An Open Letter to Rob Mullens....

[Charles Fischer]

(This was actually written by Jon Joseph, and I am posting it for him.)

 

Dear Rob Mullens, 

 

Auburn plays at CAL in 2023. Florida plays at Utah. Wisconsin plays at Washington State. Arizona concludes a home-and-home series with a game at Mississippi State.

 

For the next 6 seasons, Oregon's big-time OOC opponents are B12 teams that were not deemed worthy of joining the B12 when Oklahoma and Texas announced they were leaving for the SEC. Not fit to join 'The Elite Club.' (BTW, karma's a witch, no?) Texas Tech, Baylor, and Oklahoma State do not move the financial needle as would home-and-home series versus Power 2 teams, teams from the B1G, and the SEC.
 
As an Oregon fan, I have to ask if you even attempted to schedule more worthy opponents. Opponents who will bring in $4M plus viewers. Opponents that are must-watch TV.
 
At a time when Oregon needs to aggressively market its football team, you have dropped the ball.

 

GO DUCKS!

 

[Thomallister1291]

Yeah, please let the Ducks schedule an SEC home and home series for ONCE! I really wish I could see a series against Alabama or Florida, too bad no AD will ever reply to us, but we at least have hope.

 

Go Ducks!

[Jon Joseph]

Thank You, Mr. FishDuck for baling out a tech dummy.

[Jon Joseph]

IMHO and agreeing completely with Charles in regards to the next five to six years being a testing ground for the future of Ducks football, a guy making close to a $1M a year simply has to do better than bring us six seasons of nothing-burger need to tune into B12 vs Oregon games.

 

Somewhere the B12 commissioner who has played Kliavkoff like a fiddle (as did Kevin Warren, the B1G, Carol Folt, FOX, USC, and UCLA ) has to be LOL at Oregon and the Oregon brand giving 6 seasons of props to a conference that has gone after the Pac-10 with an orchestrated vengeance. BRILLIANT giving a conference intent on destroying you 6 games against the now 'bell cow' of the Pac-10 conference, 

 

Dump these games in favor of the wimpy UCLA OOC schedule. Buy out of these games. You will not lose a significant number of eyeballs playing 3 cupcakes at home compared to playing in Lubbock and Waco, Texas, and in Stillwater, Oklahoma. And you will set yourself up for a better record, a conference championship, and a possible 1st round bye come 2024.

 

I'm sick and tired of Oregon kicking itself in its own posterior. Orchestrated by a guy making a million dollars a year. There is NO strategy or tactics being employed with this kind of schedule.

 

We have met the enemy and they are us.

[JDuck]

They schedule these way in advance.  aTm chickened out on us, and we did get tOSU but didn't get the home end because of some virus.  At the horseshoe, who won?  But yeah right now the future ooc could use a little more flavor.  Then again, the SEC schedules mostly patsies, with a 4th ooc mega-patsie the week before big rivalry week, almost like a bye the week before their big games.

 

That said, we need the dough, the SEC doesn't.  Their formula is schedule patsies and they win most of the natty's.  But, they don't need the dough.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/5/2023 at 9:52 PM, JDuck said:

They schedule these way in advance.  aTm chickened out on us, and we did get tOSU but didn't get the home end because of some virus.  At the horseshoe, who won?  But yeah right now the future ooc could use a little more flavor.  Then again, the SEC schedules mostly patsies, with a 4th ooc mega-patsie the week before big rivalry week, almost like a bye the week before their big games.

 

That said, we need the dough, the SEC doesn't.  Their formula is schedule patsies and they win most of the natty's.  But, they don't need the dough.

The dough is not baked in Lubbock and Waco, Texas, and in Stillwater, Oklahoma.

 

Somehow in the way of advanced scheduling, Wazzu convinced Wisconsin to trip to Pullman.

 

I'm not giving Mullens a pass because scheduling is difficult and is done out in the future. The Utah AD who makes far less than Mullens per annum has Florida coming to SLC next season.

 

Mullens is making $1M a year and I see nothing that makes me think he deserves it.

[Tandaian]

I'd say Rob has done a pretty good job of scheduling games.  Nobody is perfect.  It is hard to schedule 7-10 years out and you need somebody to agree to the games.  Of course, Florida scheduled Utah and Wisconsin scheduled WSU, because at the time Utah and WSU weren't good.  WSU was originally scheduled to play Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015, but got moved to 2022 and 2023.

