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Charles Fischer

Beaver Bluster: 'Oregon Will Get Tired of Traveling, and Will Be Back'

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Have you seen that a number of times, as I have? John Canzano has really promoted it in his articles several times, and while some Beavers believe it will happen....most can admit to it being more of a wish than expected reality.

 

Some in the Pig-2 actually think that Oregon will truly get weary of all the travel by the non-revenue sports. (A valid point) We will spurn the expected 100 million share in B1G revenue in many years for the meager contract a renewed Pac-12 can bring?  Not to mention being invisible again to most of the nation?

 

I LOVE being part of a Super-Conference, as we will have massive eyes on us. Some inconvenience , yes, but well worth it.

 

Beavers Believe in Our Return

to the Pac-12; is This Plausible?

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Mr. FishDuck

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Um, to what will Oregon be back? What is there left to be back to?

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If the west coast teams get tired of the travel... The B1G and ACC teams really... Then they will go into discussions about creating a west coast conference.

 

Though it won't be the Pac-12. Probably something like the Pacific Coast Conference (PCC). And the admission fee would probably be at the tune of 100mil for both OSU and WSU. 

 

If this were to happen it would be a conference for non-football sports. Which would mean that even if they considered OSU and WSU joining they would still be stuck in the G5 when it comes to football and it's revenue generation. 

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On 6/12/2024 at 3:42 PM, Annie said:

Um, to what will Oregon be back? What is there left to be back to?

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Pig-2? No thanks...

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Mr. FishDuck

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Other scenario that would create a new west coast conference would be if the B1G and SEC get slammed by an anti-trust lawsuit so hard that it puts a massive reset on college football conferences.

 

This might initiate the creation of the PCC but unlikely with the inclusion of OSU and WSU. 

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The whole travel thing is way overrated by Beavis.   For example, the women's volleyball schedule was released today.   There will be 4 trips East during the B1G season.  4 trips to 7 opponents.  For example, Iowa and Wisconsin will be on the same trip.  They are 175 miles apart.  Michigan and Michigan St on the same trip.  There are about 60 miles apart.  Also, Ohio St and Penn State about 300 miles apart.  The lone singleton is to Minnesota.  The other 3 B1G travel games:  UW, USC, UCLA.  Uh, they are on the West Coast.

 

The travel destination pairings are like Cal-Stanford, Arizona-ASU.  The only long interim pairing in the Pac was Colorado and Utah.

 

But, but, but...you have to get to U Michigan first before traveling to Michigan St...so, "those Pac12 escapees will come back!!"    Uh, Oregon volleyball had 3 trips east last season:  Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Madison.   This coming season:  4 trips.

 

Likewise, both basketball squads will have pairing travel.  Some sports don't have home-and-home contests.  They have mini-tournaments involving several teams at a single site.

 

The B1G administrators understand the issue.  They will deal with it, and do so with a deaf ear turned toward Corvallis.  They aren't going to set up paired games Nebraska and Rutgers.  Nor, set up a bunch of singletons.

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On 6/12/2024 at 6:32 PM, HDuck said:

Oregon volleyball had 3 trips east last season:  Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Madison.   This coming season:  4 trips.

Thank you for looking at the schedule and pointing out the wisdom of those creating the schedule from a travel standpoint.  Just one more trip for that much more exposure and revenue?  And yes, I think Oregon Volleyball will get more exposure in the B1G playing in a very tough volleyball conference, than on the Pac-12 Network.

 

Oregon volleyball contributing to Maui relief effort ahead of trip to  Honolulu

 

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Mr. FishDuck

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I say the only way that the west coast schools would willingly leave the B1G is if they were given a media deal around 50-60mil per school. 

 

The loss in the overall pay out would be made up for reduced travel expenses. 

 

However, there won't be any deal like that out there and it wouldn't be worth it for schools to leave their current conferences for anything less. 

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I could see the formation of a western conference down the road. Just not sure it would include OSU or WSU.  

 

Texas and Oklahoma would be more likely candidates, IMO, as well as Cal and Stanford….

