Washington Waddler

For the vast majority of universities, that “from the top” is absolutely essential simply because football is so expensive and it’s importances to the overall health of other sports programs does not allow that support to lack focus. Stanford’s endowment makes them the exception, allowing them, it appears, to support non-revenue programs without suffering the consequences most other schools would feel.

My mother, Stanford class ‘34, would have agreed that other than the Big Game against Cal, football tipped the enthusiasm scales in Palo Alto about even with other sports; and, maybe a bit less than Olympic specific ones. Looks like there tepid support for the gridiron has finally caught up with them.

Agree, DL would have recruited them. They’d just have been on a shorter leash.

Wholeheartedly agree with KK. I don’t know if there is anyway to calculate the off-the-charts effort it has taken to create and maintain the level of decency that you have. Don’t burn your beak blowing out the candles!

That’s a point worth remembering. In 20 years with the Cowboys, Mike Grundy has had 2 losing seasons, and bounced back the next year from single digits in the W column to double digits 5 times. For that reason, I’m not listening to the odds makers.

They’ll also be missing Connor Moore, their 2024 all-conference offensive lineman who portaled to Michigan State.

Like Cristobal, I remember him as water off a Duck’s back; just part of the process in the Oregon journey.

Nice to know that Husky fans now think the only way they can ever win again is with a government bailout.

Just like all Trojans are Rams or Chargers fans. Gotta love big cities. Team loyalty shifts with whoever is winning.

There’s a good reason bama’s mascot is an elephant. They never forget the slightest disrespect to their illustrious reputation.

I wonder if they could get Further down the tunnel with the Duck in the driver’s seat? Kesey would be so pleased: Keep Duckin’, like the do-dah man! Question to anyone: what happened to the original plan to honor breast cancer awareness? Did the AD make a statement that I missed, or do they just want it to quietly disappear?

Always reassuring to hear that both Trojan staff and fans are still spellbound by their pie-in-the-sky dreams of a return to days of yore. What other way can you explain their no longer justified sense of entitled elitism? How else can you make sense of their apparent unwillingness to pay an essential OL what he’s worth, other than because they can’t ever imagine him wanting to leave, especially for those, “ . . . under the table, shady and cheater mother truckers with Nike connection” at Oregon? God Bless their pointed little helmeted heads.

I still fail to see where anyone - including President Trump - can find a solid argument that would convince congress that there is ongoing antitrust collusion among P5 camps when they are in competition with each other for the same thing. If the threat of losing the full impact of booster support requires these universities or athletic departments to offer some form of legitimate business status to an affiliation of their boosters, I’m too legally ignorant to know if anything could stop them.

She continues to look like the right fit. Congrats.

Riley’s lack of CEO-type leadership gifts and skills didn’t surface in Norman where he was shored-up by a focus and faith in Sooner football that never seems to waiver. In LA, those shortcomings are all too apparent.

His Euro numbers indicate he’s got a lot of practice work to do in rebounding, blocks and from the free throw line if he’s going to become a serious contributor.

I remember him as someone whose learning curve didn’t match up well with the expectation curve of AD staff and fans alike.

I find this continuing humiliation of land-grant institutions like Beavis to be very unstatesmanlike; nothing but an overstatement about bank statements that is devastating to their self-esteem. They deserve an interstate relationship as much as any other, allowing them to gestate into a reinstated conference. This whole conversation gives me nothing but a pain in the prostate!

Good to have the forum back. When all is (mostly) quiet on the Duck front, you keep the conversation going. Thanks!

I find it doubtful that Lanning & staff have not fine-tuned some sort of formula based on position that accounts for - among others - graduation rate, percentage of those who will red shirt, transfer into and off the roster and medical-out of the program, to not have a pretty clear idea of team recruiting needs, and what it will cost to compete for those players in any given year.

What happens with in conferences after the fact (the commitment of recruits and transfers) seems as if it should remain beyond the reach of law suits. I guess my question has more to do with before that when competing for the ‘raw material’ of a shared market place. In that sense, it doesn’t seem as much a matter of one forced to subsidize another as it is trying to create a competitive, level playing field. In the end, I guess it would all depend upon which of the two views gains the most traction in the eyes of a judge.

Question: if this sea-change were to happen from student-athlete amateurs to paid athletic professionals, mandating - of necessity - contract-based bargaining between unionized athletes and universities, could that create the conditions under which an antitrust law suit might be enacted by less wealthy universities banding together to challenge the monopoly of wealthy universities who control the market place for high school athletes and transfers?

It would seem that Lombardi and her program have not only benefitted from the national impression of Oregon leading as a transfer friendly atmosphere, long established by the football program, but embraced it. We are becoming among the best places to be for top athletes to take the next step in their development. That said, the question still remains as to how to transfer that same energy and impression to high school recruits, irregardless of the eventual fate of NIL.

Great article David. A less visible reaction to the difference between the Oregon way and that of TAMU or USC is that by bringing in proven players who are being paid for their recognized worth, Oregon creates less chance of position room friction than the potentially hidden resentment veterans may feel towards newly minted high school millionaires. That may have played a part in Pregnon’s decision to transfer. Recognized worth is valued by veterans.

Once upon a time (in a universe far, far away?), there was a game called football played almost exclusively at colleges and universities by those affluent and privileged enough to attend, and enjoyed by fans of the same ilk in stadiums reported upon by newspapers, and occasionally by a new fangled thing called radio that would let the great unwashed in on what they were missing. It was a violent pastime of the upper class who felt no need to regulate what they controlled and tacitly agreed upon was a four year amateur sport mostly left behind by participants once they entered the real world. No fortunes were waiting to be amassed, either as a player or celebrity; and anyway, they already owned all the fortunes. What possible role could be played by antitrust sentiments in a sporting event where hardly anyone involved wasn’t in some way part of, or privy to this exclusive galaxy operated by and for themselves? How things have changed: enter the great unwashed wanting to be part of the fun; professional football; obscene university contracts with broadcast tv/mass media; and now at last, new fortunes just waiting to be made. Poor, poor upper class. No one seemed to understand anymore that this game belonged to them. Even their clubhouse rules (NCAA) were no longer enforceable in the face of the cultural juggernaut their little game had become. So, the moral to this tale is, once football’s white collar became blue, it became probably best to just let this horse have its head to eventually either run off a cliff, or return to the barn. Your guess is as good as mine.