Charles Fischer

Yep. It was an article I was paid to run because of a link in the article. When it comes to expenses of two websites...

How is it even possible to be that bad? Graves should…never-mind.

Mike, I want to thank you for a provocative topic and guest article contributed. You wrote years back for us, and you still got-it! I am still torn about whether the B1G-SEC thing is a bad thing, because we need some checks and balances to protect our interests at Oregon. (I know that is a foreign concept due our years in the Pac-12) We do accept guest articles written in an email or on a Word Document and sent to charles@fishduck.com, and I do want to thank Mike, but in particular Jon Joseph, Don Marsh, and Mike Whitty. So much talent in this collective group of Oregon fans! Guest Articles: Don't be Afraid to Try It!

Thank you Jon, as that is a great article and one of the few times I agree with the biggest SEC honk.

From John Canzano today... Q: The Oregon men’s basketball season has been crippled by injuries to scholarship players. How do injuries to other Pac-12 teams compare to the Ducks? — @DuckDan57 A: I reached out to Evan Miyakawa for some help on this one. He has a PhD in statistics and is a data scientist. Miyakawa tracks such things and agreed to take a look at the top 100 men’s basketball teams in the country when it comes to missed games by rotation players. His report is a doozy. The Ducks have nearly 50 combined missed games by rotation players this season. Colorado is second in the country. Said Miyakawa: “Oregon is No. 1 in games missed and it’s not even close.”

Agreed, but I first have to vent at the 35 million dollar scam. Then they will be...

I agree Jon, in that the SEC teams will beat each other up, and the final top 10 will be quite different from what he is projecting Pre-season. Second...a No. 4 in the nation projection for Our Beloved Ducks? Another top-five prediction, and not something we have seen in a long time--if ever.

I understand coping mechanisms, as I've engaged in them frequently since all the changes began. But the bizarre reverse of logic taking place, the weakness by those who can do better--it really distorts my big picture view that much further. And Mullens schedules OSU and helps their media money for 2024? Oh yeah, let's not forget that the company paying us twice the Apple offer is the company that destroyed the Pac-12? The people paying for everything...the fans, are told to bend over at every instance and take it. A lot to love these days!

...and our university presidents for tolerating this nonsense, for being so weak. Some here would say, "well that is the law." It is not, as the judge who granted everything to the Pac-2 is a Cougar honk, the biggest one possible. Getting hosed by a homer...is that justice? Had the proceedings taken place in Eugene, Phoenix, or LA....it would have been much more fair and not insisting on a venue that is not so biased or appealing in a different location is again...very weak.

Big differences, and it starts with the departure. We WANTED to stay in the conference, and only left when we received a terrible offer. Even with a reduced rate, Oregon doubles its payout over the next ten years. LA schools were out regardless-“they gone!” OSU/WSU were TRYING to escape as well,…weren’t they? But nobody wanted them, and they retreated to the “Stealing” mode. They continue to put out feelers to see if joining a P5 conference is possible. Thus, they are no different than us in pursuing opportunities, only they failed. Let’s look at another angle on this, and ask out loud, “what if both teams had been accepted into another conference? What them?” You know what would be happening… They would be splitting up the revenue among 12 teams, both current and future revenue streams. And what are they going to accomplish with the 255 million and future revenue streams? Nothing. Because they are a group of five set of teams, and there are no power five teams remaining to join their new conference. It is simply another group of five Conference. What kind of media contract will this new Conference receive? Nothing. It is no different than just another Mountain West conference, as they play San Jose State, Utah State, and Hawaii, etc. The money they are taking will do nothing to change their stature in the sports world. If anything, it will attempt to cover up their terrible ongoing management, at the expense of the teams that actually earned it. That is the opposite of what occurred with the LA schools and the other 10 teams of the former Pac 12. In retrospect, the LA schools did deserve more, and they are getting it via a full payout from the Big Ten conference. The rest of the former Pac 12 deserved much more than the two remaining teams, and we are getting that now as well. But we all deserve what we earned, and not be penalized by the MWest teams who posed as PAC-12 conference members, and did not pull their fair share due to their OWN management. So the question remains… Taking all of this into account, what do these two teams deserve? They have over already been overpaid by the tune of over $100 million over the decades via their fair share, and now they demand what the other teams have earned? At what point do you call this a massive charade and con job? I grew up as a beaver fan in Corvallis, who went eventually to Oregon, and who cheered for both teams, I was saddened by what happened to Oregon State in the beginning of this mess. But sympathy does not justify stealing the 35 million they are taking from the University of Oregon athletic department that was rightfully earned by our teams and fans. How can anyone justify this?

Not really. Mountain West games will be shown....Oregon State versus Utah State, and Washington State versus San Jose State...you know, what EVERYONE wants to watch! Yep!

