bay-Area eyeballs, so I could see Oregon, Washington, Cal and Stanford being an attractive "Pod" for a suitor conference.

OK....that is funny! Many years ago...Joel wrote at FishDuck... Get a Grip! Perspective Needed on 2013 Season FISHDUCK.COM Oh no! How much worse can it possibly get? It's the end of an era! The sky is falling! It's sadder than a country & western love song! In fact, it should be a...

Here is one. Log in | TALKNDAWGS.COM Good people, and many here are from that free forum.

McGee was in the portal and was convinced to stay by Lanning. I believe most of the receivers would have left if Cristobal stayed.

That is a bit over the top, as Oregon has a loaded roster returning. Richardson coming back may have been a buzz-kill for Mookie...

There is not anyway we could rebuild the Pac-12 into a conference with the same prestige and revenues that we currently have--as bad as it is. Thus I see no choice...we have to leave. Do you see it that way?

I have not had a ton of time to digest and ponder, but Our Beloved Ducks are in a pickle. Without the LA markets, the value of the conference is what....half? 40%? I don't like writing it, but we would become a Group-of-5 conference overnight, with a Weedeater Bowl as our target destination, not the Rose Bowl or Playoff. Oregon would have to join one of the remaining Power Conferences, and flight/travel time to the Big-10 is crazy, and the other conferences would be crazier. I am saddened by the implications for our conference brothers, but I have to look out for the Ducks at the moment. If the LA schools went to the Big-10...(and my gut tells me it will happen) then Oregon has to act immediately. Join another Power-5 conference or become irrelevant. Do you agree? That we must leave the Pac-12 and join another conference?

One interesting thing about this idea...you could have two nine team divisions, and you play each member with eight conference games and four non-conference games as the SEC does. Conference Championship of the two divisions...interesting!

You are quite right, as this is a way to bring the conference to the negotiating table, but it would still spell the end of the conference as the "have-nots" would get less money, and thus join a Group-of-5 conference? (Bye-Bye Beavers?)

The end of the Pac-12....Wowsa. Gotta stew on this a while...

I almost burst out laughing...."Koby....talk to Micah Pittman and the other receivers who were going to bolt from Oregon!" How many receivers did Mari put in the league?

"Mario Cristobal held down Justin Herbert better than any defense in the NFL!"

Oh heck, I had to pull a video from a FishDuck analysis article...

To Duck 1972 and Wrathis: I am not going to repeat the articles written about the Rose Bowl, except to say that Herbert did not run the ball on his own or call his own play. These were "Zone-Read" plays that in the past--Herbert was not allowed to pull the ball, but in the Rose Bowl--he could if the "read" defender went after the running back and vacated his zone. Two of the Zone-Reads for touchdowns were made out of the Pistol, and a third TD was out of the Zone Read in the Shotgun. Even with the correct read--Herbert still had to put a juke on an outside linebacker to make the TDs. Justin Herbert doing the Zone Read out of the Pistol in the Rose Bowl

Yep. For all the talk about the offensive line...we had quite a drop-off with Cristobal. And Minnie-Me...

There are articles out there that provide the data... "Recruiting rankings matter when building championship contenders. They’re just as critical when projecting if a player will reach the NFL." What Do Those Star Ratings Mean? - Last Word on College Football LASTWORDONSPORTS.COM When discussing recruits, we often hear that star ratings mean very little. We analyze the question: what do those star ratings mean exactly? Do stars matter in recruiting? The data says they do - Footballscoop FOOTBALLSCOOP.COM Put any coach in front of a microphone and ask him if stars matter and he'll probably say one or all of the following: "We don't look at that stuff." "We trust NFL Draft: The 'Stars Don't Matter' Narrative Gets Crushed 2020 NFL Draft: The 'stars don't matter' narrative gets crushed 247SPORTS.COM You hear it every year: Stars don't matter. But the NFL Draft (like it does every year) showed that sentiment to be incorrect.

Yes it matters in the big picture, not with individual players. The higher the Stars, the higher the probability of that player helping your team, IMHO. Now we have had a ton of 2-Star and 3-Star players in the past who have excelled, but they are in the vast minority. And then there is the question that Steve Greatwood would ask..."how do we measure within a recruit what is right here?" (Pointing to his heart)

My FishDuck Friends, to explain this aspect of why we should not get concerned about early high rankings...let's look at the Rivals ranking right now for the 2023 class right here. You will see that Baylor is No. 5 in the nation, has 20 verbals, (which means they are close to being done) with sixteen 3-Star verbals and only three 4-Star verbals. Now let's look at the final 2022 recruiting class rankings on Rivals right here, and see who is No. 32 (West Virginia) with the same sixteen 3-Star verbals and only three 4-Star players signed. The Mountaineers actually had more total recruits (23 to 20) than the Baylor example, but they do not end up in the top grouping at all. So...what is No. 5 now will end up being No. 32 later....so don't worry about Washington's or Baylor's ranking now. We will pass them later! If you extrapolate the classes to 24 recruits each....UW will end up with two 4-Star players and Oregon will up with twelve 4 & 5-Star recruits. (Not that it will happen... but you get the idea-don't get wonked out now) What matters is how you finish up, the quality of the class, not where you are now.

This is going to be a much bigger factor on both offense and defense, IMHO, because I believe both sides of the ball are coming out surprising and impressing people. Remember what Lanning's mantra.... "It is not what you say, but what you do."