The Kamikaze Kid

I think Chip will be quite happy mailing it in every year and collecting checks for a university that will be quite happy mailing it in every year and collecting checks.

I can't imagine how much weight Lanning is carrying at this point. He has to show his value as a head coach, has to push UO towards a conference championship, has to push UO's national marketability by having UO be instantly elite. All to save either the school from a Pac 12 implosion (earn BIG10 invite) or save the conference with national credibility (playoff run). All in year one.

I think a supped up Pac16 with aggressive non conference scheduling keeps the Ducks relevant on the National scene. Imagine some Phil Knight/Nike sponsored non confrence September triple feature bowl games in LA. SD St vs Baylor then Utah vs Clemson followed by UO vs Miami. LA kids could watch Pac teams staying nationally competitive while staying west coast centered. Then compare that to SC and UCLA traveling cross country to face mediocrity in the snow. Someone please make this happen!

UCLA is the "best friend" in a horror movie. We all know why they're there. We all know what's going to happen.

"Eugene's Brand". Dude tries go all Grateful Dead Hippie caricature just after we wrap up the Track and Field WORLD Championships. It is beyond comical how the typical Seattleite does not, can not and will not ever realize the legitimate athletic force that is the perfect blending of Eugene, UO and Nike. A fan base that have made places like Hayward, Autzen, The Pit and MK Arena feared as toughest places to play in the country. Eugene embodies the defiant under dog that embraces that role, and backs it's team through thick and thin. Many of us old timers can vouch for the thin part. A school that realized that aggressive D not only can keep you in the game, it can also take down the biggest of Giants. Think Kamikaze Kids, Gang Green (Kenny Wheaton's gonna score!). A school that also embraces going for it pedal to the metal (Pre, Chip Kelly). Nike's innovation, keeping the Ducks and themselves, one step ahead of the rest. Knight's fusion of all three as he both rewards the town and school as he builds up his own sports empire. These are things the purple pups will never understand. They will always be bitter and resentful. They'll never see how all three of these pieces fit together to create the basis for success that the Ducks have achieved. They just expect greatness to handed to them just because they are them. They'll never get it, they'll never stop the petty jealousy, it will never stop being great comedy.

If UO wants in the BIG 10, they'll end up there. To me the question is, what kind of Pac 12 expansion would make staying put more attractive? If the goal were to get to a Pac 16 who would you bring in? I'd say SD St is a must. UNLV adds Vegas to the Pac footprint. Who in the B12 could both be enticed to join and be add value to the Pac? Houston, Baylor and TTU bring a Texas presence. Cincinnati sits in the heart of BIG 10 territory. Would adding these schools be enough to elevate the Pac to the third best conference or would it just dilute the Pacs value per member? Just playing internet athletic directer makes my head hurt. I don't envy the folks having to make these decisions for real.

Probably pointed that at The BIG 10 membership selection committee as well.

Oregon Recruiting: No. 1 EDGE in 2024 to visit Oregon this weekend DUCKSWIRE.USATODAY.COM The Ducks have some high-profile recruits coming to town this weekend, and will now add 2024 5-star EDGE Colin Simmons to...

They have a punchers chance against UGA, a coin flip against Utah and should be favored the rest of the schedule so I’d say heads 11-1 but could be tails 10-2.

The best long term option I see is to start from scratch with teams from Pac, B12, Mountain West and form two new 16-18 team conferences. The AAA schools form one and the AA schools form the other. A legit third place super conference that can get in the playoffs is better than distant fifth where the Pac12 was with USC and UCLA. Teams would still have regional connections. Also, the champion of the AA conference could still be a playoff participant and that would give teams like OSU, WSU and Boise St legit playoff aspirations as well. Seems like a win win for everybody.

I'm kind of whatever about guys following NIL $$$. If that is their motivating force, them let them chase it. Give Lanning 85 guys that just want to hit people, and I'm sure he'll have them chasing the playoffs.

From should I stay or should I go Mario drama to whoa, we got coach Lanning, to the recruiting class is breaking up, to wow, the recruiting class even improved, to oh no, the conference is breaking up to where are we going to land? It will sure be great for football to just be about football again.

Imagine USC fleeing UO by joining The Big only to be put in the same BIG pod as UO! Now not only do they have to face a yearly beat down by the Ducks but now, UO gets to have a game in LA every year which is better than they get now. Tommy Trojan runs from the Ducks only to step on a garden rake!

