Jon Joseph

Definitely agree Cincinnati got every benefit of the doubt last season. The Indiana team it played was bad. The Notre Dame team it beat in South Bend was overrated. The Committee ranked ND #5 at the end of the day; like Cincy, ND played a junk schedule in 2021. ND should have lost at FSU and Va Tech. Giving up a 21 point lead in the Fiesta Bowl was not good. And of course, ND at 11-1 and not having to play a champ game got the Fiesta bid instead of 11-2 ACC champ Pitt. ND's privileged PO status needs to disappear come 2026. I think 2L Ohio St, with all starters playing, as well as a 2L B12 champ Baylor, would both have given Bama a better game than an over-its-head Bearcats team. But we all know the second L is the PO kiss of death. UGA -13.5? It will be very interesting to watch the direction in which the line moves closer to game day.

Vandy = The Commodores Too many Tigers, including Mizzou, + Clemson and not enough Gamecocks roaming the south..

WSU is a sleeper, no doubt. But the team to beat in the north I still believe is the Ducks.

My only concern Chipper-wise is that he won 8 games last season but none against a team with a winning record. He lost a lot of production on O. I hope you are correct. The conference needs more fans in the Rose Bowl other than on 1/1.

Excellent take. There are 'serious' CFB fans in the Pac-12 footprint but not close to the number down south. One reason? Many the SEC teams are in small cities and towns that do not have NFL teams. And the interest in HS football is far greater down south than it is in the Pac-12 footprint.

247 Sports with the help of SP+ and ESPN's Bud Elliott, after simulating thousands of games has come up with these projected Pac-12 2022 win totals. 247's Brad Crawford, predicts the teams that he believes will go Under (U), Over (O) or Even (E) on the projected totals. Arizona - 4 - U - San Diego State and Mississippi State are tough draws OOC. And the FCS opponent is defending FCS Champ North Dakota State! ASU - 6 - E - So much dysfunction in this program from the president, Michael Crow, AD Anderson and Herm himself, on down. I see U here. CAL - 7 - U - I agree with the U. Jake Plummer coming in from Purdue at QB is not an improvement over Gabers. Colorado - 2 - O - Agree; I can see 3 wins. Stanford - 4 - O - Some good recruits coming. Once again no staff changes by Shaw. But I do think the QB is good enough to produce 6 wins? OREGON - 9 - E - I see 10-2, with the caveat below. Oregon State - 7 - E - With Boise State and Fresno State OOC I think 7 is optimistic? Who replaces RB Baylor? UCLA - 8 - E - The Bruins with a putrid OOC slate will start 3-0. So, with DTR back I think 8 wins is doable. USC - 8 - O - see comment below. Utah - 9 - O - If Utah wins at Florida as predicted, I think this is low. I think the Utes have a good shot at 12-1 and a final 4 spot. Washington - 6 - O - I think DeBoer is good enough if transfer QB Penix is healthy enough, to get 6 wins. But 2 UW CB's are projected as 1st round picks. Washington State - 7 - U - How good is transfer Cam Ward who last year in FCS threw 47 TDs against 10 picks. WSU could be the 'surprise' team in 2022. The simulations on their own predict 9 bowl eligible teams; I believe 7 is more likely. Utah is predicted to win at Florida, win the conference title but not make the playoff final 4. 8 wins would double last season's number of Trojans wins. I think this doable; however, I think SC is two good recruiting/portal seasons away from national championship contention. (As to ESPN's 2023 recruiting rankings to date, which is very, very early, the Ducks is not in the top 25. USC is.) I see the Ducks finishing 10-2, with BYU being the swing game between 9 and 10? The game in Pullman vs the WSU Cougars after playing the BYU Cougars at home is IMO, scary. For the most part the above projections look to me to be realistic. How about you, what do you think?

Whose next? Please, not Flounder!

Another great take. Thanks Joshua. Fertile recruiting ground, money and sorry, but it does kind of mean more. South Carolina, a mediocre at best CFB program, sells out close to a 100,000 seat stadium for every home game. This, in Columbia, SC, a city roughly the size of Eugene. In general, folks down south give more of a whip about HS football and CFB than do folks out west. The SEC has far more 4M+ viewer watched CFB broadcasts than any other conference. The SEC leads year after year in recruiting as you so noted, and also leads year after year in the number of players who move on and up to the NFL. I do agree with the coach's take, Oregon is located in a small city where fans give a whip and fervently, since Oregon became a big time brand, support Ducks football. But would the Ducks consistently sell out a 100,000 seat stadium? Sell out for a game versus The Citadel? Utah and UW fans care and show up. SC fans show up when SC is winning. Stanford can't sell out its 50,000 seat stadium when Notre Dame comes to town. The Rose Bowl was full when LSU played UCLA. Why? Because of the number of Tigers fans who tripped west for the game. I ponder over what the 'SEC mentality' is today? Watching the UGA D last season was to me, watching old time SEC brute force football. But watching Ole Miss on O and D in 2021? More like the old B12 rubric, all O and no D. Completely agree with you when it comes to recruiting. To win a title you must have a Blue Chip roster; 50% or more 4 and 5 star recruits on the roster. And in reality, you need closer to 70% of the players to be 4* plus guys. It was tough enough to win a title when you had to win 1 game vs a quality opponent. Now you have to beat 2 quality opponents in a row and this # will expand when the playoff expands. At least 1 of the elite teams you will have to beat to be a champion will more than likely come out of the SEC. Thanks again, always enjoy reading your takes.

The Wazzu president is one of the front-runners to assume the job, as is UW AD Jen Cohen (?) and the usual suspect, Oliver Luck. Does Bowlsby's resignation give the Pac-12 an opportunity to increase market-size?

