Jon Joseph

Don't mess with Dan! Oregon Football Coach Dan Lanning 'Terrifying' The Big Ten Conference? WWW.YARDBARKER.COM The addition of Oregon, Washington, UCLA and USC to the Big Ten Conference is now official, but Oregon coach Dan Lanning has been working his recruiting magic for quite some time now.

Think Dante. Akili, and QBs on the line are liking this? And will Stein, please pour yourself a glass (or 3 or 4) of fine Willemette Valley wine, the Finest Kind. 😍😍😍

I Am Fired Up!

Puzzling? Yes. Meant to correct Sir D Moore being referenced in the lede before Danno added Moore to the 2025 haul. INCREDIBLE! This was my weak effort at correcting 'the record.' As my ancestor Adams is noted for saying: 'Facts are stubborn things.' 'So. get it right, Junior!' The Fact is: Danno wins, Sark takes the L! 😍

And they're probably guzzling cases of Lone Star Beer in Austin right now. 😍

All Right! DK is in the house! Let the fireworks begin!

Here are a few 'Revolutionary War' facts not generally known. One of the first persons killed in the Civil War, in the 'Boston Massacre" in 1770 was the free black man Crispus Attucks. It has nothing to do with me but Being Here, but my ancestor John Adams at his and his family's risk and a significant economic loss to his legal practice was the defense counsel who somehow won a 'Not-Guilty' verdict from a Boston jury in front of his cousin, Sam Adams, the Sons of Liberty, and a biased jury of Bostonians. The Tax Act that led to the Boston Tea Party lowered taxes on tea. However, it gave a monopoly on the Tea Trade to the East Indiana Company and the Company's armed merchant ships. This did not sit well with John Hancock and Sam Adams who were at the top of Boston's tea smugglers. My fellow Bowdoin alum, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's poem, 'The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere' helped make Paul famous. Paul set off for Concord and Lexington along with William Dawes and Doctor Samuel Prescott. Paul fell off of his horse. Dawes got lost. Sammy was the one who informed the Lexington and Concord militias that 'The British are Coming!' But Revere was easier to rhyme than Dawes or Prescott. BTW, among many other pursuits, Paul was a dentist. Private and slave, Prince Estabrook, was a member of the Concord Militia and was wounded at the Battle of Concord. Estabrook served in the Colonial Army from 1775 to 1783 and passed in 1830 at the age of 88 to 89. Like Crispus Attucks, he was considered a Hero of the Republic. 5% of the Continental Army was comprised of Black soldiers. The Battle of Bunker Hill was fought on Breeds Hill. 'Molly Pitcher's' name was Mary Hays. Mary passed in 1832. Mary was only one of the many women who bore arms on behalf of the Continental Army. 3200 copies of the original Declaration of Independence were printed. The author of the Declaration, Thomas Jefferson was the Ambassador to France at the time the Constitution was drafted and approved. A staunch opponent of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists, Jefferson was appalled by the power the Constitution gave to the federal government. He was never again on friendly terms with George Washington and his relationship was John Adams was strained for decades. Both Adams and Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, 50 years to the day the Declaration was made public. Adams was 90, Jefferson 83. Not knowing that Jefferson had predeceased him, Adams's last words were: 'Jefferson lives.' The American Revolution was the longest 'USA' conflict up to The Vietnam War. God Bless America.

DM, I agree with you. I'm surprised that O'Gara has the B12 with 2 teams in. K State makes sense; however, Utah plays OK State in Stillwater a very tough place to play and the Cowboys return almost all of their starters on O and D with Ollie by Golly (currently sidelined by a DUI) to run the ball and a QB in his 6th season of college ball. The SOS for the B12 top to bottom is B-A-D, bad. Not a Blue Chip roster in the bunch. I see the B12 as 2024's Cannibal Conference. I'm not certain that any B12 team including the champ comes through the season with fewer than 3 losses. And schedule-wise, if SOS does not matter to the PO Committee, at least 5 SEC teams have a path to 10 wins and a good chance to be in.

