The Indiana football team visit to Autzen Stadium on October 11, 2025, was described by all three CBS announcers as a “very physical game,” and those comments came at half time. The statistics favored Indiana, as did the 30-20 final score. However, there was a game-changing element that has been rarely discussed about that game that could impact Friday’s result. ...

Urgent Dan Lanning Needs to Protect Dante Moore

Excellent documentation Mike Whitty! Coach Cignetti was definitely playing the refs the whole game. His long career has helped him craft that skill set. Thank you for writing today's article!

This picture should have earned him a 15 yard Unsportsmanlike Penalty! Getting a mere 2 or 3 inches nose to nose to a Referee and yelling into his face is not acceptable.

Very informative article. Thank you.

Thank you, Mike, for another terrific article.

This Grey Beard loved the Billy Martin reference.

My mind (as much as capable) turned back to 1977 when Billy and Reggie Jackson almost went at it after Reggie dogged it on a ball hit to the outfield by the Red Sox's Jim Rice. Reggie's lack of hustle allowed Rice to turn a single into a double.

Reggie was benched. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was not pleased with the manner in which Martin treated Jackson in this game and throughout Jackson's time with the Yankees.

In 1977, the Yankees won the World Series. In 1978, Martin quit over the owner's interference with how he treated Jackson, and on the way out the door, said of Jackson and Steinbrenner, "one's a born liar, and the other's convicted."

Martin was rehired by Steinbrenner, but the Yankees did not win another World Series before Martin was permanently fired in-season in 1988.

Sorry for the OT recollection.

I wasn't all that happy to learn that Big Ten refs would be reffing the Peach Bowl game. I hope it's not the same crew that called no penalties on Iowa in a war at the LOS game in Iowa City. Is this an all-star crew, or has this crew previously worked an Oregon game(s)?

OBD won the conference title last season and is earning millions of semi-final money for the conference in back-to-back seasons. (No additional money is paid to the two teams that advance to the championship game.) But Oregon is still a new kid on the B1G block and will be treated as the same for ??? years.

I expect no favors from the refs. If Dan gets in a ref's grill ala Cignetti, we will see a 15-yard penalty and not sideline interference called.

Thanks again for another winner!

Put Out That Cig!

3 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

OBD won the conference title last season and is earning millions of semi-final money for the conference in back-to-back seasons.

Isn't your point above THE major point with them? Oregon has added enormously to the conference, and should be treated at least equally compared to the old powers.

But then, we DID win the most conference championships in our first year last year...didn't we?

So how they will treat Oregon?

Mike...that was a great article bringing up a crucial point that NONE of the other hundred media outlets have covered. Frankly--I had forgot about this, and I hope your article gets passed along to Coach Lanning.

14 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

I wasn't all that happy to learn that Big Ten refs would be reffing the Peach Bowl game. I hope it's not the same crew that called no penalties on Iowa in a war at the LOS game in Iowa City. Is this an all-star crew, or has this crew previously worked an Oregon game(s)?

It shouldn't be B1G refs the goal of non-conference affliated refs is to take the bias out of the the officiating. However, I would say in this scenario there is still potential bias because these are officiating crews who work in the conference and they probably have their preferences. The reality is that there should be centralized officiating and it should be organized all across the sport in that the NCAA (for lack of another entity) should manage the officiating and training and not the conferences.

With that said.... I know every conference grades out their officiating crews to determine which are the best and worse. I'd imagine here that only a crew that had the highest scores get this job appointment for the playoff.

6 minutes ago, David Marsh said:

It shouldn't be B1G refs the goal of non-conference affliated refs is to take the bias out of the the officiating. However, I would say in this scenario there is still potential bias because these are officiating crews who work in the conference and they probably have their preferences. The reality is that there should be centralized officiating and it should be organized all across the sport in that the NCAA (for lack of another entity) should manage the officiating and training and not the conferences.

With that said.... I know every conference grades out their officiating crews to determine which are the best and worse. I'd imagine here that only a crew that had the highest scores get this job appointment for the playoff.

I've searched everywhere I can, but I can find no detailed information on the Big Ten crew for the Peach Bowl, including looking at the CFB PO site.

I'm sure that the 'wise guys' betting the game have this information in hand.

Frustrating! 🤬

33 minutes ago, Charles Fischer said:

Isn't your point above THE major point with them? Oregon has added enormously to the conference, and should be treated at least equally compared to the old powers.