Spot on regarding Chip. But was Chip the only guy using a 'runner' to help out with recruiting? Oregon was an easy target. The NCAA did nothing regarding two decades of academic fraud at UNC so UNC is a squeaky clean program? The NCAA practices selective investigation and enforcement. Teams in the west and the Midwest, like the 'Kansas City Jayhawks,' are more likely to be slammed than teams down south. When investigations take years and years and years, like the SC/Reggie Bush investigation and the Kansas CBB investigation now into its 4th plus year, something is fundamentally wrong with the investigators. If I used the NCAA as my moral compass I likely wouldn't be able to back out of my garage.

Thank you for the information.

As Charles' has pointed out the portal taketh away but also giveth. I am encouraged by how Dan Lanning and crew are 'working' the portal. Roster building matters via both recruiting HS players and recruiting out of the portal.

Mai Tai, I get it. But these types of 'committees' are being established across the country and to my knowledge, have been established to help with Oregon recruiting. I'm not certain that people understand what these committees do? And I hope I am not of bounds here regarding the re-hash of NIL. These committee's in return for the promise of a recruit to play at 'their' school are assigned the player's NIL rights. They are taking a risk that the recruit will not only add wins to the ledger at their school but that they will be able to market the recruit's rights for more than they are paying the recruit via the initial NIL deal. Phil Knight's generosity has been unprecedented. But Phil's contributions have been via facilities for the most part and not encouraging a young man to come play for Oregon for the money. Again, I get why you would want nothing to do with 'this' but I would be happy to chip into a collective that could help attract a player to decide to play at UO.

Doctor, I get your point. But's what new since James Naismith hung up a peach box on a stanchion at Springfield College? Win one for the Gipper? ND won with the Gipper when they could find and drag the Gipper out of a South Bend pool hall.

Sooner or later all of us are history, but I wish Travis Dye would have concluded his college CFB history in Eugene. How sweet would it be for the Ducks to take down Travis' Trojans in the Pac-12 champ game? For this to happen SC likely has to win in SLC and the Ducks will have to defeat Utah in Autzen. Both are doable.

Has anyone on OBD contributed to or been asked to contribute to 'the' or 'an' Oregon 'recruiting' committee? A committee designed to help with NIL transactions. I know at Florida for example fans can contribute a minimum of $9.99 up to $999.99. Perhaps there is a state cap on what an individual can contribute? Or perhaps, some king of 301(c) charitable cap? Regardless, to help Ducks recruiting I'd like to contribute a modest and not a Texas A+M-like sum. Appreciate any information I can get on this.

Know when to buy them?

The NCAA vs KU basketball is going to be a donnybrook. Self's new contract contains a clause that he cannot be fired for NCAA violations! The NCAA has been investigating KU for 4 plus years. Something about justice delayed? KU will take on the NCAA in federal court and Oregon will, again, have to chip in to help pay the NCAA's legal fees. (In the world we live in today one wonders if Tennessee will be sanctioned for its pre-NIL CFB pay for play cheating?) The NCAA is a regulatory dinosaur that should be put out of its misery sooner rather than later.

Thanks for the clarification; I stand corrected.

Scoreboard? Ethics in big time CBB may be an oxymoron? He brought it upon himself but it is amazing for KU to win a title when recruiting under the NCAA gun for 4+ years. Not a lot of these KU guys will be playing in the NBA. Question his ethics? I get it. But Self is one of the best coaches in CBB bar none. The NCAA runs him off and many the NBA team will be ready to sign him up.

Thanks. Great to have this information. Lots of polls as we know will be authored before the season starts. Who knows if UCLA's top 2 guys come back? Who knows what rosters will look like at the beginning of next season? Altman has proved to be masterful in bringing in new guys and producing good to excellent results. I'll be surprised if Oregon does not finish in or close to the top 25 and is invited to next season's tournament. Like the CBS poll I see a lot of love for the SEC, a conference that did not have a great tourney this season, in the ESPN poll.

Cards dealt? In today's world the hand you hold can change and change dramatically at any time. May 1st is the deadline for transfers to sign with a new school and be eligible for 2022. I expect that at the conclusion of spring practices around the country, a lot of players will be coming and going. I also expect for the reason Canzano noted, that many the starting position on paper at least, will remain open until fall practice. I expect many the post-spring roster to have player X, OR player Y, listed as the starter.

As CBS notes, with the transfer portal in play the following is subject to significant change. 1.UCLA 2. UNC 3. Kentucky 4. Baylor 5. Houston 6. Arkansas 7. Gonzaga 8. Kansas 9. Duke 10. Tennessee 11. ARIZONA 12. Michigan 13. Auburn 14. Creighton 15. Villanova 16. TCU 17. Texas A+M 18. Michigan State 19. Indiana 20. Colorado State 21. USC 22. Alabama 23. Dayton 24. Purdue 25. Oklahoma State NOTES - Dana Altman's old school Creighton is ranked, Oregon is not. Same 3 Pac-12 teams as made the tourney in 2021/22 are ranked. Little love for the ACC with only 2 teams, UNC and Duke, ranked. After back-to-back tourney meltdowns, the B1G is not getting much respect. On the other hand, the SEC, 7 ranked and the 'new B12,' 5 ranked, are in this ranking, looking good. Emphasis on rosters today are not likely to look nearly the same as they will at the start of next season. Hats off to Kansas for an all time comeback win. Rock, Chalk, Jayhawk!

The biggest comeback in tournament history. Happy for KU and Self, a guy whose Dad passed 2 months ago. No a whole lot of love for some very good CBB coaches on the OBD.

Great stuff.