Jon Joseph

AMEN! And how about Babe Parilli, who played for coach Bear Bryant and won an SEC title at Kentucky! You can't have nice football stuff at basketball schools, right? What's that? I thought I heard you say something about the Hoosiers and a Cig? 😁

Thanks for the post, Steven A., and for all of your other great posts. I cop to losing interest when I saw Bo's name next to Auburn and Fernando's name next to Indiana, and not Cal. Yes, Mendoza won the Heisman playing at Indiana. Indiana is appropriate for Fernando. But wasn't Bo a Heisman finalist when he played at Oregon, not Auburn? No Justin Herbert? Where are the Dutchman, Dan Fouts, Akili Smith, Joey Harrington, and other impact QBs who played for OBD? No Joe Namath? For that matter, where's Bart Starr? Oh well, consider the source, and also consider that in today's wired world, everything that happened before 2000 is ancient history. Watch out for the waving cane! 🤬

Fairness? A good goal. But there is no accounting for a Cig lead Indiana or a Penn State bust. I think B1G HQ in 2023 put together schedules from 2024 through 2028 that, considering 'permanent' opponents, were as equitable over five seasons as could be. Looking back to 2023, OBD had a cakewalk conference schedule in 2025, including a home game vs. the pathetic Indiana Hoosiers. In theory, I love your scheduling matrix idea. It kind of works in the NFL, which is dedicated to parity, but the NFL has nowhere near the yearly roster turnover of today's CFB. And the NFL also has restraints on the number of terrific players a team can buy every year. I think forecasting schedules for five seasons, as we have in the B1G, or three seasons like the SEC, is as close to equitable as today's CFB format can allow. My biggest beef with Oregon's schedule this season is not with the opponents but with eight P4 games without a break and traveling to the Eastern time zone twice in November. Thanks again for the great article.

This season, it is Ohio State's turn to have the most difficult B1G football schedule. OBD's and Indiana's schedules are also more difficult than last season. Wisconsin goes from the most difficult conference schedule last season to one of, if not the easiest, conference schedules this season. So it goes. This is what the B1G HQ aimed for when it came up with the football schedules through 2028. Balance as much as possible over five seasons. With the vagaries in roster talent and the money invested in football, what we have in the B1G today is the best we can hope for. Am I happy Oregon's schedule in 2026 is more difficult than in 2025? No. When the schedules through 2028 came out, I think Dan Lanning and Ryan Day highlighted games against one another, but not games against Indiana. Just like the SEC teams three years back were not worried about Vanderbilt. When putting the schedule together, no one knew that Indiana would be a playoff team in 2024 and win a title in 2025, or that Ohio State would lose two games in 2024 and win a title, that Wisconsin's QBs would be injured in the first game of the last three seasons, or that Michigan's head coach would be fired. Try as you might, there are too many variables in CFB, as is the case in life, to come up with 'equitable' conference schedules every season. Would two more B1G teams and divisions make things more equal? I don't think so. Adding two more teams that are not bottom-line accretive will not help the bottom line, and will not bring in more media dollars or make a material difference in the teams that win titles. Thanks again for a terrific ponder point article.

Hats off to a judge with gumption. When 'Anything Goes in CFB' morphs into Peyton Manning possibly returning to play QB for Tennessee ... On3Judge denies Joey Aguilar preliminary injunction against...A judge has denied Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar a preliminary injunction in his lawsuit against the NCAA.

Is smoking cigs still against the rules in Bloomington? If so, are you allowed to put them out? You could be spot on, my friend. I relied (lied?) on On3. But I'll still wager that next to Julius Caesar, and we know how that ended, Cig placed the all-time bet on himself. And even at the Quacking losing end, it was great to witness.

Grandpa, I enjoyed this and your other articles, and I admire your quest for 'Fairness in Scheduling.' The NFL does everything it can to ensure that one team does not have more Jimmy's and Joe's than another NFL team. But there is no accounting for Joe Montana and Tom Brady. If CFB were a collective of 138 teams, or, more likely, 68 Power 4 teams, would conference schedules be 'in synch' if there was a high school draft with draft choices based on the reverse order of the prior season's results, restrictions on transfers, a salary cap on direct payment, but not on a player's unrestricted NIL deals, penalties for improper contact with players and coaches, and a conference schedule that gave the prior season successful teams the most difficult schedules and the worst teams the easiest schedules? Doing all it can, the NFL cannot come up with 'equitable scheduling?' Oregon State's rules of the CFB road are no different than Oregon's rules of the road. The rules were the same for Bear Bryant's and Nick Saban's Alabama teams as for the other members of the SEC. Oregon men John McKay and John Robinson had success at USC. Clay Helton had the same resources and ... Perhaps, in a perfectly balanced CFB world, 34 of 68 teams could finish 6-6. But you and I know that this isn't happening on this plane of existence. When the Big Ten had 14 teams with two divisions, the East Division dominated. Regardless of travel and traditional issues, swap Ohio State and Penn State with Minnesota and Iowa, and there would have been a material difference? Most likely, Ohio State and, on occasion, Penn State, would have played East champ Michigan for the conference title season after season. Again, I very much enjoyed the article and the discussion it engendered, but at least from my experience, you can legislate, in part, moves toward societal equality, but equality in sports? The wheel turns. Not so long ago, Drew Brees and Bob Griese led Purdue to B1G titles. We just witnessed Purdue's rival, Indiana, make the greatest Phoenix-like flight in the history of the sport. IMO, there is no way you can make any conference in football or any sport at whatever level, grade school through the NFL, equal. Because humans in every respect are not equal. And this is why Indiana's champ game meant, sorry SEC, so much more. Add ASU and Arizona, CU and Utah, or Notre Dame and ? to the B1G, and have 10 teams in a West and East conference? Such a great article and fun to discuss. However, the cream, or more in synch with today's game, the dough, will rise.