So Canzano interviews the new Pac-12 Commissioner Gould, and she says that in terms of their plans going forward, "everything is on the table." WHAT is even available for you besides stealing what the other 10 members earned? What is left? The Crucial Component: Every power conference rejected you, even at nearly for free. Not even a Stanford-Cal deal. This means that the free-market has decided that you ARE a GROUP of FIVE set of teams, and the closest is the Mountain West. You can pretend you are going to build something...but what would it be? Combining six other G5 teams into a new conference and trying to pass it off as ANYTHING other than just another Group-of-Five conference? How long are you going to pretend that YOU WILL NEVER BE ANYTHING other than a G5 conference? And yet you try to justify why you are stealing money from the ten other teams, when in fact YOU OWE for the millions overpaid to you over the years for your "fair share." We were generous to you to the tune of hundreds of millions, and now you take more?

Doubt we would be on the B1G Network, as we do not officially leave the PAC-12 until the end of June. Beside, the PAC-2 has to steal as much revenue as possible. No matter that they did not earn it..,

Can any of you who have watched Oregon softball explain what is going on this year? Going into today’s game. The team is 9-7, when normally we would be 12-4, or 13-3, something like that at this juncture. We haven’t even entered, brutal conference play yet, and I hope this isn’t a rerun of what we saw with women’s basketball? Give me your analysis!

This year's pitching staff is large, and we are just beginning to get acquainted with them. One thing is evident; we ran out of arms at the end of the season, and it kept us from Omaha, and Coach Waz worked very hard to keep that from happening this year. Quite a few Surprises.... He successfully recruited the best ranked high school lefty in California last year in Toby Twist, who is already showing us some big upside. He has a nasty sweeping pitch that can arc downward like a slider, and then he throws a fastball with the same motion and will blow it by you. BIG recruit for Oregon... He pulled in our new Sunday starter in Kevin Seitter, who transferred from little Quinnipiac, yet he created an amazing 11 strikeouts in the last game. Another is Michael Freund from Umpqua CC in Roseburg, of which has been kind to Oregon in recent years with pitchers. He is still adjusting, but has some upside that Waz identified. Moorpark College provided Oregon with another pitcher in Jaxon Jordan, that everyone is excited about. His combo of Fastball, Slider and Changeup has impressed in his relief innings thus far. The most fascinating pitcher from a small college is Brock Moore, (above) from Menlo College. As another senior, he is trying to take advantage of our coaching and resources and is already getting everyone's attention. He looks like an edge-rusher at 6'6" and 230 pounds, and he did something I have not seen at PK Park before; he threw six pitches in a row at 100 MPH or higher. Whew! Then, he really set me off when he threw a breaking pitch that dropped from a high zone into the batting zone, a "front-door" drop that left the batter and all of us gasping. REALLY high upside here, and perhaps a closer later? While Gonzaga is not a small-college compared to those others above, Oregon got another left-handed transfer in Bradley Mullen, who has a fastball, but also a breath-taking breaking ball that got me shouting at the live-stream already. Throw in new freshmen Ryan Featherston, (impressive) Collin Clark and Cole Stokes, and it is hard to not be excited about Oregon's bullpen for this season. Waz has done a great job recruiting high school players, but has done an exceptional job scouting upside in pitchers that are clearly overlooked by other programs. The new pitching coach "Hawk" has been killing-it with the players as well. They love him... The Biggest Surprise? Where ARE They? We have FIVE pitchers from last year that we have not seen yet. They are starters and relievers who won games for us, and while there are rumors of injuries...there are also rumors of players not working hard enough in the off-season to improve and retain their place in the rotation. They are: Matthew Grabmann Leo Uelmen Jackson Pace Austin Anderson Dylan McShane I do not know what the story is, and of course...none of the journalists showing up to the press conferences ask the tough questions. Quite a curveball at us, and if these pitchers return with a vengeance? Oregon could be a very daunting team to hit against!

If the real ‘Natty contenders will play three or four games in the Playoffs in addition to the regular season games? A conference championship game stacked on top is too much. Dump them.

For that one year of purchasing the tickets...yes. And he will be replaced by another B1G fan next year? The additional revenue from joining the B1G will not fully be known for years. I just know it will be HUGE for the Oregon Athletic Department.

This last year....I could have sold my tickets to the USC game and the proceeds would have paid for all the other home game tickets, and the donation required. I think you will see some crazy prices for the Buckeye game by mid-summer, IMHO. I think B1G fans will bid the prices up of available tickets in a big way, thus season tickets might be the best approach? Versus Michigan State in 2014...

