Jon Joseph

Here's hoping these three Ducks stay healthy (knock wood) and come through this season. YardbarkerThree Oregon Ducks Entering Make-or-Break SeasonsEUGENE – The 2026 Oregon Ducks season already features lofty expectations and National Championship ambitions. In addition to big team goals, individual players have a lot to compete for.

I certainly understand your POV. However, what if an 8-4 team played the most difficult schedule in a given season and a 10-2 team played the easiest schedule? Last season with this format, No. 23, 8-4 Iowa, would have been the only 4-loss team in the field. And Iowa defeated 2-loss Vandy in a bowl game with all hands on deck except for an Iowa LB who will go in the first two rounds of the draft.

Tonight on Big Ten Network - 7E/4P - No. 2 in the nation, Ohio State Men's Wrestling visits No. 1 Penn State. 16,000 fans will be on hand to watch this B1G battle. Penn State has won a record 77 dual meets in a row. The last dual meet the Nittany Lions lost was on January 31, 2020, 17-19 to Iowa in Iowa City. The effervescent, high-on-life Shane Sparks will be on the call for BTN. This is a real wrestling match, not a WWE fixed wrassling match. All 10 of the PSU wrestlers are All-Americans. Ohio State brings four All-Americans to Penn State. In other winter sports, Michigan State is No. 1 in Men's Ice Hockey, and Michigan is ranked 2nd. Women's Ice Hockey Rankings - No. 1 Wisconsin, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 3 Minnesota, and No. 4 Penn State. Men's basketball - 2nd-ranked Michigan is odds-on to win a CBB title for the first time since Michigan State won in 2020. Women's CBB - 2nd-ranked UCLA, No. 7 Michigan, and No. 8 Ohio State are ranked in the top 10. Enjoy!

College Football News: Why the B1G PO plan makes sense - https://collegefootballnews.com/college-football/big-ten-24-team-playoff-why-it-makes-sense

Defense! Washington and Perich are on the 1st team, early AA D. The love for Texas and the SEC? Manning and not Dante or Sayin at QB? As I recall, we watched this movie last season, no? Texas is -2.5 against Ohio State, a reverse of last season's odds for the game in Columbus. Texas finished a fortunate 9-3, with the Longhorns escaping defeat at Kentucky and South Carolina. I trust the data used by Pro Football Focus to identify the best players; I do not trust rumors and hearsay. And, when in doubt, go with the SEC guys, especially when you work for the SEC's 'partner.' Coming into 2026, I have the same question for Texas I had for Penn State in 2025: Sark is still the Texas coach, is he not? And I also have the same question I had for Clemson last year: the same guys returning for Clemson are the same guys who lost 4 games in 2024, right? Maybe the portal players coming into Texas will be all that? I'll believe it when I see it, including Cam Coleman being as good as Jeremiah Smith at wide receiver. As Indiana proved last season, it's not the parts, it's the sum of the parts. ESPN.com2026 college football Way-Too-Early All-America teamFrom Arch Manning to Jeremiah Smith, these are the best of the best at every position.

The NCAA said, "No!" to Ole Miss QB Trinidad Chambliss's request for a 6th season of eligibility due to a medical condition when he played for Ferris State. No surprise that a Mississippi judge told the NCAA to go to its room and said, "Yes" to Trinidad's request. The judge issued a temporary restraining order against the NCAA that will allow Chambliss to play for Ole Miss for what should be the 12-game regular season. Good luck to the NCAA attorneys petitioning for an early trial on the merits. Mark your calendars for Week 3, Saturday, 9/19/26, when LSU and Lane Kiffin travel to Oxford, Mississippi. Expect to see the GameDay crew in The Grove with Herbie and Chris Fowler on the call. They won't say it out loud, but the SEC coaches who will play Ole Miss in 2026 cannot be happy with this decision. As a CFB fan, I'm pumped to watch more of CFB's Houdini escaping from the clutches of players trying to bring Trinidad down. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/ole-miss-qb-trinidad-chambliss-injunction-sixth-season-ncaa-eligibility/?eid=c7d8647c6247db8d08c59fe44bc30380a147aa90b9e33099045cd46ddc6a485b&ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=524936&