At least according to 'Saturdays' writer Connor O'Gara who 'promises' to come up with A Perfect Projection of the 2024 Playoff field and seeding. According to Connor, the 6th seed would have Oregon playing the 11-seed Utah in the first round which would probably be played on Friday, December 20, 2024, the first game of the 12-team playoff contested as was the case on January 1, 2015, when Oregon behind Heisman winner Marcus Mariota kicked off the 4-team playoff with a 59-20 beat down of Jameis, Jimbo, and a whole tribe of disappointed Seminoles. Predicting the Playoff: No. 6 seed Oregon WWW.SATURDAYDOWNSOUTH.COM The Ducks have a unique path to the Playoff, but it certainly exists. I'm holding out for the B1G No. 1 seed.

Only one Ducks sighting - No. 48 😒 USC No.1 is rubbing it in, no? 😍 Ranking college football's 50 all-time best playmaking duos 247SPORTS.COM A collection of quarterbacks, ballcarriers, wide receivers and defensive stars make up the comprehensive ranking.

Are Texas, Oklahoma ready for SEC? 'Adapt or die' moment arrives as Longhorns, Sooners make historic move - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Conference realignment kicked off on Monday as the Longhorns and Sooners officially migrated to the SEC ranks Some guy named Dennis weighs in.

ESPN SP+ maven Bill Connolly has weighed in with an SP+ by-the-numbers take on how teams should perform in their new conference home. (Bill's article on ESPN+ is behind a paywall.) You will note a difference in SP+ strength-of-schedule (SOS) rankings and the run-of-the-mill rankings. Unlike Sports Illustrated (SI) which uses a team's opponents' records in 2023 to value SOS, SP+ is a forward-looking metric that values a team's SOS by what SP+ says a team should play like in 2024. Following the money, I am focusing on the six teams moving on up to the Power 2; the B1G, and the SEC. Keeping with the $pirit of E$(ec)PN, let's begin with the $EC newbies, the Oklahoma Sooners and the Texas Longhorns. OKLAHOMA - SP+ 2024 15th/ 2023 17th Wins - 7.5/SEC wins - 3.6 SOS - 2024 3rd/ 2023 52nd A much more difficult SOS 'welcomes' the Sooners to the SEC. Six of the eight SEC opponents are SP+ ranked 16th or better. Oklahoma is moving from a '2-team conference' which it dominated to the deepest conference in the USA. And with the SEC punting on adding a conference game to play nine in a season and duplicating the 2024 conference schedules in 2025 but for a change of venue, Oklahoma gets to do this again next season. Plus, in 2025, Michigan comes to Norman for an out-of-conference (OOC) game. TEXAS - SP+ 2024 4th/ 2023 6th Wins - 9.9/ SEC wins 6.4 SOS - 2024 14th/2023 33rd Per Bill Connolly - "The only reason the Longhorns are ranked 14th in SOS is because of a nonconference trip to Michigan in Week 2. Texas does face a tough-as-it-gets visit from SP+ No. 1 ranked Georgia the Saturday after the Red River Rivalry Game vs, Oklahoma, but the only other SP+ top-20 SEC opponent on the schedule is the last regular game of the season in College Station vs. Texas A+M." Texas is flying into the SEC in 1st Class. In addition to playing Texas in Dallas, Oklahoma welcomes Tennessee and Alabama to Norman and visits Auburn, Ole Miss, Missouri, and LSU. Whew! That's the Coach seat next to the lavatory in the back of the plane. Sports