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On 6/12/2024 at 7:27 PM, David Marsh said:

Other scenario that would create a new west coast conference would be if the B1G and SEC get slammed by an anti-trust lawsuit so hard that it puts a massive reset on college football conferences.

 

This might initiate the creation of the PCC but unlikely with the inclusion of OSU and WSU. 

The NCAA, B1G, and the SEC are already slammed by antitrust suits. And the House case settlement does nothing to stop future antitrust and other lawsuits.

 

The answer is not to bend over for folks proposing an 80-team Super Conference, or a diminution of the Power 2,  but to arrive at a 32, maybe more, Super Conference, comprised of programs with the money to play championship ball. With the panache to be watched by 4+ M viewers a game, and with the ability to negotiate with a players' consortium. To take a negotiated player consortium agreement to Congress, and conditioning said agreement on Congress providing the same protections against liabilty as afforded the NFL. 

 

There is no satisfactory 'middle ground.' There is no longer room for a CFB playoff tied into bowl games. There is every reason to negotiate restraints on transfers, a salary cap, to implement a high school player draft, and to reap the benefits from the consequent lowering of CFB coaches' salaries: (Dabo,10M a year?  DeBoer, $10.5 M a year?) and the rewards from Ohio State playing Michigan and not Oregon playing Idaho. 19M viewers watched Ohio State play Michigan last season. And Northwestern received the same media revenue cut as the Buckeyes?

 

There is every reason to follow the lead of the billionaires NFL owners who could kill one another off in a bidding war but instead agree to a structure that does not allow the richest owner to trample on a 'poorer' owner. The owners made peace with one another on the media front, and with their player-employees, thereby creating a structure protected from litigation by Congress.

 

Do I like 'THIS?' Heck no. But this is the natural progression of any system that has turned itself over to capitalism. Size goes to size in business. Decades ago, college athletics sold itself to the media for millions of dollars. The workers in every capitalistic enterprise will find a way to be paid.

 

The market has already parsed Oregon from Oregon State in a B1G way and will continue to do so.

 

Geographically logical consortiums for nonrevenue sports, I get, But where will the money come from? Perhaps tennis and golf should return to being club sports.

Edited by Jon Joseph
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The annual travel estimate that has become "fact" is $10 million.  The origin of that number goes to UCLA which invented the number when they were in discussions with the regents about how much the subsidy to Cal should be.  They wanted to poor mouth themselves to minimize the rollover payment to Cal.

 

Subsequently, every sportswriter and gossip board on the West Coast accepted that number as accurate and gospel.  I've never read another estimate from any other of the 3 Pac teams headed to the B1G.  For the writers, it was "let's go with it" without scrutiny.

 

I have no idea how much it will be annually when there is an accounting after the first 12 months.   But, that number seems to me to be on the high end when you consider the number of individual teams that will actually travel because the B1G is committed to approaches such as you see with the volleyball team described earlier.

 

Some teams like golf play in multi-school mini-tournaments with 15-30 teams so almost the whole season is travel.  Ohio State, for example, played in 3 West Coast tournaments and had ONE tournament at home, along with travel elsewhere.  My point is, there are sports which are not home-and-home like basketball.  The change in travel dollars for them is not very much.

 

Even if it approaches $10 million that is not a net number.  To be comparable to prior years, you would have to know how much was spent on travel to Tucson, Boulder, Pullman, etc. and will no longer be spent.   For example, "it will cost us $8 million to go East, but it would have cost us $4 million if all our conference games were in the old Pac12."

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Oh Beavis -

 

The whole geography/travel thing is wishful thinking, and rings a little hollow when you have admitted you’d join any of the P4 conferences without hesitation. But no one wants you. It’s gone. There is no secret TV deal waiting with open arms for reunification.

So Beavis, cary on with your charade that you’re not joining the MWC, eliminating any reasonable path of making the playoff while you’re an independent the next 2 years.

 

If you’re as good as you claim you are, you could have joined the MWC, gone 11-1 and made the playoff as the highest rated G5. Maybe the B12 would have reconsidered then?
 

