Drake

More power to any conference that can sell their content and generate media revenue. Media companies pay for content as long as it is profitable to them. If you can sell your playoff idea, great. However, there are a lot of moving parts that need to be agreed upon. Ratings, ultimately decide if your content is valuable.

Venables will find out quickly that the BIG12 and ACC were a much easier path to a playoff berth. Schooners will need Heisman caliber QBs to compete in the SEC. Venables record at Oklahoma is 16 - 10. If he stumbles in the SEC how long will he last as HC?

I would connect with your insurance agent before opening up your home. You will want higher liability coverage than most home policies provide.

Unless you’re charging an extremely high amount, not worth it.

The reason behind the court having a unique design was noble. However, it is time to move on. Most agree that it is a major distraction watching a game on TV.

John Ruiz, decided to take matters into his own hands and throw money at making Miami sports relevant. Life wallet, a company he controls (LIFW), has had an epic loss in value in the last 18 months. Trading on the NASDAQ in 2022 for about $250/share, today it is less than $1/share, and in jeopardy of being delisted. Federal investigation ongoing. That is a good sign of the judgement and leadership he provides. You may fool investors once, but afterward it becomes much more difficult. It will be interesting to see how much more money he wants to give teenagers, and coaches.

The AD should schedule OOC games with an eye on being able get the offense and defense ready for conference play. Preferably while being able to rest starters and allow young players to gain important experience by the end of the 3rd quarter. Playing top tier OOC teams doesn’t make much sense in the playoff era. Keeping starters sharp while being able to rest them during a playoff campaign makes much more sense. With the number of games being played increasing, budget your travel money. It could easily cost $25k to $35k per person to go to a conference championship, and all playoff games. More, if you want premium seats.

He had a championship caliber team and COVID definitely took away an opportunity to win it. That seems to have broken his desire and ambition needed to stay competitive at that level. Personally, I don’t follow WBB. However, it is obvious that an honest assessment of the program’s head coach is needed.

The Oregon Fight song is great. Although, I have noticed fewer fans stand up for the song at the football games. Perhaps our alumni are standing in line trying to get a beer. I always thought it would be cool if Nike would embrace the marching band. Create some different Uniform combos with band members wearing retro Air Jordans…lol

The “angery” rodent grad student forgot to use spellcheck…Charles, your pictures of their fans always make me laugh. Rodents can go pound sand. Even their football coach bailed out from that dumpster fire.

The silly article time of year. My opinion about college football writers…their opinion only matters when they give your team accolades, or actually research an article, and actually write something that adds perspective into their subject matter.

Every time a new assistant gets hired the average age of our coaching staff drops. I am not familiar with the young man, but I am thinking the recruiting part sounds good. The younger coaches work hard to make a name for themselves. Locklyn may be a loss, but there are several highly qualified coaches that would love to have Oregon listed on the coaching resume. Btw…don’t let the door hit you in the (_) (_) on the way to buckeye land.

Just watched a news report about $30 million being stolen. Perhaps the rodents AD should be on the list of suspects.

Unlimited free agency. Media revenue seemingly spiraling out of control brought attention to the absurd nature of the NCAA rules on compensating athletes. It helped inflate everyone’s salaries involved with collegiate athletics except the athlete. A head coaching salary escalates to $5 to $8 million per year, while athletes maybe get a better meal plan. The NCAA would constantly wave its rule book in everyone’s face to make sure it stayed that way. The NCAA’s track record of defending legal challenges tells us all we need to know about its rules…completely out of touch with reality. The good news is that only 22 players can be on the field during any given play. While how much they are compensated spirals out of control…the irony of it all.

Perhaps we should just make peace with this tradition and move on. The rivalry had some meaning because of Conference standings. Take that away and there isn’t a rivalry.

NIL conversations…ughhh…a specialized law degree is probably going to be necessary to discuss it intelligently. Nick Saban can get a conversation started, but without some type of big money clout backing him, will Washington feel compelled to take any type of action?

The hiring of CK did not push tOSU into the National Championship spotlight. They were already a favorite before the hire. Therefore, Day and Kelly will be under scrutiny, and pressure, to produce that championship. The part that I like…. Oregon is on a collision course with them, and can impact that outcome. btw…I also am of the opinion that the college football world has caught up to “CK’s genius.”