Illustrated 2024 SOS ranking - Oklahoma 11/ Texas 49. The B1G Story - Welcome OBD and 3 Other Newbies UCLA Bruins - SP+ 2024 26th/ 2023 27th Wins - 6.2/ B1G Wins - 4.4 SOS - 2024 13th/ 2023 62nd You will recall, perhaps, that in 2023 UCLA did not play a P5 team OOC and also missed playing Oregon and Washington. UCLA takes the B1G-gest step up in the SP+ 2024 SOS rankings, 49 spots. The Bruins play LSU in Death Valley. (The week before playing OBD in LA.) UCLA's last regular season game in 2024 is against a good Fresno State team in LA. UCLA and new head coach DeShaun Foster, open the season playing Hawaii in Honolulu. Later in the season, the Bruins play Rutgers in New Jersey.; the farthest a college team will travel between games in 2024. In total, UCLA will fly 26,762 miles in 2024 to play six away games. Oregon's first B1G game will be played against old foe UCLA in LA on Saturday, September 28th. SP+ has UCLA higher ranked in the preseason than any preseason poll I have seen. USC Trojans - SP+ 2024 21st/ 2023 31st Wins - 6.4/ B1G Wins - 4.8 SOS - 11th/ 2023 - 23rd Bill Connolly: "USC is looking at only a 71% chance of qualifying for a bowl game." Yes, SC has a very tough schedule in 2024. SI ranks the Trojans schedule as the 2nd most difficult in the land. However, in 2024, SC does not play B1G champ favorites Ohio State and Oregon. SC plays at Michigan and a weakened Washington team in Seattle but plays Penn State (the Saturday after PSU plays UCLA in Happy Valley) and Wisconsin in LA, and misses a tough-as-nails-on-D Iowa team. It is conceivable that SC could drop the OOC games vs. LSU and Notre Dame and still qualify for the B1G Champ game. Mr. FishDuck and I have chuckled over a possible SC/Oregon B1G Champ Game on December 7th in Indianapolis. This would be a Day of Infamy for the traditional B1G schools; especially, the Ohio State University. The Other School Up North SP+ 2024 35th/ 2023 13th [SP+ did not like all of those 1-score wins] Wins - 6.5/ B1G Wins 3.8 SOS 2024 16th/ 2023 12th In its final seven games in the 2024 season, Who W plays seven teams, including the Ducks, Yuck, Yuck, Yuck, SP+ ranked 26th or better. Jedd Fisch is bringing in a quality QB in Will Rogers, who never met a Mike Leach play call he didn't like, along with a couple of big-name coaching sons of guns: Brennan Carroll and Steve Belichick. With a roster well beyond decimated, Jedd is going to need the help. However, Jedd sticks around Seattle and does not flee to his alma mater Florida, or elsewhere, and he will get the Huskies back to barking. The ultimate game of the 2024 regular season should get Danno off of the 0-3 UW whitewash. OREGON (Give It Up For OBD!) SP+ 2024 3rd/ 2023 3rd - (SP+ at the end of the 2023-24 season liked Puddles better than Bevo and that Flea Magnet Up North) Wins - 10.4/ B1G Wins 7.5 SOS - 2024 26th/ 2023 42nd [SI SOS 2024 - Oregon 5th/ Ohio State 57th] In 2024, Oregon is the only Power 4 team that will play eight games in a row without a break. Including the OOC game versus Boise State, the Ducks will play six (6). half the schedule, games against teams in the SP+ top 40. Puddles will be playing plenty of 'Quad 1' games. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................ Happy 4th OBD Campers + Get Ready For Some B1G Fireworks!

