Jon Joseph

It's confirmed. Traveler has a Duck on his back. USC leads Oregon in 2026 football recruiting, but by how much? TROJANSWIRE.USATODAY.COM Oregon is not even in the top 10 of ESPN's current 2026 football recruiting rankings Today's rankings have nothing to do with SC removing Riley from his duties as the recruiting point man, AD Jen Cohen, and not Riley getting SC's NIL together, and SC paying $1M a year to a 'GM' to organize recruiting. This plus SC having 26 'commitments.' See ya on 11/22 in Autzen. And let's compare notes after signing day in December. BTW, today, OBD is ranked 4th in the quality of players who have 'committed.'

This might work if the regular season had ten games. With 24 teams and 12 regular-season games, how do you conclude the season before February? Even without Conference Champ Game weekend, and with every team playing in Week 0, you're running deeper into NFL playoff games. What entity will fund the first round of games featuring the 9 seed vs. the 24th seed, etc.? Visiting playoff teams last season received $3 million in travel expenses for travel to each away game and bowl games. The 4-4-2-2-1-3 format provides the same money for first-round games, with the 9 seed through 16 seed playing at the 1 through 8 seeds. There aren't 12 teams that can win a playoff, let alone 16, but 24? I don't believe the media would pay more for this format than for a 16-team format with no byes. Petitti and Sankey's format has the top eight teams playing a home game in the 1st round. Using this format in 2024-25 would have excluded only CU from the most-watched teams playing in the opening round. Using last season's final committee rankings, I'd rather watch No.1 seed Oregon play No. 16 Clemson in Autzen and No. 9 Boise State play No. 8 Indiana on the road, than watch No. 9 seed Boise host No. 24 seed UNLV, the third time these teams would have played last season. I believe ESPN would agree? And like it or not, money matters. No metric supports giving the 'little guy' a chance in a CFB playoff. A 24-team playoff would give 'the little guy' more money, but at what cost to the more successful, the more viewed programs? I want to see as few B1G varsity sports reduced to club sports as possible. The marketplace has separated the Power 2, and the playoffs should do likewise. A 24-team playoff has a populist appeal, but it is not grounded in today's college sports economics. There is zero financial reason for the Power 2 to keep the Lesser 2 and G6 football programs afloat at the expense of their athletic departments.

Some SI Love for PSU. (Written by Charles' grandson? 😁) Big Ten Football Primer: Penn State Primed for Jump, League in Position of Strength WWW.SI.COM Quarterback play around the conference will be key as teams look to make it three national championships in a row for the B1G.

Saturday Down South Projects Illinois to Make the 2025-26 Playoff. Predicting the Playoff: No. 9 Illinois - Saturday Down South WWW.SATURDAYDOWNSOUTH.COM Illinois finished 2024 with a bang to get to 10 wins, and with a team loaded with experience, it could earn its first Playoff berth in 2025.

FWIW - Saturday Tradition Post Spring B1G QB Rankings. Drew Allar, Elite? Big Ten QB Power Rankings: Post-spring tiers for every B1G QB room SATURDAYTRADITION.COM It's time to power rank the Big Ten quarterback rooms into tiers as we hit the summer and move toward the 2025 preseason.

Fun to discuss, but as Waggy as a WAG can get. I hope the O can come close to the predicted output. Montana State - I Remember the Idaho! OK State - Is there a QB on the ranch? Northwestern - Please, no mistake by the lake. Oregon State - A win over the Beavs with ease, but 49 points? PSU - Still OBD at -3.5. Drew Allar will turn the ball over at least once, and then, consider Little Game James? Hoosiers - Both teams have a week off to prepare. But would a month off prepare Indiana for the Autzen experience? Rutgers - Unlike the trip to Chicago to play NW, this is a B1G trip. Rutgers will be flying back home from Seattle the week before. Wisconsin - Win? Yes. 48-13? Iowa - Danno with a week to prepare. Iowa comes off home games against Penn State and Minnesota. USC - Will a one-loss or three-or-more-loss SC fly into Eugene? Troy was 1-5 in one-score regular season games in 2024. UW - Jedd Fisch comes into 2025 undefeated in Husky Stadium. My guessing-gut sees a floor of 10-2 and a return to what will likely be the last 12-team playoff. Subscription Cancellation Prompt -The author of this WAG, Zach Neel's Mothership, USA Today, has OBD finishing 9-3 and out of the 2025-26 PO. 🤬

