Grandpa Duck

I fail to understand why sharing football revenue with say men’s tennis or golf would be legally different from sharing football revenue with women’s softball. If you know, please advise. If your answer is: “Because softball is played by women,” you lose in every Oregon court where I have appeared representing clients, which is half the Circuit Courts, the Court of Appeals over 200 times and the Supreme Court about 15. There may be an argument over standing, but that would only be a temporary delay if successful. Ultimately women’s teams will share. They deserve it.

I don’t understand the negative implication about the hire of Melissa Lombardi that flows from 30 Duck’s “ponying-up” question above. If it means Mullins should have broken the bank to pay Mike White what may have been an unreasonable salary request in a nonrevenue sport, then I get it. But I respectfully disagree. if it means that somehow Lombardi was the wrong hire, at first, six years ago, I would have agreed. However, I think she has overcome my original opinion. Because my wife is a women’s sports nut, there are many games on our primary TV that I would rather not watch. Admittedly I don’t especially care for college basketball, men or women. And, I never watch the NBA. Now we have a steady diet of WNBA, that competes with my golf watching. I do control the clicker when Duck softball and basketball have home games because the boss is out of the house. i have developed the opinion from all of the women’s sports that dominates winter and spring in our home that a college AD should hire females to coach teams played by women. I believe that Lombardi is an outstanding recruiter, and that skill is essential when the coach must not only relate to the players, but also to their mothers. Sure, there are exceptions, like Connecticut. But in the main, an AD will be more successful choosing a female to coach women. Lombardi meets that test, Mike White does not.

One of the first things I learned playing outfield in baseball was that I was not to be standing still when my pitcher released the ball. You get a quicker jump to catch a fly, or get in front of a line drive if you’re already in motion than you get standing still. Kai’s foot lift accomplished the same thing. The next day after the challenge she was still doing an exaggerated lean into her exit from the base, almost off balance. There’s no doubt in my mind that she gained an advantage by the foot lift.

I read the rule and came to the same conclusion as the replay official. Kai begins her momentum to leave the bag when she lifts her foot, leaning into her steal. The rule says she has to maintain contact with the bag until the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. Her jump start violates the plain meaning of the language. the second time she was on the way, off the bag when the pitcher released the ball. They will have it fixed by tomorrow.

The TV announcers keep saying that if OBD and UCLA finish tied they will be co-champions. Incorrect! I looked it up and there is a conference rule that head to head competition breaks the tie, as has been stated many times on this site.

Three Duck errors in the 2nd inning led to at least three of the six runs.

Agree that Sabrina’s team was loaded, in part because she made them all better players.

I suppose the seeding by the College Football Playoff Committee needs to be explained every month or so for those who post negative comments in a thread and never return to it. First, the committee did not seed teams. They seeded numbers, 1-12, before the season began. No one knew which teams would finish the season in what numbers. Second, the winners of the SEC and the B1G, plus winners of two of the other three conferences were given a bye into the second round as part of the negotiations between five conferences. That was the carrot for agreeing to the 12 team playoff. So ASU and Boise State end up seeded #3 and 4 even though they were ranked well below that. For the first round the, CFPC made a standard bracket with 5 Vs. 12, 6 vs. 11 and so forth. Again, they made that bracket before the season started. I think that Ohio State, ranked #10, beat Tennessee, ranked #7, and then, as the poorest ranked team without a bye to make it into round round two, became #8 of the eight teams in round two. So, they drew #1, OBD. Complain all you like, but the CFPC was given a sack of lemons by the conferences. They ranked ASU and Boise State low, but the agreement made before the season started said their conference winners would get a top four seed. The CFPC made the lemonade. The blame lies with the conferences, not the committee. And, to date I have seen nothing that will change next year. In the end, Ohio State had the best team and was going to beat OBD whether we played them in the quarterfinals, semifinals or finals. So, what difference does it make?

Thanks, Charles, for the thorough article!

Odds are that Duke will press on every possession. Graves should use every minute of tomorrow’s shoot-around on “How to break the press!”

Thank you for the detailed information, Charles.

I rather doubt this bill will be enacted. Oregon was a pioneer state in the open meetings law for governmental bodies. Federal public records act comes into play. The reality is that paid college athletes in a state owned school are public employees. In no sense are they independent contractors. Private schools like Stanford and USC have a right to secrecy. When the people own the school, the people have a right to know.

Basketball is best played by selfless teamwork. This group cannot even define those words.

The defense was very good. Graves uses his bench liberally, so that players can go hard, and then rest. During the second half there were several steals that led to layups. Definitely a year where the best offensive strategy is a good defense. probably the worst officiated game at college level I have seen.

David, when comparing year to year statistics there is an assumption that, in the case of the offense, the opponents’ defenses from one year to the next are a constant. Obviously they are not. They are not even the same opponents. And even where there are the same teams, their schedules, their players, and quality of play from game to game can change drastically. Thanks for a thought provoking article. Change is a big part of what makes sports fascinating.