Thank you, Mr. Mandel: "(Note: [In 2023] the Pac-12 still existed ..." Let the word go forth all across Canzano Land!

Mandel's Mailbag: Brian Kelly vs. Lincoln Riley, plus, should we be rooting for Dabo Swinney? WWW.NYTIMES.COM Could NC State win the ACC? Will Tennessee live up to expectations? The 2024 college football season is approaching. Missing your Heisman-winning QB. Check. Defenseless in 2023. Check. B1G money spent on new D coaches out West and down in Dixie. Check. Riley tried to bail out of the game because he's S(E)Cared. Check. More Tigers than Trojans in the house. Check.

Not a single NCAA championship since 1939.

The Saturday Down South PO prediction. Predicting the Playoff: No. 7 seed Notre Dame WWW.SATURDAYDOWNSOUTH.COM The Irish might have the most favorable Playoff path among the contenders.

OK, Stewie is all over the map in the manner in which he applies his definition of College Football's New World Order. Here's an attempt to find some order in his grading. Pac-12 - Only Oregon and CU receive positive grades leading me to believe that Stewie has no idea how superior the coverage of B1G teams will be than was the coverage of teams in the Pac-12. No recognition of East Coast Bias from Stewie. Even SC post-Carroll had but for Williams Heisman QB play, fallen off of the national map. I would have had all four schools headed to the B1G no lower than +2. -5: Cal, Oregon State, Washington State. The latter two likely deserve a -10. From P5 to what exactly? Neither Pac-2 team will be treated as a Power Conference team for the next two seasons and not after the reverse merger with the MW or wherever these two end up. -4, Stanford and UCLA, -3, ASU, -2 USC, UW, and Arizona, -1 Utah, +1 CU, and +2 OREGON. For Oregon, I'm going with +4.5. The only concern is playing against Michigan, Ohio State, and Penn State. Oregon recruited against all three before and being in the B1G helps when going against these three for top drawer recruit. B1G - Ohio State is +5 and Oregon is +2? Ohio State benefits from the B1G adding a program that can compete with Ohio State and at least in the last outing, went toe-to-toe with and defeated the Buckeyes in Columbus. Ohio State benefits by traveling to the the Left Coast to play teams that are all better than the bottom of the B1G. Ohio State benefits by not playing Rutgers, Maryland, Michigan State, and Indiana every season. Stewart, I don't think so. Always a playoff bridesmaid 10-2 Penn State benefits from being free from the East Division. but I do not believe the same is true for Michigan and Ohio State. Iowa -4? Stewart, Iowa is officially out of the West Division shelter; however, Iowa is the only B1G school with three permanent opponents and all are from what once was the West Division: Minnesota; Nebraska; and Wisconsin. One-third of Iowa's opponents every season are in the same time zone. Penn State has no protected opponents. Iowa's in-conference schedule and travel will vary much less than PSU's and all other B1G teams with fewer than three protected opponents. SEC - I do not see how any SEC team benefits from having Oklahoma and Texas join the SEC. In 2024 and 2025, Georgia will play Texas away, and at home, Alabama will play in Norman, and Oklahoma in Tuscaloosa in 2025. Georgia is no longer assured of playing South Carolina and Vanderbilt every season. Alabama is no longer assured of playing Mississippi State and Arkansas every season. Neither Alabama nor Georgia had much of a problem making a 4-team playoff so how are they benefitted from the playoff moving to 12 teams? Moving to 12 teams means winning at least one or two more games to win a championship. B12 - YAWN. ACC - Be sure to catch the shot Mandel took at Mari(o.) It is familiar. Let's Play Ball!

Here's an answer from The Athletic's Stewart Mandell. Ranking CFB teams better off (Texas), worse off (USC), or same (Nebraska) in new era WWW.NYTIMES.COM Is your team better or worse off in the new college football landscape taking effect this year? USC is not the flavor of the month.

Ranking CFB teams better off (Texas), worse off (USC), or same (Nebraska) in new era WWW.NYTIMES.COM Is your team better or worse off in the new college football landscape taking effect this year? Expansion (and contraction) winners and losers.

Scarlet + Grey (Ohio State site) with some love for the Ducks? Other Big Ten teams besides the Ohio State football team who can make the CFP SCARLETANDGAME.COM The Ohio State football team isn't the only Big Ten team who has a chance to make the new 12-team College Football Playoff.

How many games will Michigan have to win in 2024 to be a playoff team? Calculating Michigan football wins needed for College Football Playoff at-large bid GBMWOLVERINE.COM The 2024 college football season is going to be the first that features the 12-team playoff. As far as Michigan footballfourth is concerned, that provides a gre Maize and Brew make a guess here but until we receive data from the PO Committee the answer is 'Who knows?' Let's take a look at a couple of M + M's. Sports Illustrated (SI) ranks Michigan as having the 10th most difficult schedule in the nation in 2024. SI ranks Missouri's schedule as the 127th most difficult. Mizzou will play Two, Dos, II, Due, teams in 2024 that won eight or more games in 2023. Oklahoma in CoMo, and Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Michigan will play seven teams with eight or more wins in 2023, including two of 2023-24's playoff participants. Fresno State, App State (what could go wrong?), Texas, USC, UW, OREGON, and Ohio State. It's down to 10-2 Mizzou, with a loss to Bama, OK, or both, and 9-3 Michigan for the 7th at-large spot in the playoff. Playoff Committee, which team gets the nod? December 8, 2024, could become a second Day of Infamy for college football fans.

NCAA - The lawyers' lifeline. 'WE never win, but WE get paid!'

Danno coming in 2nd is impressive.

Athlon's take on the B1G race. https://athlonsports.com/college-football/big-ten-football-2024-predictions

CBS Sports ranks Danno as one of the B1G's best head coaches. Big Ten coach rankings 2024: Ryan Day recaptures No. 1 spot as Lincoln Riley, Dan Lanning debut in top five - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Ranking the Big Ten coaches ahead of the 2024 season as the conference welcomes four new members "Sorry, Linc but I am not about to share the secrets to recruiting. Maybe you should ask Chip Kelly?"