Jon Joseph

How about A&M! First win on the road against a top 10 team since 2014. 13 road games vs. top-10 losses before tonight's win in South Bend. ND at Arkansas this Saturday won't be a lay-up for the Irish. The Hogs on the road at Ole Miss were in the game to the very end of a seven-point loss shoot-out. ND, without another top 25-ranked opponent on the schedule to date, could be in PO trouble. With Pitt losing the Back Yard Brawl game to the West Virginia Rich-Rods, USC, 3-0, and a 33-17 winner at Purdue, could be the Domers' only top-25 opponent hope.

With Ls vs UNLV and New Mexico, UCLA has secured last place in the Mountain West. Nico - 'This is what I get for coming home?' I hope our friend Nevada Dawg, ND, didn't have to call on an MD as the Dawgs somehow walk away with another W over the Vols. Fantastic game! 1901 - last time TOSU lost to an in-state opponent, but Ohio kept it close until it didn't. Michigan, in a walkover game, decides to play the O it should have last week. Perhaps Sherrone should serve more minutes in the penalty box. Beavis should have snuck out during the weather delay. And Wazzu? Thanks for being the weeds mowed down by The Big Green Machine. 1st huge game of the season next Saturday when OBD faces the top team in the Pac-12, right? This year's Indiana could well be ... Indiana. 73-0 Largest Hooisir shutout since 1901. In honor of two B1G 1901's, Hats Off to Teddy Roosevelt! This year's 2024 FSU could be Clemson. Sue your ACC off at your own risk? USC 33 - Purdue 17 - SC wins its first B1G road game as a conference member and goes 1-9 in its last 10 road games in the Eastern time zone; first win since 2012. Great News! OBD is now 1-1 vs, the NW Wildcats! 1974? What are you good for? Absolutely Nothing!

OBD - TCB in CHI 😍

Holy Hoosier! 73-0 over Indiana State. I guess the 3-0 Hoosiers were perfect from the 3-point line. 😁 Interesting game next Saturday when the about-to-be 3-0 Illinois visits 3-0 Indiana. Meanwhile, Syracuse brushed off (🤪) Colgate 66 to 24.

After watching Caleb Downs in the Rose Bowl, I'm certain OBD was looking for a guy with the same kind of skills. Two games to go, and don't count your Ducks before the eggs hatch, but the chess match on both sides of the ball in the middle of a White Out should be fascinating. Thanks again to you, Coach, Charles, Mike West, David Marsh, and other enlightened X+O posters for providing a deeper dive into the nuances not readily apparent to the viewer. (Especially after a 'few' primo IPAs 😁)

5 Keys: Ask For A Wake-Up Call😁!

How would you like this kind of cross-town friend? 🤬 https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/2025/09/12/roundtable-panel-discusses-badly-tennessee-blow-out-ucla-football/86087428007/?utm_source=smg-trojanswire-strada&utm_medium=email&u

Two stats of interest. Northwestern surrendered 269 rush yards to Tulane and is 122nd in the country in rush yards surrendered. USC at Purdue - SC has not won a game in the Eastern time zone since 2012, and is 0 for the Eastern time zone since joining the B1G. Change flight attendants? 😁

Thank you, Charles, for hosting the contest! OBD 56-10 NW TOs - 3 Sacks - 3 Pass - 250

Great post, Charles, thank you. Oregon makes up for its (beautiful, no doubt) location by having an aligned and energetic recruiting operation—this and the money invested in recruiting. Oregon is doing this notwithstanding being a half-share Big Ten partner through 2030. As many others have asked over the years, what are Rutgers, Maryland, Purdue, and Nebraska (!), for example, doing with all of the Big Ten money? I ask, why does an 18-team Big Ten with the revenue the conference is bringing in and shared equally across the board, have but five Blue Chip Roster teams? (I give small private school with sterling academics, Northwestern, a pass. Especially, a portal pass.) Many B1G members with the same revenue share are not spending the money to compete in the conference and on the national stage. If the PO committee has a metric that gives appropriate weight to the strength of schedule, no more G5 teams ranked 9th in the nation please, conference performance top to bottom will matter. G6 Tulane put up 269 rush yards against Northwestern. Once every 30 to 40 seasons, the Willdcats will rise up and play terrific football. But that's it. I get the populist appeal of every member team receiving the same slice of revenue. But IMO this should be conditioned on every member investing an agreed-upon minimum for football and men's basketball. Otherwise, why should the top spending teams that produce positive results share with those unwilling to spend the money? Mississippi State just defeated ASU. Vandy blew out VA Tech on the road. (OK, I hear you. Florida did lose to USF 😁.) Could the bottom third of the B1G win these games? As Dan Lanning said, Oregon spends money to win! Oregon's partners should do the same or IMO, be treated like junior partners. Going the extra mile is paying off for OBD.