Hello my Duck-Buddies, I have not been on the forum much in the last three weeks or so due to the sale of my house, the clearing out of 43 years of stuff, and moving to a two-bedroom apartment in Eugene of which is very close to my office. As you know, I like to start a number of threads every day, but it has been quite hard lately. I am back, but not in a normal mode yet. So if any of you can post articles like Jon Joseph has in assisting NJDuck...the community would greatly appreciate it. Bizarre, Desperate or Telling? I finally got caught up on a week's worth of threads and learned that the expansion of Autzen will not take place until the new indoor practice facility and grounds are completed first. Since this project will take a couple of years to complete--the notion of Autzen adding 10,000 seats anytime soon is simply a wish. So, that means that tickets to games are going to be much more difficult to score in the next few years. You will see much fewer ticket packages sold at a discount, and far more season tickets being marketed so fans can secure a decent location. What I did not anticipate was the interest by B1G fans who want to attend games at Autzen, and the following might be a telling sign? An Ohio State fan emailed me explaining that he bought Oregon Season Tickets at Autzen....just so he can be certain of having a pair of seats at our upcoming game this fall! Whoa, how desperate is that? He was asking all kinds of questions about tickets that I have no time to research for him--and referred him back to where he is buying the tickets from. (He did not take that well, and thought that I somehow was obligated to him, and should spend the time to find the answers to his questions.) Is this fan's actions symbolic of where ticket availability is headed? It feels to me it certainly is, and we might all want to take note. If you have ever thought about buying season tickets...do it NOW. Availability and prices are certain to change... When we last played Michigan at Autzen...

Thanks again Jon, for a superbly researched article where I learned so much about the many interesting non-conference games in the B1G next season. To think of the Civil War game as non-conference? Whew!

There are few people in the world like Kim, our own Pennsylvania Duck. She has given SO MANY hours to us all posting articles in this forum, and she just loved doing it and this community so much. We were a part of her life, and she was a big part of what made this forum unique. She has been incapacitated first by the recent version of COVID, and then adverse reactions to medication. She is unable to use her hands presently, and has difficulty concentrating as well, and thus why you have not seen her posts in weeks. These afflictions have required she retire from her profession in education--working with disabled children. She loved them, and because I could feel her love for everyone when I spoke to her--I am sure she is heavily missed at her school district. Besides being upset about the level of her illness....it hurts me to think that she cannot even enjoy her retirement, that she may not even have a retirement that all of us assume. She misses working on the forum, and misses all of you. For those spiritually inclined, please add her name for those in your prayers for healing, and do think of her and wish her love and recovery. I know life is not fair, but something like this happening to someone who is so loving to all, and giving of her energy to the world--is so wrong. She deserves the best that life in retirement can offer, and she planned to spend a chunk of it in service to all of us on this forum until this all began last March. We love you Kim, and may your health turn around soon.

People seem to forget that before the days of NIL....the estimated value a couple of years ago of the education and services provided at Oregon for the football players was nearly 2 million dollars over their total time at Oregon. Pac-12 Football Players: All for Them, and NONE for All | FishDuck FISHDUCK.COM Do Pac-12 football players really get it? While that may seem to be insulting to them, it is a question that many of us who do the donating and buying of… Nearly two million in value? You know, that doesn't suck.

Some very interesting perspectives in this article that gives an alternate view to the semi-professional league being bantered about. The problem? It would be the NCAA running it. But the alternative of having the media companies control things is even worse, IMHO. More to ponder--THANKS Mike!

My Duck-Buddies....I am pulled a number of directions as my house closing is coming soon and I just finished moving. But I've been keeping an eye on our Diamond Ducks, and am delighted with the pitching that was recruited into the team over the off-season. Below from one of the above articles... "If Oregon is that deep on the pitching front, and a lot of that will depend of Friday’s starter RJ Gordon and Saturday's starter Kevin Seitter continuing to improve, then Oregon, picked to finish fourth, will have a real chance to win the Pac-12 in their final season." These newbie relievers to Eugene got into some jams with two on base often, and even bases loaded against them, (twice) they managed to get out of it and keep their innings scoreless. Amazing! This is the third game, and we are up against the best hitting team this weekend, and yet we have not seen the following pitchers yet: Toby Twist (highly acclaimed transfer) Matthew Grabmann (Big fastball) Ian Umlandt (From Sherwood, Oregon with good upside) Austin Anderson (Stud senior reliever from Roseburg) Turner Spoljaric (Freshman starter and reliever last year) Leo Uelmen (Freshman starter and reliever last year) Dylan McShane (Raw power from 6'9" frame) Brock Moore (The senior transfer who could be our closer?) And there are some freshman pitchers I know nothing about, but I feel fantastic with the depth of pitching. Oregon looks to have a good team this year!

Remember, when Chip was hired at UCLA, I predicted that he would be a solid eight or nine win kind of coach, “Mora-or-less.” It turns out he was a 500 coach, even below what I projected. I maintain my recent prediction, that the Ohio State offense will not average over 35 points per game in 2024. He is not terrible, but I would take Stein over him in a heartbeat. For greater scoring now, and higher upside, IMHO.