 

We can't penalize Rob because of the fiasco the Pac 12 has become.  If USC/UCLA doesn't leave, nobody is complaining about the Ducks playing Texas Tech, Oklahoma St. or Baylor as not being big enough.

 

2010 Tennessee

2011 LSU

2012 Fresno St.

2013 Tennessee

2014 Michigan St.

2015 Michigan St.

2016 Nebraska

2017 Nebraska

2018 Bowling Green – was supposed to be Texas A&M

2019 Auburn - Was supposed to be Texas A&M

2020 was supposed to be tOSU

2021 tOSU

2022 Georgia

2023 Texas Tech - scheduled in 2016

2024 Texas Tech  -scheduled in 2016

2025 Oklahoma St. - scheduled in 2018

2026 Oklahoma St. - scheduled in 2018

2027 Baylor - scheduled in 2017

2028 Baylor - scheduled in 2017

2029 Michigan St. - scheduled in 2018

2030 Michigan St. - scheduled in 2018

 

[FG Lumber]

Greg Byrne is the AD at Alabama.  He worked for the UofO for a number of years (here in Medford for 2 yrs).  He loved Oregon as his father was AD here for about a decade .  He would be a natural to contact.

[lownslowav8r]

This was scheduled way in advance in a environment when two losses meant you don’t make the four team national championship field. Since no one has gotten through the current PAC-12 conference lineup without a loss, a strong non-conference schedule likely meant not being in contention for the national championship most of the year. 
 

NOW (next year, really) it makes more sense to schedule a blue blood in non-conference play since you can still win the conference and get in. Mullen did what many of thought he should do and give us a non-conference schedule we can sweep. 

[Pennsylvania Duck]

I can't speak much about game scheduling, but I do think that Mullens could do a lot more promoting UO in athletics. How many of you are aware of how our spring sports are doing?  

• -- Are you aware we have some pretty good golfers?
• -- Did you know that there are tennis matches going on and how they're doing?
• -- Did you even know we have an acrobatics and tumbling team currently competing?
• -- Our beach volleyball team is now 2/3 of the way through their season?
• -- The Lacrosse teams' next 3 games are at home?

On OBDF, we have tried to keep you updated on baseball, softball and a little of track and field. How many of us could say that we are aware of our Duck teams because of promotions from the Athletic department? Would you be updated on these three sports if you didn't read about them in OBDF?

 

Granted I have listed minor sports above, but do you see much promoting for even the major sports like football and basketball? I don't know, maybe I am just not on the list to receive athletic promotions. It seems to me the easiest base to promote to are alumns.

 

Sad to say, but the Nike name seems to promote Oregon athletics more than the money spent by the athletic department. I don't have the answer to the problem, but someone paid close to a million bucks should have it.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/6/2023 at 1:02 PM, lownslowav8r said:

This was scheduled way in advance in a environment when two losses meant you don’t make the four team national championship field. Since no one has gotten through the current PAC-12 conference lineup without a loss, a strong non-conference schedule likely meant not being in contention for the national championship most of the year. 
 

NOW (next year, really) it makes more sense to schedule a blue blood in non-conference play since you can still win the conference and get in. Mullen did what many of thought he should do and give us a non-conference schedule we can sweep. 

The playoff calculus changes in 2024. When, hopefully, the strength of the schedule will matter. Especially when it comes to choosing the 6 at large teams.

 

Duck heavyweights OOC and you do so at your own peril. This is why the SEC is stepping up its out-of-conference schedules. 

 

When it comes to SOS let's face it, the Pac-10 will not get the benefit of the doubt. And thanks again SC/UCLA for blowing the conference off which among other things has resulted in Ohio State paying $500,000.00 to bail out of its 2024 game against UW in Seattle.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/6/2023 at 1:02 PM, lownslowav8r said:

This was scheduled way in advance in a environment when two losses meant you don’t make the four team national championship field. Since no one has gotten through the current PAC-12 conference lineup without a loss, a strong non-conference schedule likely meant not being in contention for the national championship most of the year. 
 

NOW (next year, really) it makes more sense to schedule a blue blood in non-conference play since you can still win the conference and get in. Mullen did what many of thought he should do and give us a non-conference schedule we can sweep. 