I think the article would be better titled: 'Why Did Big Ten Baseball Fall Behind?' In the 1960s, the 'traditional' B1G teams were championship regulars: Ohio State 1966; Minnesota 1960 and 1964; Michigan 1962. UCLA was the last 'current' B1G team to win the title in 1998. USC has 12 championships and ruled the baseball roost for decades, including five consecutive titles from 1970 through 1974. As Charles so noted, 'bad-weather teams' can win baseball titles, but Oregon State is the exception and not the rule. Would more baseball on BTN matter? (I do not know whether more baseball is shown on the ACC and SEC networks than on BTN?) But a young man with MLB potential, if offered by a warm-weather team down south, is probably going to leave the north to play ball. And money matters. I don't know the money situation, but Mason Neville, who played high school baseball in Las Vegas, signed with Arkansas before transferring to OBD. I note that BTN has covered Neville in depth, as well as catcher Burke Lee Mabeus, who also played high school baseball in Las Vegas. Buke signed with OBD out of Bishop Gorman High School. Neville is one of 14 baseball players on Oregon's 2025 roster who transferred in. So, I think some NIL money has to be involved. According to Google's AI, SEC baseball teams annually average $820K to $920K in NIL deals. It is estimated that the top SEC teams have rosters with $1 to $4 million in NIL deals; see, Texas. AI does not have an NIL average for Big Ten baseball programs. The pending House settlement does not curtail NIL (in theory, it does so, with every NIL deal $600 and over being reviewed, but this will not withstand a court challenge). It is estimated that direct payments allowed by the settlement to college athletes will see 75% to football, 15% to men's basketball, 5% to women's basketball, and 5% to all other sports. Do B1G programs across the board, and their NIL collectives, have the desire to pay for championships in baseball when the conference hasn't won a men's basketball title since 2000? And no B1G program in the Midwest and the Northeast can pay its way out of bad weather. From the cratered Pac-12 prospective, what happened to USC and UCLA. It's not like the Conference of Champions beyond the Beavers was winning baseball championships. The B1G as a whole will likely negatively effect NCAA tournament seeding, but it will not hold back an excellent group of OBD baseball players making a run at the title. And, what BTN lacks in coverage is made up for at least in part by Charles,' aided by 30 Duck's, excellent coverage of the sport.

Let's see, I believe it is May 14, 2025. Thus, the following projections are as Waggy as a WAG can get. Do Not Take These Predictions and Your $ to a Betting Parlor. For Entertainment Purposes Only! 🤑 Game-by-game score predictions for Oregon Football in 2025 season DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM Game-by-game score predictions for the Oregon Ducks football team in the 2025 college football season.

I hope Dante doesn't have a Dickens of a time and ends up in the 7th circle! 😁 Seriously, if he's not ready now than stick a fork in him, he's done.

Friend 30, Spot Meets On. So much for the old home-state ties. No. 1 OT Jackson Cantwell commits to Miami as Hurricanes win heated recruiting battle over Georgia, Oregon - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Miami rode a late surge to secure the No. 1 OT in the 2026 class Miami rode a late $urge, right? 🤑 Have fun in the Lesser (Loser) 2.

I don't know? Perhaps $30 a month all in is 'fair and reasonable?' If I can't record, I don't want to cut the cord. ESPN direct-to-consumer bundle price revealed - On3 WWW.ON3.COM .