I'm going to have to see it to believe it. 4-8 SC hires a coach that didn't even have his team in the big two of the Big 12 last year, doesn't scream to me The BIG has a new sheriff in town. If SC goes 7-5 this year, does that open the floodgates of 5 star recruiting? If the Ducks go 11-1 and into the playoffs, can SC put up a wall around the LA recruiting hotbed? I think SC ends up having a middle of the Pac year, Riley loses his new car smell, recruiting tappers off and Tommy Trojan heads to the land of ice and snow a perennial 6-6 team. This isn't just projection from an anti fan, this is just reading the continuum of SC football. Me and Pepperidge Farm both remember Wonder Coach I, Kiffin (28-15), Wonder Coach II, Sarkisian (12-6), and even Super Coach Orgeron (6-2).

I think bringing in SD St and UNLV makes sense. After that, they could invite in some solid Big 12 teams to get to a 16 team conference.

A 4-8 team fires their coach and then joins a tougher conference that's about 2500 miles away. All signs point to a dumpster fire that's about to consume the building. The national media is feeding the denial narrative that flows naturally from the SC hive mind anyway. The looming Chevy Chase pratfall coming from Tommy Trojan will be hysterical. "Barely alive from Ann Arbor, it's Saturday night!"

OU, ND and LSU are machines that should keep on humming along. The U won 5 of their last 6 games last year and should be heading in the right direction. USC was a 4-8 dumpster fire but why let reality ruin the media created narrative? UO lost their last three out of four while their coach was game planning a quick exit out of town. Even so, they were still in their third straight conference championship game and in the running for the playoffs until then. The Ducks could very well find themselves in the playoffs this year while SC struggles to go 6-6.

What if California decides that UCLA would need to compensate Cal for the loss in revenue that leaving the Pac would cause? What if that compensation comes out to costing UCLA more to leave that to stay. If UCLA then decides to stay because of that, would the BIG take Stanford instead? If that were to happen, would losing USC and Stanford but bringing in SD St and UNLV actually increase the TV footprint of the Pac? With a stable Pac, could they then reach out to the Big 12 and pull in a few teams? Adding four teams (Ok St, TTU, Baylor or Houston, Cincinnati (Ohio TV Market) they would be a solid third place conference. That would be a huge step up from being a distant fifth and fast approaching sixth place as the Mountain West could claim to be superior at this point.

The problem with moving towards something is that you also in the same motion, move away from something. At the moment, the major players in college football see themselves moving towards a super league of 30-40 teams. That sounds a lot cooler than simply creating a minor league for the NFL. Would Kentucky or Duke basketball consider joining the NBA G League a step up? Would ASU baseball see becoming a AAA minor league team a step up? Both scenarios would put them into higher levels of competition but at the expense of reducing the college experience. How much allure would there be for a a player to be nothing more than a backup on a semi pro team without the tradition and hoopla that goes with collegiate sports? At what point does the promise of making 50k a year to go 4-8 at semi pro Texas lose appeal to the full college experience and going 10-2 at Baylor? Stripping the college part out of collegiate sports may end up derailing this semi pro vision before it starts.

As long as the Pac and Big 12 still see themselves as complete conferences, I think all involved are doomed. Both conferences need to see the writing on the wall and that their time is up. Taking the best of the Pac and B12 plus the best TV markets in the Mountain West (SD St, UNLV) could make a viable conference. This new conference (BigPac) would still be third place to the BIG and SEC but it wouldn't be the far distant 4th and 5th that they both are heading towards.

Being declared to quick to compete in a world championship sprinting event deserves it's own medal.

Utah's rise to the top of the Pac to me is very similar to UO's rise under Rich Brooks. Slow but steady march up from the bottom based on tough nosed football. By finding the right 2-3 star guys and coaching them up, they finally surpassed USC and the fuskies. I look forward to some great games with Utah in the future with both teams looking at the playoffs with a win.

"We want to throw them in there early," Lanning said. "Let them get some experience and see how they take it. I'm not a big believer in having guys learn and watch from the sideline. You want to be able to get mental reps when you can, but you can do that by getting reps. We're gonna throw those guys out on the field, coach them as we go, and if there's things we can improve on, that's what we want to focus on."

Lanning put together a top notch coaching staff and held together a splintering recruiting class all while game planning a smothering defensive scheme for the mighty Bama in a championship game. Outside of Coach Smart himself, can anybody really claim to be in his league?