A bit more on the game and the final score, starting with USA coach, John Wrobleski - JW played his college hockey in the Big Ten, skating for the Notre Dame Irish. In the Gold Medal game with the USA down 1-0, Wrobleski had the gumption to pull his goalie and send 6 attackers on the ice with more than two minutes left. The equivalent of a Hail Mary attempt in football before the final play of the game. USA team captain Hilary Knight, who played college hockey for Wisconsin and was in her fifth and final Olympics, scored the game-tying goal with a little over one minute remaining in regulation. With netting her 15th goal to tie the game, Hilary Knight finished her Olympic hockey career with the most Olympic goals scored for the USA. Laili Edwards, 14 years younger than Hilary, is also a Badger and the first Black woman to play on the Women's Olympic team. Growing up in Cleveland, Hilary was Laila's hero. Megan Keller, who grew up in Big Ten country in Detroit and played her college hockey at Boston College, scored the winner in OT. Hats off to Canada, defeated earlier in the qualifying rounds by the USA 5-0, for giving us a Gold Medal game that harkens back to Mike Eruzione and the 1980 Miracle on Ice game. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/inside-john-wroblewskis-hockey-career-163546685.html Sunday, 8 AM Eastern, 5 AM Pacific, NBC, the USA men's hockey team plays Canada for the Gold Medal. Six B1G boys play for the men's team.

By Gosh! Here's an update on Tosh. His recruiting efforts did not Sag. Instead of saying, 'Aloha, Bears, ' Sag stayed in Berkeley. On3'Where's Jaron?' Inside Cal coach Tosh Lupoi's wild first...New Cal coach Tosh Lupoi had a wild first day that included an impromptu flight to Hawaii to lock down QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

If you're Smart, you should answer the phone. 🤪 On3Fernando Mendoza reveals what stopped him from choosing G....

Is help coming in Dana's direction? Oregon Ducks On SITwo Recruiting Targets That Could Change Everything for O...The Oregon Ducks basketball program is in a position to add to an already solid group of 2026 basketball recruits, who are now committed and have also signed a

A couple of B1G notes - OBD is one of 10 CFB teams that did not lose a 2025 starter to the portal - OBD, Arizona, Army, BYU, Miami, Notre Dame, SMU, Temple, and VA Tech. Curt Cignetti scores again! Cig's contract has automatic escalation clauses based on what the highest-paid CFB coaches are making. His adjusted payment of $13.2 million per annum will make Cignetti the highest-paid coach in CFB. CBB - Two of tomorrow's games could be a preview of the 2026 Final 4. No. 1 Michigan vs. No. 3 Duke in DC - 6:30/3:30 ESPN No. 2 Houston vs. No. 4 Arizona - 3/ Noon ABC I think Cig won the bet he placed on himself, right? 🤑

Thanks, Mike. It's always great to 'hear' from you, terrific articles and comments-wise. OBD is 2-for-2 in qualifying for the 12-team playoff. In 2024-25, OBD went 1-1 versus the team south of Michigan. Because of the screwed-up seeding format, OBD played Ohio State in the 2nd round instead of the winner of the Boise State at Indiana 1st round game. Against one of these two teams, Oregon shakes off the rust and wins the Rose Bowl. My guess is that no other No. 1 seed in the postseason history of college sports playoffs, team and individual, has ever been hosed over as badly as was No. 1 seed Oregon. The other seeding bad juju also involved the Rose Bowl. Joey Harrington and OBD, and not Nebraska, should have played Miami for the BCS title. However, was there a Rose Bowl opponent that could have defeated that Hurricanes team that embarrassed Nebraska 37-14? How about NO! There's bad luck, and then there's being screwed over so badly by the system in place that the rules are changed the following season. 🤬 Last season, a group of wounded Ducks lost its second game in a two-loss season to the champion Indiana team playing with the Heisman Trophy winner at QB. Had the 2nd loss been played in Bloomington, Indiana, instead of in Atlanta, 30,000 to 40,000 fewer Hoosiers fans would have been in attendance. This was the second occasion in 2025-26 that the Ducks had to travel thousands of miles more than their opponent. Under the current playoff format, Oregon is odds-on to be the 'victim' of geography. Call this 'bad luck' if you so choose, but you cannot Duck geography. Urban Meyer's Ohio State team that defeated OBD was loaded with future NFL players. Same for Ryan Day's championship Ohio State team. Both teams had and benefited from a roster advantage. Indiana? Even playing at home, Miami could not overcome the fickle finger of football fate that came up pointing at the biggest rebound in the history of college football; a history that goes back to 1895 when Yale went 16-0. So yes, to win it all, you have to be lucky as well as good. The Auburn and $cam loss was a referee's hose job at the hands of Big Ten refs who didn't have the foresight to see they were favoring the SEC over a one-day B1G brother. 😧 But the two champ game losses to Ohio State and the home and Peach Bowl loss to Indiana? The Buckeyes and the Hossiers had the better team, the better-coached, and better-prepared teams. Teams that also, for the most part, avoided the injury bug. Season five for Danno. It took Kirby Smart six seasons to win it all and six seasons for Ryan to win the Day. Let's hope that for OBD, timing will soon meet opportunity. This season is the only time under the current broadcast agreement that the playoff champ game will be played in the Pacific time zone. See you in Las Vegas? Can't win it all if you ain't playing for it all. No thrill of victory 😍 without the possible agony of defeat. 🥶 Thanks again, Mike!

USA gals are Golden. 😍 In a game that went into Overtime, USA 2 - Canada 1.

Amen, but CFB sold the right to make playoff and bowl decisions to Disney/ESPN.