YES! A Prediction for an Eugene PO Regional.👍👌😍 Field of 64 Projections: Two new hosts spark changes through NCAA Tournament entering final week - On3 WWW.ON3.COM One week remains in college baseball's regular season, and two new hosts have sparked a ton of changes in this week's Field of 64. 1st, keep your Eyes on that Hawk!

We have met the enemy! And they are us?

I understand the umbrage over PO play-in games. However, as it so happened last season, both the champ game winner, Oregon, and the loser, PSU, made the PO field. The 4th-place B1G finisher, Ohio State, made the field. With a 16-team field, the loser of the play-in game, B1G representative No. 2, is going to be highly seeded in a 16-team postseason tournament, a tournament with no 1st round byes. Rarely, if ever, will the team that finishes 2nd in the B1G be seeded lower than No. 8, and with a 1st round home game. Come 2026, seeding will equate with the PO committee's final ranking. Oregon got a double dose of format blues last season. With a four-team PO still in effect, in the semifinals, OBD rematches with PSU, and Georgia rematches with Texas. Ohio State is still debating whether to fire Ryan Day. In any and likely every postseason tournament ever played anywhere, No. 1 Oregon plays the winner of No. 9 Boise State at No. 8 Indiana in the Rose Bowl. Likely wins the game and moves on. With mega-conference in-conference strength of schedule being all over the place, I think the B1G team in second place after the 11th game of the regular season, could well be better than a first-place team that played a far easier conference schedule. Consider OBD's schedule in 2027. OBD plays at Michigan and hosts Ohio State and Penn State. OBD also draws Iowa at home, and plays at Nebraska, UCLA, and UW. 6 home games with an OOC game in Waco, Texas against Baylor. I have not parsed all of the 2027 B1G schedules, but if Oregon is second in the conference standings with this schedule after game 11, I believe OBD will be more than worthy of a shot at the conference championship. If every team had the same in-conference strength of schedule, then I'd also be against the play-in format. I also do not know how much more revenue the B1G will receive with a play-in format compared to a one-off championship game that is likely to feature the B1G's biggest brands. But it is odds-on to be more money, or Petitti and Sankey would not be pushing a 16-team field and play-in games. Respectfully submitted, JJ.

One of the Big Network's college football go-to folks, Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, is a voice of 16-team playoff reason amidst the 'This Will Kill the Sport!' insanity. A 16-team College Football Playoff wouldn't be catastrophic; it would fix things WWW.YARDBARKER.COM The worst part of the 12-team playoff is the automatic byes for the top four conference champions. This article notes that as part of the 16-team playoff, the flex-week playoff play-in games are coming. These games will eliminate the stand-alone conference champ games, although one versus two may still be played at a neutral site, and end the season one week earlier. The play-in format is expected to bring in more money than one stand-alone conference champ game. Last season, OBD would have played Penn State for the title, possibly in Autzen, with Iowa visiting Indiana, and Illinois visiting Ohio State. NO rematch regular season games would have been played in 2024. The B1G's first and second-place teams would play one another, with both guaranteed one of the conference's four playoff bids. Three plays six and four plays five for the other two spots. Mega-conference 'hit and miss' top opponents scheduling, and every CFB metric supports a 4-4-2-2-1-3 format.

I hope the Wake in Columbus is an Irish Wake 🍻. Ohio State fans in mourning after FOX likely dooms biggest games to noon kickoffs SATURDAYBLITZ.COM Ohio State fans have seen this story before—and they’re not any happier about it the second (or third) time around. Once again, the Buckeyes are heading into a Buddy, Big Noon may bring in a large number of viewers, but the number pales against ESPN/ABC prime time games.

