spartan2785

Yeah, the James Franklin part of the equation is a major one, he isn't a good big game coach, Allar I think will play better, and he'll have some actual receivers this year. Both RBs are big time runners, Knowles knows our offense and will have a good game plan to stop us, they lose Carter, but that defense has traditionally held up really well when playing at home. The game does come at a good time for us, we'll have some good warm up games, PSU plays nobody with a pulse until us. I think my main concerns are with the interior D-line. Penn St. ran right threw us for most of the game, if they had just gotten a couple stops against us they win last year, our defense just does not shut other good teams down, we always seem to give up 24+, so our offense has to keep up, Tosh is just not a good strategist. I see an offense that will get better in PSU and a defense that will not be as strong in Oregon, that's not a good combo. Hope to be wrong! We'll be a good team, but I think we take a step back this year (which is fine! very difficult to maintain the standard we saw last year!)

Honestly would have us more as a touchdown underdog. Unproven at QB, new O-line, receivers are unproven, interior D-line is a major question, defense as a whole has not proven itself that it can shut down elite teams. I think we lose by 10, Tosh isn't up to the task, and we play very conservatively on offense until it's too late. After that it's a toss up if we go undefeated in the other games.

I'm going to trust you and some others I've seen pushing this, it is a bit nerve racking to see so many recruits going to other programs though. I know I need to trust Lanning and others on this since they haven't really steered the program wrong so far.

It makes no sense to have literally every other level of basketball using quarters while college uses halves.

I don't really have a problem with the rules changes, I get that you can make an argument that it rewards clever thinking, but there are plenty of rules where the spirt of the game is being violated (violated might not be the best word) stretched might be better. I think it's a decent rule. I don't think tOSU people should have complained as much as they did last year, but again if that had happened against the Ducks in a high stakes game I probably would have been bent out of shape as well. I don't think it's Buckeyes fans who caused the change, it was simply because it was such a high profile game.

Future is very bright for softball, they can be very proud of their season.

That is an embarrassing performance by the pitching staff, absolutely pathetic, particularly by the relief pitching. Other two teams had relief pitchers who pitched with confidence, our guys pitch like they were scared to death, not getting ahead in the count. We aren't going anywhere unless we start playing actual good teams in the non-con, or the B1G steps up. It is an absolutely unacceptable result to get swept out of the regional.

Honestly we should just play on the road LSU, Kent State, Oral Roberts it can’t happen and it keeps happening pretty bad approaches by most of our hitters, just swinging for the fences Horrible decision to leave Reitz in after he walked the first hitter in the sixth also question letting Meggers hit instead Lee-Mabeus late in the game after Meggers looked pretty bad against the lefties really bad game, and we are going to have climb Everest to get to the supers

If I'm honest I think that's the deserved result, there is no way that the second Oregon run should have been scored, I don't care if that's the way the rule is laid out, in no way should that be obstruction. The rule should be changed, it basically encourages teams to make boneheaded running decisions since it's just natural to put your foot on the corner of the plate. It's one thing to put your foot there not allow a runner to slide into home when you are still in the process of making the catch, it's another when the ball beats the runner by a mile. I know this all came out of the Buster Posey injury, but it's gotten ridiculous at this point. I'm not blaming the officials, I'm blaming the way the rule is spelled out.

Fox is the absolute worst, worst studio group, worst visuals, worst times, worst play by play, I actually like Klatt...he's been very good I think, I don't always agree with him, but I think he's very reasonable, and I don't think he really has an agenda. Everything else is horrible. NBC is probably the best of the options, CBS is still in its SEC mode where they would rather be talking about Bama and the greatness of everything in the south. I'll be honest I still wish we could watch our biggest games on ABC and get Herbie on the broadcast or Tessitore or others, Noah Eagle though is good.

It is concerning that we see USC at the top with Oregon struggling to keep hold of recruits. It's not something to be panicking about, I'm sure some of the Trojan recruits will back out, recruiting can be a roller coaster, but it is concerning to see Oregon either striking out on recruits or not being able to hold on to them. Things could look completely different in about 4 months, but it's not a good start at all so far.

I was worried the early season losses would hurt, and they did, it's probably a team that is talented enough to be a top 8 bid, but you simply can't lose games against bad opponents. I was confused at the lack of good non-conference opponents, and it honestly would have been better to lose some series on the road or played in some tournaments down south against quality opponents than to win series at home where you win two games by 10 runs but you lose one by a run. Time to schedule UC Irvine, maybe one of the Arizona teams, San Diego, can't be playing random midwest and northeast teams if we want to host a super regional.