But then, we DID win the most conference championships in our first year last year...didn't we?

So how they will treat Oregon?

Correction regarding PO payouts, which are paid to a qualifying team's conference (and directly to Notre Dame 🤮).

$4 million for making the field

$4 million for teams in the quarterfinals, including teams with byes.

$6 million for the semifinals

$6 million for the championship game - no additional money to the champion's conference.

Note - under the ACC's settlement with Clemson and FSU, Miami will keep the bulk of the PO money.

'Eat what you kill,' postseason revenue distributions to teams, not conferences, will likely be the norm under the next round of media deals.

The Big Ten is first up with a new media deal that will be negotiated in 2029 and implemented in 2030.

Note: Beginning next season, PO payments will be determined by teams in the field and not by how far teams advance.

Beginning in 2026-27, and based upon prior postseason participation, PO revenues per conference are estimated to be $23 million for the SEC, $21M for the B1G, $13.5M for the ACC, $12.5M for the B12, and $2M for the G6.

This revised payout formula is another reason why Tony Petitti wants an expanded field with automatic qualifiers, and Greg Sankey wants teams determined by a committee.

Under Sankey's plan, this season, Texas and Vanderbilt would have been in a 16-team field, giving the SEC seven teams total and the B1G three.

The last two postseason game results indicate that the PO Committee is overratting SEC teams and underratting Big Ten teams.

Come January 23rd, we'll see if the B1G and the SEC have reached an expanded PO format agreement or if the field will remain at 12 teams.

Under new media deals, media revenue, as is the case in the ACC, will also likely be distributed based on 'Eyes on the Prize,' how many people are watching the broadcast of a team's games. Ohio State and Michigan want this so ...

Danno, keep on baking that bread. 🤑

59 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

Thank you, Mike, for another terrific article.

This Grey Beard loved the Billy Martin reference.

For this Mariners fan growing up in the 90s it was sweet Lou Piniella.

One thing I love about baseball are the blowups by the managers, it isn't something that should actually be celebrated since it's awful behavior letting an adult act like a 3 year old having a tantrum, but all the great ejections are legendary, from kicking caps, drawing lines on the dirt, to literally stealing first base like Lloyd McClendon did.

For what the article was about, it is definitely something to consider, Indiana has been one of the least penalized teams, but if they start pushing off or hitting the QB late, it's something that Lanning should be in the ear of the officials about.

55 minutes ago, Jon Joseph said:

$4 million for making the field

$4 million for teams in the quarterfinals, including teams with byes.

$6 million for the semifinals

So Oregon has made 14 MILLION for the conference?!

Shouldn't we be treated a little better?

As much as it annoys us to see HCs whining and throwing tantrums like a spoiled child, it is indeed one of the jobs of the HC to make sure the refs know it when they blew a call, even if they can't get it changed.

Why?

Because of 2 things:

1. Pointing out recurring borderline behaviors by the other team that are giving them an advantage so the ref start calling them (lik Cig did with the D PIs)

2. Make up calls are a thing even though no ref would ever admit to that publicly. Perhaps the no call push off TD Surrat got late in the game was the makeup call for him getting mugged earlier that killed a drive.

Perhaps the best defense (of the passer) is a good offense against the opponents passer. I'd like to see DL show his defensive lineman ALL of the late and low hits on Dante from game one, and then give them permission to go get their pound of flesh. What goes around should come around.

Go Ducks...Stomp out the Cig!

2 hours ago, Charles Fischer said:

So Oregon has made 14 MILLION for the conference?!

Shouldn't we be treated a little better?

And how much as USC, Washington and UCLA made for the conference combined?

My guess... is no where near that number. I don't know the bowl game payouts but it isn't 14 million that's for sure.

1 hour ago, David Marsh said:

And how much as USC, Washington and UCLA made for the conference combined?

My guess... is no where near that number. I don't know the bowl game payouts but it isn't 14 million that's for sure.

Rowing, golf, tennis, beach volleyball, and water polo titles do not bring in a lot of dinero.🤑

Playoff $$ Oregon will earn for the B1G acc to AI--per team

• Making the Playoff: $4 million

• Quarterfinal Appearance: An additional $4 million

• Semifinals: An additional $6 million.

Edited yesterday at 10:49 PM1 day by 1Ducker1