1.  Do you think Cal and Stanford fans would still have voted for Barack Obama, if this was what he meant by "change"?

Totally. I saw a joint-proposal (see what I did there?) coming out of Stanford and Cal just this past week saying that we should take wins from the top 5% of the teams in the Pac-10 and redistribute them to the teams in the middle class to make things more "fair". For Oregon, that doesn't matter much seeing how we are still waiting on our welfare check.

2.  Recruiting is heating up.  How is your team's recruiting class looking?

Not bad although the naysayers in the Oregon fanbase think we have the worst recruiting class EVER just because we missed out on a few top-level skill positions. Honestly, our main focus this year was defense and we hit that out of the park with verbals from a few 4-star guys and a boatload of 3-star guys. We are still in the running for some top end skill position players (Bryce Brown specifically) but my gut feeling is that we probably won't see any of them in a Duck uniform. Our QB situation is set for the next 3 years, we have an excellent stable of running backs, and some young playmakers at wideout. Given our needs, it appears that we have a nice recruiting class shaping up. Of course, it all means squat if we don't get that fax on signing day.

3.  Woah, UCLA loses another game.  What's up with that?

They must have heard you Twist. Right after you asked this question this week they destroyed Cal and Stanford in LA. It wasn't even close in either game. Their loss at Washington on the 24th was a battle of the top two teams in the conference. Washington has really come on strong and they play well at home. UCLA is a little young in spots and has been somewhat inconsistent. Losing to Washington at their house isn't anything to be ashamed of. They will both be in the tourney this year.

4. Who is going to have the better season in Football next year? Washington State or Washington? Tell us why and show your work.

Normally I would answer Washington to this question, hands down. Jake Locker is an awesome quarterback. Let me take that back, he's an awesome scrambler. His completion percentage is downright awful. Sark wants to turn him into a pro-style quarterback and if that's the case, he's going to get worse before he gets better. Both teams have their "gimmie" games this year with the Cougars playing Hawaii and the Huskies playing Idaho. The problem is that I don't see any other games that seem winnable on their schedules outside of the Apple Cup. I'm going to go with the Cougars to win the Apple Cup and have the better season. They should be getting a number of players back from injury next year and it should help their cause, at least against Hawaii.

5. Word making the rounds is that the Mountain West is seeing an automatic BCS Bid. Should they get one? Do they deserve one? If they did get one, would it silence calls for complete and total destruction of the BCS?

This is a tough question for me because I think every D1 team should have a chance at winning the national championship, not just 66 out of those 119 teams. Utah had a legitamite beef about not having a shot at the national title this year...the keywords being THIS YEAR. The Mountain West is not a consistent power year in and year out. They started off great this year against the Pac-10 but really, this year was a fluke. Until there is some consistency out there, I see no reason to give them the automatic berth. Likewise, I think that if a conference sucks bad enough and is only living off of past reputation (you listening Big-10, ACC and Notre Dame?), those contracts should also get re-evaluated. If the MWC did get an automatic bid, I think you would have even more screaming, specifically from the east coast schools who suddenly feel the potential loss of dollars leaving their conferences.