Good point but Michigan and UCLA in 2023 as they did in 2022, have 3 guaranteed OOC wins. All are being played respectively in LA and in Ann Arbor.

 

Winning in Lubbock (Texas Tech could be a preseason top-25 team,) Waco, and Stillwater is not easy. 

 

IMO these are games where Oregon has a lot to lose and very little to gain. And none of these games is must-watch TV.

 

Oregon at this point in time cannot hide its light under a bushel. These games will not result in Oregon being the 7th most-watched team in the nation as was the case in 2022.

[Utki]

On 4/6/2023 at 10:02 AM, lownslowav8r said:

This was scheduled way in advance in a environment when two losses meant you don’t make the four team national championship field. Since no one has gotten through the current PAC-12 conference lineup without a loss, a strong non-conference schedule likely meant not being in contention for the national championship most of the year. 
 

NOW (next year, really) it makes more sense to schedule a blue blood in non-conference play since you can still win the conference and get in. Mullen did what many of thought he should do and give us a non-conference schedule we can sweep. 

I think Alabama likes to avoid playing teams that are even vaguely okay out of the conference if at all possible.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/6/2023 at 3:13 PM, Utki said:

I think Alabama likes to avoid playing teams that are even vaguely okay out of the conference if at all possible.

Texas gave Bama all it could handle last season and should be a tough out for Bama in Tuscaloosa this season.

 

 

Bama has stepped up its OOC scheduling. Arizona has a H+H series scheduled with Bama down the road. 

 

 

Most likely beginning in 2024 Bama and all SEC teams will play 9 and not 8 regular season games.

[Jon Joseph]

Update. As of 4/7/22, I have not heard back from Rob.

 

This is as shocking as my once again, not being invited to play in the Masters.

[Thomallister1291]

On 4/7/2023 at 11:41 AM, Jon Joseph said:

Update. As of 4/7/22, I have not heard back from Rob.

 

This is as shocking as my once again, not being invited to play in the Masters.

Man, I really wish that someday Rob replies to my email about my proposal about the Oregon vs Alabama series.

[anyotherduck]

On 4/7/2023 at 10:41 AM, Jon Joseph said:

Update. As of 4/7/22, I have not heard back from Rob.

 

This is as shocking as my once again, not being invited to play in the Masters.

Another Oregon bureaucrat failing upward.

[Thomallister1291]

On 4/6/2023 at 2:21 PM, Jon Joseph said:

Texas gave Bama all it could handle last season and should be a tough out for Bama in Tuscaloosa this season.

 

 

Bama has stepped up its OOC scheduling. Arizona has a H+H series scheduled with Bama down the road. 

 

 

Most likely beginning in 2024 Bama and all SEC teams will play 9 and not 8 regular season games.

Off-topic but I absolutely still want to see Oregon playing against Alabama in a home-and-home series, the programs do have some ties despite their cultural differences, and Greg Byrne (Alabama's AD) was involved at something in Oregon between 1995 and 1998, according to Alabama's website, I wish I could let both AD's know how awesome that potential series would be, I think it would be a fun matchup that would be College GameDay worthy.

 

Now if only AD's saw potential home and home series requests...

Edited April 7, 2023 by Thomallister1291

[Charles Fischer]

On 4/7/2023 at 10:51 AM, Thomallister1291 said:

Man, I really wish that someday Rob replies to my email about my proposal about the Oregon vs Alabama series.

Everybody is welcome to give their opinion here, but I think you might be in the minority on this one.

 

[Thomallister1291]

On 4/7/2023 at 12:31 PM, Charles Fischer said:

Everybody is welcome to give their opinion here, but I think you might be in the minority on this one.

 

Yeah I know, I'm aware that Rob may never see my email but I do hope that the UO-Bama series does come into reality someday, but I'll be happy with what I have now, I hope that those future games we indeed have scheduled are promising.

[Jon Joseph]

On 4/7/2023 at 4:35 PM, Thomallister1291 said:

Yeah I know, I'm aware that Rob may never see my email but I do hope that the UO-Bama series does come into reality someday, but I'll be happy with what I have now, I hope that those future games we indeed have scheduled are promising.

But perhaps start with Vandy and work our way up?