The B1G has a businessman at the top. This proposal would rain more money down on top-level CFB than any other alternative proposal. What I don't like: 24 instead of 16 teams, although the first round would be playoff play-in games like we see with the First 4 in the CBB tournament, quarterfinal games in bowls, and not on campus, and I would prefer a system with automatic qualifiers up to a point, which would result in better out-of-conference games and the additional money that would come with an SEC/B1G Challenge. I've read three articles to date on why the Bama vs. Ohio State series in 2027-28 should not be canceled because of "The Good of the Game". Hogwash! ADs are paid to look out for the good of their program, and both Bama and Ohio State will have challenging in-conference nine-game schedules. I reiterate, have a system with automatic qualifiers, and quality OOC games will follow. I do like the elimination of conference champ games that are close to meaningless with today's expanded PO. I also think that a move to 16 teams would result in Week 0 becoming Week 1 and bring other positive and necessary changes to the CFB calendar. This proposal could be for leverage only; an attempt at bringing the SEC back to a 16-team AQ format. What effect will the SEC playing nine conference games this season have on Greg Sankey's PO format thinking? I'm rooting for many three or more losses SEC teams. And I hope beyond hope that No. 12 seed Notre Dame knocks No. 11 seed LSU out of the PO.😁

Good take and spot on. I did not mean to say Cig would win another title this season. I meant to say that he has a coaching staff and a system in place that will keep Indiana in the top 25, at least, while he is in Bloomington. To me, a team in contention for a spot in a 12-team PO field every season equates to success. At some point in the 2025 season, all of the teams you listed were potential playoff teams. Most people would consider the teams to be Blue Bloods. In 2025, all of the teams on the list had Blue Chip rosters. Indiana did not. With free agency and pay-to-play in college football, will we see more Indiana's coming out of nowhere to win it all? I think we're more likely to see teams on your list and other once successful programs at the top before we see another team make a Phoenix-like rise from the ashes of the sport. I also doubt that we will see another CFB hegemony as we recently saw at Alabama under Nick Saban. I sure hope this grey beard gets to see OBD in the champions circle.

Thanks, iubhounds. Great to have you with us on the Forum. I know that Cig's Indiana team broke the Blue Chip Roster Championship ceiling. Coming into last season with the 72nd combined roster ranking makes this an even greater accomplishment. This season, Indiana's combined roster ranking only moved up 64 spots to No. 8. 😁 And Cignetti's long-time OC and DC earned well-deserved pay raises and are back in Bloomington in 2026. Coming into 2025, the AP pollsters ranked Indiana at No. 20. This season, Indiana will be in the AP's top five and is in the top five future championship odds along with Ohio State, coming to Bloomington on 10/7/26, Texas, Georgia, and Oregon. Like Mendoza in 2025, Josh Hoover transfers in ranked the 4th-best QB in the portal. In 2021, Hoover, from the Dallas, Texas area, was originally committed to Indiana before signing with TCU; Hoover is bringing 9600 yards passing and 71 TDs with him. In 2026, Indiana's three 'manageable' out-of-conference games will allow new QB Hoover to acclimate with the team before conference play begins with a home game against Northwestern, and then on the road at Rutgers. Could Cig have drawn up a better opening set of games? Before the Week 7 game against the Buckeyes, the Hoosiers will play back-to-back road games with a visit to Nebraska after the trip to New Jersey, but should be 6-0 coming into the home game versus Ohio State. Before the date with Indiana, Ohio State will play at Texas, Illinois, and at Iowa. Ohio State will travel to Bloomington after a home game versus Maryland, and will easily defeat Ball State and Kent State at home. If Ohio State wins in Austin, Ohio State at Indiana could be a battle of the top two teams in the nation. The only concern coming into 2026: Indiana has reached the mountain top, will it stay there? My money's on Cig.

A beautiful tribute. Thank you.

OBD is a B1G portal winner - https://www.yardbarker.com/college_football/articles/big_ten_transfer_portal_winners_heading_into_2026/s1_13132_43442560?utm_source=mb&utm_medium=email&mb_edition=20260211&mb_loc=left_h

Defining success for new head coaches. Matt Campbell - Penn State - Playoffs? - Playoffs! The schedule will help Matt's cause. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-coaches-2026-first-year-success-lane-kiffin-lsu/?ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=524364&ET_RID=52482716

Ducks Wire on the upcoming Ducks vs Beavis baseball series - https://duckswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/ducks/baseball/2026/02/11/oregon-baseball-beavers-nw-elite-classic/88611749007/?utm_source=smg-duckswire-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=SMGbaseline&utm_term=he

Thanks, Happy. One of Ohio State and Indiana will finish no better than 11-1. The Buckeyes visit Bloomington on 10/17. Indiana wins, and OBD defeats Ohio State a month later on 11/7, and Oregon will be in the B1G title mix. I will be surprised if Oregon is favored to win the game in Columbus. However, TOSU is losing a lot of studs on the D side of the ball. The week before the game in Columbus, Ohio State plays USC in LA, and OBD plays Northwestern at home. I hope the Ohio State at USC game will be the prime-time game with a 7:30 PM Eastern kickoff and the Buckeyes returning to Columbus in the wee hours of Sunday. Future odds have Ohio State +2.5 at Texas. Ohio State and Indiana are co-favorites to win the 2026-27 title, followed closely by Texas and Notre Dame, then Oregon. Ohio State has a more difficult schedule than Indiana and Oregon. OBD does not play the Hoosiers in the regular season. I'm happy to see you predicting 11-1 for Oregon. Considering the opposition and where and when the games will be played, 11-1 would be a sterling record in 2026 and cover the 2026 10.5 win total. 11-1, no conference champ game, No. 5 seed? Book it, Danno.😁