Spot On. There is NO WAY ESPN/ABC would have carried this game other than 3:30 or 7:30 PM Eastern. Playing this game at 9 AM Pacific means at least 2 to 3 million fewer viewers. Fox learned nothing from last season's numbers, when it was punched in the face by Disney/ABC/ESPN. I certainly understand and respect personal preferences regarding game times. For Moi, a KO at Noon means I can watch the entire game without having to take a nap. 😴 However, CFB is a big business, and the conference needs partners to help make it as B1G as possible. Greg Sankey never fails to leverage the SEC product. In fiscal 2025, the SEC will close in on the $88 million less in revenue than the B1G received in fiscal 2024, by having ESPN pay as much as $80 million for the conference to play a ninth regular-season game. Brutal schedules for the SEC's top teams in 2024 (sans Texas) cost the conference a playoff spot, but will generate far more dollars than having one more PO team. Greg played the long game and scored. I like B1G commish Tony Petitti, but his coming from a broadcast/media background did not help with game times. Ohio State was not happy about its seven Big Noon games in 2024. The most anticipated out-of-conference game in years, kicking off at Noon in Columbus, is not making Buckeyes coaches and fans happy. Last season, Penn State wanted the advantage of a White Out game when Ohio State visited. Didn't happen. The White Out game came against UW. Even though a Big Noon KO means the Ducks will be playing ball at 9 AM body clock time, I'm certain PSU would prefer a 7:30 PM local KO and a White Out. HORNS DOWN! I see 0-2 against the Dawgs in 2024 being at least 0-3 and perhaps 0-4 before the end of this season. James Franklin gets big game record roasted, but how many championship and playoff games has Sark won on the road and neutral sites? One? When Texas escaped with the W over double-digit dog ASU in double OT in the 2025 Peach Bowl. (Because the refs swallowed a targeting whistle. 🤮) And 12-seed Clemson gave Texas all it could handle last season in Austin. Go Ducks! Go Dawgs! (Except when it comes to xxxxxxx recruiting 🤬)

Commissioner Tony cannot be happy about this. Fox Sports Under Fire for Decision on Texas-Ohio State SPORTS.YAHOO.COM Following the Ohio State Buckeyes’ historic run through the College Football Playoff—where they defeated Tennessee, Oregon, Texas, and Notre Dame en route to their first national title since the 2014...

Daughter Alexis DeBoer bailed on Daddy and Dixie, stayed at UW, and was the B1G's Softball Freshman of the Year. With what he was left with, I think Fisch did a terrific job getting UW to a bowl game last season. Jedd could end up being a B1G Fisch.

CBS Sports Post-Spring Ranking of the B1G. Big Ten post-spring power rankings: Ohio State on top; will tough schedule stunt Wisconsin's growth? - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM Scanning the Big Ten landscape ahead of the 2025 season with spring practices in the rearview

Kudos to Payton, Keep Coming! QUACK! Payton Pritchard steps up for Celtics in Game 3 win vs. Knicks, and it goes far beyond his 3-point shooting - CBSSports.com WWW.CBSSPORTS.COM The Sixth Man of the Year came up big at MSG

Gimme the Top 5 B1G Coaches. 2nd place Danno has Day in his sights 😉 BIG Ten Football: Ranking the top 5 coaches in the conference heading into the 2025 season SATURDAYBLITZ.COM The Big Ten has won back-to-back National Titles, with long-time rivals Michigan and Ohio State also winning titles. Along with the SEC, the Big Ten is consider

The author of this article argues that both UCLA and OBD were hosed.

Softball Ws and Ls. NCAA softball tournament winners, losers, snubs from 2025 selection show WWW.USATODAY.COM The 64-team field was set for the 2025 NCAA softball tournament. Here's a look at the winners, losers and snubs from Sunday's selection show:

Thank You, NJ! I note that OBD is not leading the recruiting rankings for the 2026 class. This ranking matters on signing day in December, period. Today, OBD is No.4 in the average ranking of 2026 recruits 'committed' to Dan and the program. With the transfer portal available for plugging holes on a contender's roster, a cumulative ranking, like this one from ESPN, matters today, not just in December. Follow the $$$ - 12 SEC teams and 7 B1G Teams are in ESPN's top 25. 7 of last season's 12 PO teams, including Boise State, will have a new starter at QB in 2025.