But no, deep down you know you aren’t that good, and joining the MWC would have meant giving up your handout while going 7-5.
 

I thought you hated us? Why would you want us back? Must suck to know your value completely depends upon your rival.

 

Best of luck coming to grips with reality as the season unfolds Beavis!

 

Edited by JabbaNoBargain
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On 6/13/2024 at 12:28 AM, HDuck said:

The annual travel estimate that has become "fact" is $10 million.  The origin of that number goes to UCLA which invented the number when they were in discussions with the regents about how much the subsidy to Cal should be.  They wanted to poor mouth themselves to minimize the rollover payment to Cal.

 

Subsequently, every sportswriter and gossip board on the West Coast accepted that number as accurate and gospel.  I've never read another estimate from any other of the 3 Pac teams headed to the B1G.  For the writers, it was "let's go with it" without scrutiny.

 

I have no idea how much it will be annually when there is an accounting after the first 12 months.   But, that number seems to me to be on the high end when you consider the number of individual teams that will actually travel because the B1G is committed to approaches such as you see with the volleyball team described earlier.

 

Some teams like golf play in multi-school mini-tournaments with 15-30 teams so almost the whole season is travel.  Ohio State, for example, played in 3 West Coast tournaments and had ONE tournament at home, along with travel elsewhere.  My point is, there are sports which are not home-and-home like basketball.  The change in travel dollars for them is not very much.

 

Even if it approaches $10 million that is not a net number.  To be comparable to prior years, you would have to know how much was spent on travel to Tucson, Boulder, Pullman, etc. and will no longer be spent.   For example, "it will cost us $8 million to go East, but it would have cost us $4 million if all our conference games were in the old Pac12."

The Oregon football team this season has two visits to the Eastern time zone, Purdue and Michigan, and one trip to the Central time zone, Wisconsin.

 

Thank you HDuck for pointing out the obvious, The folks in charge of B1G scheduling for all sports will do everything they can to limit travel for every sport. For money-ball athletes hoping to go pro, I believe that this travel is not a B1G deal. 

 

As I have posted before, in the 1930s, Minnesota in its 3-peat NCAA football title run, traveled 8 days round trip to play UW in Seattle. No one was worried about 'Little Sven's' physical let alone mental health.

 

The same kind of trip was 'endured' by SC and Notre Dame football players who suffered on a train ride from LA to South Bend and vice versa. Back in the day, Babe Ruth and his Yankees had to endure train rides as far west as St. Louis. The precursor of the NBA, The Basketball Association of America players traveled via bus. 

 

Thank you for separating fact from myriad whining regarding the health of athletes in their late teens and early 20s. 

 

Is any player representing America in the upcoming Paris Olympics traveling by boat?  

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It seems the B1G has been somewhat reasonable about the travel concerns for the new west coast teams. Also, like you guys have said, the travel concerns have been blown out of proportion. 

 

I'm pretty certain most of OBD teams still had to hop on a plane to get to Pullman, to Boulder, to Tucson, and so forth. 

I can't imagine traveling to Madison, to West Lafayette, and any other B1G school will be as direly different as they claim.

 

I also believe, eventually, our little Eugene airport will start to add non-stop flights to cities in and around the B1G footprint. Or at least an easy path to them.

 

Go Ducks!

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To add to the other excellent points made here, these are young bucks and buckettes in prime physical condition that we're talking about. I don't think adding a few hours onto a plane ride is going to make much of a difference for them. And once they're there........ A motel is a motel, regardless of what city you're in.

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On 6/12/2024 at 9:32 PM, HDuck said:

Oregon volleyball had 3 trips east last season:  Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Madison.   This coming season:  4 trips

Here is the volleyball schedule HDuck mentioned.