Look...yes it sucks that we had to be the guinea pig, but at least common sense prevailed for this upcoming season. You can argue that this should have been foreseen earlier, but once the rules had been set in place, you can't just change them mid-season. In the end we got beat by the most talented team in the country, we deserved to lose, and I think we would have lost in the finals even if tOSU had been on the other side of the bracket.

As many NBC and CBS games as possible please, I don't like Fox's broadcasts, the only part of Fox I actually like is Klatt, I think Klatt does a good job, otherwise I would prefer the other networks, I also don't want to watch Oregon games at 9 AM.

Part of the reason why the West Coast schools dominated in the Olympic sports is due to the academic prominence of the California schools. A lot of the athletes that compete in these sports know they don't have the ability to make a lot of money off their sport, so they go to school with the intention of actually trying to get the best education. It's just a fact that a lot of these athletes focus on academics more, a large part because they are dominated by those who come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. It costs a lot of money to get a private tennis coach! I would argue the entire west coast has better weather than the rest of the country.

By the time of the world series it's going to be blazing hot and muggy I'm sure. The stadium is really nice, but every time I see it I think how much it needs some kind of roof, it looks miserable at times there due to the heat.

Pretty cool, had to come back multiple times, only time they had the lead was the at the end. Great work by Chambers coming if for Grein who didn't have it again.

Yeah I wouldn't mind some games up in Portland, I live in Eugene, but it would be a good way to stay connected to the Portland fanbase. Hillsboro is a bit out there, but it would still probably do well in attendance.

It's turned into a really good team, the lineup is outstanding, I'm still a little worried about the pitching, but that might be more just the trauma from years past. I do think there is more depth this year compared to the previous two years.

It's just never going to be a baseball conference. The weather makes it so, you don't have the recruiting base, the weather, the backing, basically everything you need to be a power. It can get better, I think it will get better with the additions of the west coast schools, but when you are going to a recruit's home it's difficult to convince them to come up to Ohio to practice in freezing conditions in January as you get ready of for the season, no amount of indoor facilities is going to make up for all year weather that is conducive to baseball. The northwest is able to get by since we only have rain, but snow basically means the field will be not be usable. Oregon can still be successful, you only have to look at teams like Coastal Carolina, UC Irvine, East Carolina to see teams that do well coming from lesser conferences, but they'll need to maximize their non-conference schedule, and they might have to win on the road in the tourney since the SEC is going to always have about 6 of the top 8 seeds.

Yeah, I am very worried about that series against Iowa, they're a good team, it's on the road, it's going to be tough. It would be one thing if Iowa was a top 25 team but they're non-con schedule was so abysmal they aren't ranked even though they're top of the conference for the moment. Can't do anything about it though other than keep winning.

This is why I said it's going to be very difficult to get a top 8 bid in this conference unless the conference significantly improves. You just have too many bad teams and not enough good teams, it's hard to win every game, and when you do lose to a mediocre team who played a bad schedule it just tanks your RPI. It's not Oregon's fault, and while I do understand why they aren't a top 8 seed, I still think they deserve better than 16. Looks like they will have to play an absolute monster of a non-conference schedule in the future. We don't even have the advantage of playing a rival in OSU who is good. It's sort of like Gonzaga in basketball.

Punishing a team for losing one game and going from around 7-5 or so in the rankings to 16 seems excessive to me. If Oregon was in the SEC they would have dropped like 2 spots or so. Of course you want to win every game, but it's one game against a team that eventually won the tournament, they got hot apparently at the right time, it just seems ridiculous to me when you have the 8 seed with 15 losses to Oregon's 7.

Get the feeling it will be nearly impossible to get a top 8 bid in the B1G, just a horrible conference for baseball and softball. The opening round loss hurts of course, but geez, they're 47-7, they were ranked 4th going into the conference tourney and they end up 16th!? That's horrible!

I'm still hopeful they can find a way to get into the top 8 and get a super regional, I'm sure the team is kicking themselves for some of the losses to Ohio St., Portland, and some others. I'm more interested in where the team can finish in the RPI than I am getting a conference crown, the goal should be first and foremost getting to Omaha.