Thank you, Smitty. Terrific, informative post. 9 AM body time KO is not something a team experiences often in a season, thank goodness. Northwestern usually does not kick off at 11 AM Central. Long flight? Eugene to Denver flight time 2 H 23 M. To Chicago is 4 H 20 M. So, 2 H 20 M longer on an airplane, not on a train or a bus. Football is one sport where body clock time of day can matter, but negative consequences from travel are IMO, exaggerated. Right, Mick Cronin? 😁 Everyone on the flight has entertainment and educational materials in their hands. And also the opportunity to study game prep materials. For the guys who will make to the NFL, get used to it. I think many of the players and coaches, who practice early in the day, would prefer to KO early and not sit around until 7:30 or 8 PM. And with the time difference, the team will be back in Eugene at a reasonable hour. How about traveling East to West instead? Next week's game of Michigan State at USC kicks off at 11 PM Eastern time and will end around 3 AM Eastern. (3 hours alloted for broadcast time are a joke.) The Spartans won't be back home until Sunday afternoon. Thanks again and Waste the Wildcats!

Updated CFB QB rankings. Dante is up to No. 3 without having thrown a pass in the 4th quarter.😍 https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2025/09/11/college-football-quarterback-rankings-carson-beck/86078091007/

We will see more P4 vs P4 out-of-conference games canceled. SEC teams are likely to follow Florida after the SEC went to nine conference games. Like Florida, I think most SEC teams bargained for cancellations without penalty if the SEC went to nine. The SEC does require its teams to play one P4 opponent in addition to nine conference opponents. I expect that the Wake Forest switchboard is melting down.😁 One reason Tony Petitti wants an AQ PO format is so marque OOC games will be scheduled. SIFlorida Bails on Three Future Home-and-Home Series Amid S...From a PR standpoint, the Gators' timing could hardly be worse.

The Genius, OC Will Steain https://www.foxsports.com/stories/college-football/will-stein-secret-genius-behind-oregons-scorching-offense

Pressure? Pressure! Six College Football Programs Under The Most Pressure in Week 3

College Football News: What to Watch for in the Big Ten in Week 3. https://collegefootballnews.com/college-football/big-ten-week-3-what-to-watch-for-2025

Will the Ducks Play Like America's Best Team Again? https://collegefootballnews.com/college-football/oregon-vs-northwestern-prediction-preview-2025

CBS Sports - Harsh Reality for the top 25 ranked teams. OBD without a tough game before Week 5 is harsh? Hmmm. https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/one-harsh-reality-facing-every-ap-top-25-team-cade-klubniks-rocky-start-texas-issue-at-wr-and-more/

Place your bets? Double Down with the Ducks! 😁 ESPN.comWeek 3 best bets: Lay the points with the Ducks at Northw...Pamela Maldonado breaks down her favorite bets for Week 3 of the college football season, including two for the Oregon-Northwestern game.

Matt Hayes should move into the 21st century. CFB is no longer an after-school sport played on Saturday afternoon in the sunshine. Hayes and other writers, like Stewart Mandel, have benefited from CFB being a big business. Yet, they want the good old days? Clemson and FSU won, got the revenue share model they wanted, along with a decreasing exit fee. If TOSU is Rome, is the ACC Carthage? I get the populist one-size-fits-all argument, but it is not grounded in any business model. In what capitalist enterprise does an entity that invests more money in its product and receives a better return than those that invest less agree to split its share equally with less successful competitors? Where and when this model has been tried out, entire economies have failed. This is the same faux outrage thrown at Tony Petitti for wanting a committee that does its business in the dark to disappear in favor of automatic qualifiers. Since the inception of the BCS, the model Petitti desires mirrors the on-field results. 'Facts are stubborn things.' John Adams

Ohio State is asking for a conference revenue share model that the ACC, for the most part, has adopted. Under Eat What You Kill, keep your earned postseason winnings, and Eyes on the Prize, more money for teams with the most-watched games, OBD like TOSU would benefit. The five B1G teams with Blue Chip Football rosters, OBD, TOSU, Michigan, Penn State, and USC, would benefit. I get TOSU wanting more revenue than Rutgers and Purdue. With direct Revenue Sharing post-House, revenue is more important than ever. And NIL is not going away. To think that bottom-feeder P4 programs will improve with equal revenue shares is a pipe dream. TOSU's suggested revenue format is happening in the ACC and will happen, IMO, in the Power 2 with the next media deals if not before. CFB is a B1G, Big Business. Teams investing more money, that demand an unequal revenue share, and improved ROI make absolute business sense. A Football Super Conference is coming, and likely sooner than we think.

On3's top 10 Week 3 games. On3Top 10 games to watch Week 3 of college football seasonOn3 is breaking down the top 10 games of Week 3 with College Football Playoff implications across the board.