 

Oregon volleyball announce 2024 schedule: See the Big Ten matchups

 

Oregon Ducks 2024 volleyball schedule

Date

Opponent

Aug. 24

at Oregon State (exhibition)

Aug. 30

Pittsburgh

Sept. 1

Long Beach State

Sept. 6

at Colorado State for Ram Volleyball Classic

Sept. 7

vs. Grand Canyon at Ram Volleyball Classic

Sept. 8

vs. Central Arkansas at Ram Volleyball Classic

Sept. 13

vs. BYU at San Diego Tournament

Sept. 14

at San Diego for San Diego Tournament

Sept. 18

at Portland State

Sept. 22

Oregon State

Sept. 27

Illinois*

Sept. 28

Indiana*

Oct. 3

at Ohio State*

Oct. 4

at Penn State*

Oct. 9

USC*

Oct. 13

Washington*

Oct. 18

at Wisconsin*

Oct. 20

at Iowa*

Oct. 25

Maryland*

Oct. 27

Rutgers*

Oct. 30

at Washington*

Nov. 2

UCLA*

Nov. 7

Nebraska*

Nov. 9

at Minnesota*

Nov. 15

Northwestern*

Nov. 17

at USC*

Nov. 21

at Michigan State*

Nov. 23

at Michigan*

Nov. 27

Purdue*

Nov. 29

at UCLA*

*denotes Big Ten Conference game

 

WWW.REGISTERGUARD.COM

Oregon volleyball announced its 2024 schedule for its first season as a member of the Big Ten Conference. Here are the matchups.

 

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All excellent points fellow OBD readers.

 

Remember, travel duress isn't just the time in the air. Time zone changes, sleeping in different beds(not your own), missing classes in person, remembering to pack everything you need...there are lots of little things that make travel difficult. 

The worst will be traveling commercial if they have to.

 

But I agree that most new travel won't be much more then what they have now.

And it could foster better team unity.

 

My last thought is with NIL and other future monies coming, it's best players learn to travel like a "professional".

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I may be remembering incorrectly, but I recall that sentiment was posted here regarding USC and UCLA.  “They’ll get tired of the travel and will be back.”  
 

Then we joined USC and UCLA out the door.  I guess you just never know how things will turn out.  I don’t think any of us are going back.  

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On 6/13/2024 at 3:40 PM, TexasDuck said:

I may be remembering incorrectly, but I recall that sentiment was posted here regarding USC and UCLA.  “They’ll get tired of the travel and will be back.”  
 

Then we joined USC and UCLA out the door.  I guess you just never know how things will turn out.  I don’t think any of us are going back.  

Not me personally. I thought there would be a legitimate TV deal and that we’d add SDSU and Fresno/CSU/UNLV. The playoff expansion adding access would make it workable. 
 

I definitely like this outcome more.

Edited by JabbaNoBargain
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Oregon State has nothing to look forward to. Oregon is two months away from a very exciting future with games that matter. Hosting Ohio State in October. Traveling to the defending National Champions house. 

 

What does Oregon State have? If it weren't for the Ducks playing them, not much. Tickets to their newly renovated Beaver stick house are going to be easy to get. Probably buy a Little Caesars pizza and you get a ticket to watch them play New Mexico.

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More bluster.

 

Beavis’ upcoming budget is making the media rounds and they seem to be very proud that they still have a big boy budget for FY25.

 

Awesome! Money well spent! Thank goodness the state threw them an extra $10M!

 

Rosters are all cratered, coaches leaving, signed a sweet deal with CW, can only make expanded playoff by going 12-0, still playing G5 schedules in all sports….but, but, other conferences will take note that they have a low end P4 budget for FY25 and magic will happen.

 

 

 

Edited by JabbaNoBargain
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The only way that there is a west coast conference of sorts is if football breaks away from the other sports, I could see a world where Oregon is in the B1G or some other super conference that gets made for football and then gets pulled back into some sort of western conference of sorts for the other sports. 

 

I'm not sure what that looks like, but the money is simply too big to ignore in terms of coming back simply because some volleyball or lacrosse players are annoyed about the number of trips they take across the country, I'm sorry but that's the truth.  All that matters is football (unfortunately) and football isn't going to get tired about the trips out east.  I say unfortunately because the world shouldn't revolve around one sport, but that's the truth.

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