OBD, schedule 'B1G winners?' Author Caden Handwork did not do his homework. Scheduling matters in college football. And in 2026, the B1G has handed Oregon the short end of the B1G scheduling stick. If the author paid any attention to where and when the games will be played in 2026, the quality of the opponents'coaches and players, especially at the vital QB position, and believes OBD is a B1G scheduling 'Winner,' he deserves an 'F' in Sports Journalism and Reading Comprehension. There is nothing easy about this schedule. Nothing. Husker CornerPFF rankings suggest Nebraska quietly nailed its quarterb...Advanced metrics paint a far brighter picture of Nebraska’s quarterback situation. This season, Oregon will play three of Pro Football Focus's highest-ranked transfer QBs. Plus some damn good QBs returning in 2026. Week 2 - Oklahoma State - No. 4 Drew Mestermaker - Transferring in from North Texas, where he led the nation with 4,379 yards passing, 34 TDs. Game high of 608 yards versus Charlotte. His leading receiver, Wyatt Young, with 1264 receiving yards and 10 TDs, and 15 other Mean Green players, are joining Drew and new Cowboys coach Eric Morris. Week 7 - Nebraska - No. 3 Anthony Colandrea - Transferring in from UNLV, where he was the Mountain West Player of the Year. Week 8 - At Illinois - No. 6 Katin Houser (no hoser is Houser 😁) - Transferring in from East Carolina. Houser led the Pirates to a 9-3 record in 2025. Not on the schedule in 2026, but B1G pickups nonetheless are: No. 7 Rocco Becht, transferring from Iowa State to Penn State; and my personal favorite for some reason, Colton Joseph, transferring from Old Dominion, where he was the Sun Belt Conference Offense Player of the Year, to Wisconsin. Other QBs of note on OBD's 2026 schedule. Week 1 - Boise State's Maddux Madsen, injured part of last season, still led Boise to a Mountain West title. Week 4 - Jaden Maiava returns to QB USC in 2026. In 2025, Maiava threw for 3711 yards, 24 TDs, and 10 interceptions, with a QB rating of 89.9. Week 6 - Nico Iamaleava, who led Tennessee to the PO in 2024, had a good 2025 playing for a bad UCLA football team. The season highlight for Nico was his accounting for five TDs in the Bruins upset win over Penn State. In 2026, Nico will be playing for the new Bruins coach, Bob Chesney. In the 1st round of last season's PO, OBD fans learned up close and personal that Chesney's teams do not quit. Like Curt Cignetti did when he took the Indiana job in 2024, Chesney is bringing James Madison players with him; ten of the 44 new players on UCLA's 2026 roster are transfers from JMU. Week 9 - Northwestern QB Aiden Chiles, a transfer from Michigan State, visits Eugene, along with the new Northwestern OC Chip Kelly and QB coach Jerry Neuheisel. Week 11 - OBD travels to Columbus to face Heisman finalist, QB Julian Sayin, who will be throwing to some 'pretty good' WRs, including Jeremiah Smith. Week 12 - Michigan visits Autzen Stadium with wunderkind QB Bryce Underwood leading the Wolverines. Underwood will be playing for future Hall of Fame coach Kyle Whittingham and new OC Jason Beck, instead of his former dysfunctional coach and his staff. Week 13 - Sees OBD returning to the Eastern time zone to play Michigan State under new coach Pat Fitzgerald. In three weeks, OBD will travel to Columbus, Ohio, to play the Buckeyes, back to Eugene to play the Wolverines, and then to East Lansing, Michigan, to play the Spartans. WHEW! Spartan QB Alessio Milivojevic (good luck getting the last name to fit on the back of the jersey 🤪) took the starting spot from Aiden Chiles and, in limited starts, he threw for 1267 yards and 10 TDs, with three interceptions. WEEK 14 - Washington in Autzen led by the 'he ran all the way home just to say he's sorry', QB Demond Williams, Junior. Williams is an athletic and elusive QB for what will be a pumped-up Husky team that Oregon plays in its eighth straight game versus B1G competition without a break. WHEW! Like the 2024 season, Oregon is the only Big Ten team in 2026 to play eight straight games against Power 4 competition without a break and with brutal travel in November. If Handwork has reached puberty and cleared the sixth grade, he should Go to His Room! No victuals!