The only bad thing about discussing Week 3 games? It's not the weak Big Ten schedule; it's come Sunday, the regular season will be 25% over. The good thing is that heading into Week 4, with 75% of the regular season to play, OBD and USC are odds on to be 1-0 and in B1G 1st place. Friday, 9/12 - The B1G weekend kicks off with two Friday night appetizers. 2-0 No. 22 Indiana vs. Indiana State - If this were basketball and Larry Bird hadn't left the Sycamores building, State might have a chance. But that was yesterday and ... 3:30 Big Ten Network (BTN) 0-2 UCLA -15.5 vs. New Mexico - It's been frosty so far for Coach Foster, Nico, and the Bruins. The most intriguing wager - Over/Under 20,000 'fans' in the Rose Bowl. +5.5 Colorado and Coach Prime in East Coast Prime Time at Houston. 4:30 PAC time on ESPN. Saturday, 9/13 - The B1G conference season kicks off with: Our 2-0 No. 4 Beloved Ducks -27.5 at 1-1 Northwestern - Week 2 Flashback - 69 points vs. the Groveling Gundy's were the most points scored by Oregon against a Power opponent ever. The most points given up by a Mike Gundy-coached team, and the most points surrendered by the Cowboys since Oklahoma achieved statehood in 1907. 😍 Evanston: Amber to Bright Red Scoreboard Alert! Dante's 7th Circle of Hades is coming to your Campus! Prepare for Moore and Moore points to be scored. 9 AM Fox 2-0 No. 30 USC -21 at Purdue - Boilermakers coach Barry Odom is the first Purdue new hire HC to be 2-0 since Cleo A. O'Donnell in 1916. To date, the Trojans are the highest scoring team in the USA. This is the first meeting since 1998 when some guy named Drew Brees played QB for Purdue. USC won 27-17. 3:30 CBS - On his last broadcast lap, former Purdue QB Gary Danielson will be in the booth. Two final 2025 B1G P4 vs. P4 out-of-conference games (OOC). USC at Notre Dame on 10/18/25 will be the only remaining B1G OOC game to be played. (The last game in the series?) B1G Game with B1G Tradition Impact - Iowa vs. UMass - 4:30 PM BTN - It shouldn't take more than a minute for Kirk Ferentz's Iowa Hawkeyes to assert control over the UMass Minutemen on the way to Kirk's victory 206, the most games won by a Big Ten head coach. Move over, Woody! Last Saturday, UMass was upset at home by Bryant University. Take note, Mike Gundy! Bryant's football budget requires the head coach, the only coach on staff, to drive a circa-1960s Flower-Child decorated VW van loaded with the equipment, to road games. This duty becomes more noxious as the season progresses; Bryant doesn't have the money to wash unis before the season ends. 😧 Upon arrival, the coach hopes that at least 11 of the Bulldogs' 20-man roster, who have to hitchhike to away games, will show up before kickoff. Nevertheless, it would be wise to fade the -35.5 Hawkeyes; the Kinnock Stadium scoreboard isn't programmed to go above 20 points. 😁 2-0 Wisconsin +20.5 at 1-1 No. 19 Alabama - Line moved up from the Badgers +16.5. In 247 Sports Composite Roster Rankings, Bama is 2nd behind No. 1 Georgia. Bama was embarrassed in Tallahassee by FSU, and I think The Tide could Roll the Badgers. However, Wisconsin, with the 23rd-best roster ranking, will hold up and at least cover the spread. Maybe? This is the third of three B1G vs SEC 2025 OOC games, with the record at 1-1. Noon ABC 2-0 Minnesota at 2-0 Cal - Both teams have new starting QBs. Cal QB J-K Sagapolutele had a cup of coffee with the Ducks this spring before 'returning' to Cal. Sap may have the goods to save Coach Justin Wilcox's job. RS Freshman, and 3-star recruit out of Fayetteville, Arkansas, Drake Lindsey, is the new starter for the Gophers and has played well in his first two starts on the Golden Gophers' home field. This is a step up in competition for both teams, with Minnesota a slight favorite at -2.5. 7:30 PM ESPN The Rest of the (not so) B1G Week 3 games - 9 AM - No. 23 Michigan vs. Central Michigan BTN - Are marquee OOC games worth it? Michigan lost at Oklahoma. In the 21st century, Oklahoma is No. 1 in home game winning percentage. Michigan was not blown out in Norman but dropped in the AP Poll from No. 15 to No. 23. Until we see it in action, as far as we're allowed to see it, fans should be skeptical about a new playoff metric that will supposedly replace subjectivity with a 'precise calculation of schedule strength,' right? 🤪 Houston Christian at No. 35 Nebraska - FS1, Towson at Maryland - Peacock. 12:30 PM - No. 2 Penn State vs. Villanova, Michigan State vs. Youngstown State, BTN. 4 PM No.1 Ohio State vs. Ohio U. BTN, Western Michigan at No. 9 Illinois FSI Games with Playoff Impact - 9 AM No. 12 Clemson at Georgia Tech, ESPN 12:30 PM - No. 6 Georgia at No. 15 Tennessee, ABC 1:30 PM - No. 18 USF at No. 5 Miami, CW 4:30 PM - Florida at No. 3 LSU, ABC / No. 16 Texas A&M at No.8 Notre Dame, NBC Waste and Paste the Wildcats!

Come on Back 30! Mike West, please post whenever your schedule allows. Are the Dog and DiNardo brothers from a different mother? The nose knows.

KK, this is the perfect schedule for a team returning 4 starters and breaking in a new QB. Hopefully, OBD parlays this into a deep PO run and perhaps ... 😍