Not sure anyone here communicated to you that this is our year to win a championship? The Ducks are replacing key offensive and defensive linemen. There are also questions about our defensive backfield. We have used the transfer portal to address some of our needs, but nobody knows how well they will gel with existing players. Even with those questions, I am excited to go to Eugene and watch Oregon play football.

It does seem rather absurd that the team has a pre-season rank as high as #3, and the coach is #25, or not even on a list. I guess the players recruit and coach themselves. All part of the list of things to ignore this time of year.

Kelly had to know that his head coaching gig was tenuous at best. If he still has a passion for the game then this move makes perfect sense. Kelly never really liked recruiting and NIL has further changed that environment. I read an article about some reasons Nick Saban retired. He was quoted as follows about his end of season player interviews: “I thought that we could have a hell of a team next year, and then 70 or 80 percent of the players you talk to want to know two things: What assurances do i have that I will play because they are thinking about transferring, and how much will you pay me?” Saban recounted. “Our program here was always built on how much value can we create for your future and your personal development, academic success in graduating, and developing an NFL career on the field.” His conclusion of this thought was that maybe the players attitudes don't work for him anymore. During his career he had been adding value to a players future, and the thought of being threatened of losing players if you don’t pay them enough to stay didn’t sit well with him. Media money, NIL, and the transfer portal have changed the game. Players can become instant free agents and go to the highest bidder if their perceived value is high enough. HC’s get paid for these headaches, but for some coaches like Saban, it ruined the game that he dominated for several years.

My thoughts, I would be annoyed. The fact that they are indirectly “pranking” your business vs. a personal prank makes it somewhat different. Letting it slide is probably the right solution once. It can take years to establish a solid business reputation, and moments to ruin it.

I think recruiting in the top 5 annually is a good indicator that you are becoming elite. Beyond that you have to win. If you don’t have the players, you won’t be elite. A coach has to be allowed to create their own identity, and I believe DL is still creating his identity. In a team oriented endeavor, everyone top to bottom must support each other, and be able to overcome the inevitable hardships that are encountered. Being elite takes hard work, and a commitment to do that work diligently.

Never liked it when Duck season ticket holders sell good seats to our despised rivals…I never sell my tickets online, but I do give them away to friends and family. I prefer to only see a small pocket of rival colors seated in the top corner of the stadium. If I need to miss a heated rival game…the tickets must go to a known Duck fan.

What someone says they will do, and what they actually end up doing can be two different things. If he buys season tix, does he pay the annual fee to the athletic fund? Buying the season tix may not be so crazy. I bet the going rate for tOSU game will easily be $400 to $500 online for decent seating. If someone is flying in from the Midwest they will want tickets in hand before leaving, So for 4 tickets they pay around $2,000 and travel expenses another $6,000. Therefore, paying around $3 thousand for the season is definitely not crazy when many of the unused tix can easily be resold online for face value. btw…i checked on season tix with four seats together…$779 each for the entire season.

Off topic, but it is a slow time of year for football news…perhaps this is interesting for those that live in Oregon. Here is a little perspective on planning projects that are “daunting”. The replacement of the current I-5 bridge across the Columbia river is one such project. It is over 100 years old, which makes it an antique that is used heavily every day. Anyone that has left an office in downtown Portland around 5pm, and then made the drive into Vancouver, will tell you it can easily take at least an hour on a “good day” to arrive at most destinations. A distance of 12 to 15 miles. Most cities have traffic issues, but when you need to cross over rivers it creates more complex problems to any viable solution. A strong earthquake with an epicenter nearby could easily render our “antique bridge” useless, or worse, collapse the span. Placing all I-5 North/South traffic onto 205 and its bridge across the Columbia, assuming it survives a quake. That freeway already has severe traffic congestion and delays. Portland and the surrounding areas regularly have earthquakes, with as many as 300 measurable quakes in a year. The vast majority are never noticeable. A bunch of small quakes is so much better than one big one. Replacing the bridge with one that is less of a bottleneck, and is seismically resilient, has been in the planning stages SINCE 1999. The bridge is actually a vital part of Oregon’s economy. I would like to think that makes it a high priority” for Oregon, Washington, and the Federal government. In 2020, the projected cost was $3 to $4 billion, now the projected cost is $5.5 to $7 billion, primarily due to inflation. The wheels of progress are slow (25 years and counting). If only all of our incomes would double every 4 to 5 years…sigh