According the Max Unger, the season starts today. In Moseley's RG article today on the beginning of coluntary summer workouts, Unger is quoted, “Winter and spring is recovery, and this is when you really get stronger. This is crucial. This is where it all happens.”

The story by Moseley today covers the early drills and conditioning, and the incoming freshman Jeremiah Masoli.  However, Moseley loads up the information on his blog.

He has a video interview with Masoli, who said that he wants to compete and play, and hemmed and hawed a bit over the possibility of redshirting (he has 4 years to play 3).  I wouldn't be surprised to see him redshirt, but there is so much raw talent at the QB position, besides Costa being the frontrunner at the starting spot, it is tough to predict the position.

Moseley also posted a lengthy blog post on the workouts.  55 scholarship players were in attendance.  It sounds as if many players are making recoveries well.  Pflugrad made some nice catches, JJ said that he was free of pain, and Boyd is about 90%. 

But apparently the highlight was the "flat-top" haircut that Thurmond was sporting.  I know the kid can play, but if he's gonna back up that haircut, he may have to turn it up a notch.

While this is still incredibly early, this is all very good news.  Last year made everyone hungry, and they are following through early, taking advantage of these opportunities.

In recruiting news, there have been two interesting articles by SI.  One was on the innovations in recruiting by the Duck coaching staff.  In this case, they talk about the comic books created that helped bring in J-Stew and were a big hit with the players.  Unfortunately, this has since been banned by the NCAA (boy, are they useful or what), but SI has the entire J-Stew comic book.

Also, the Ramos story seems to be picking up national traction.  SI pretty standard  opinion piece on the situation, though Bruce Feldman on ESPN (who has been heavily in the recruiting scene for some time), had some of the better observations I've seen.  He essentiallly stated that this situation is an ungly reality of recruiting, and that Oregon took the 2nd best option.  He also said that the mess with St. Bonaventure isn't that big of a deal, however, other recruiters could use this as a reason for kids not to go to Oregon, though with the flawed system, I don't know how much weight that will hold

Though the situation sucks for Ramos, in pure selfish terms, I think this will blow over in the next couple months.  While this hurts the credibility of the coaches for the short term, this happened through very common practices, and much of the national attention has centered on that fact.

We are a scant 67+ days until kickoff.  GO DUCKS!

Matt Hayes over at the Sporting News has been ranking the non-conference schedules of each conference, and just ranked the Pac-10.

Lets be clear about this:  The Pac-10 has the best scheduling in the nation.  Not only do we get treated to a true round robin, but the entire Pac-10 ADs have done an astounding job of scheduling tough games (not including Arizona and Stanford, though at least they have ND).  Below is how Matt ranked the toughness of Pac-10 schedules, and I pretty much agree with the rankings:

1. USC: at Virginia, Ohio State, Notre Dame
2. Washington: BYU, Oklahoma, Notre Dame
3. UCLA: Tennessee, at BYU, Fresno State
4. Oregon State: at Penn State, Hawaii, at Utah
5. California: Michigan State, at Maryland, Colorado State
6. Arizona State: Georgia, Northern Arizona, UNLV
7. Oregon: Utah State, at Purdue, Boise State
8. Washington State: Oklahoma State, at Baylor, Portland State
9. Stanford: at TCU, San Jose State, at Notre Dame
10. Arizona: Idaho, Toledo, at New Mexico

By comparison, here are some of the toughest schedules in all other conference.  For the toughest schedules, every team listed below was in the top 2 of their conference.

Michigan State: at California, Eastern Michigan, Florida Atlantic, Notre Dame
Michigan: Utah, Miami (OH), at Notre Dame, Toledo
Florida: Hawaii, Miami, Citadel, at Florida State
Miami: Charleston Southern, at Florida, at Texas A&M, UCF
Virginia: USC, Richmond, at Connecticut, East Carolina
Pittsburgh: Bowling Green, Buffalo, Iowa, at Navy, at Notre Dame
Syracuse: at Northwestern, Akron, Penn State, Northeastern, at Notre Dame
Colorado: Colorado State (in Denver), Eastern Washington, West Virginia, at Florida State
Oklahoma: Tennessee-Chattanooga, Cincinnati, at Washington, TCU

And I'm gonna throw out a few of the contenders this season, just because:

Georgia: Georgia Southern, Central Michigan, at Arizona State, Georgia Tech
LSU: Appalachian State, Troy, North Texas, Tulane
Ohio State: Youngstown State, Ohio, at USC, Troy
Clemson: Alabama, Citadel, South Carolina State, South Carolina

As you can see, there is no comparisson whatsoever.  I don't think any of the teams listed could even crack the top 4 of the Pac-10 in terms of schedule, and many of the teams have tougher schedules because they are playing Pac-10 teams.  While the Pac-10 plays an extra conference game, every other conference just added a gimme game.  Few teams have more than one game that should be considered a lock, and most Pac-10 teams have no easy non-conference games as at all.

I am very glad that we have this scheduling, and that as Pac-10 fans, we get treated to some excellent football.  Now if only we can get that broadcast to the rest of the nation....

GO DUCKS!!

P.S. 70 days!

It's offseason, and that has caused a drop in postings around Duck-land, and one thing has slipped through the cracks around these parts is the recruitment of Xavier Ramos.

Xavier is a young man who received a written scholarship offer on Friday from Oregon, and accepted it, only to have it rescinded Monday.  Rob Moseley has a good recap of the entire situation.  The Oregon coaching staff felt it needed to rescind the offer after receiving another verbal commitment at the same time, at the same position (the other recruit is unknown at this point).  This gave Oregon 2 commits where there was only one spot for scholarships.  It should be noted that this situation is quite exceptional, and though Oregon's offers were very standard within college football, this type of double-commitment rarely does.

Not shockingly, Canzano has some things to say on the issue, essentially stating that Oregon should not make promises it cannot keep.  Actually, he has a lot of good points throughout his article (did I just say Canzano had good points?), though he is, I feel, a bit overly critical of the Oregon coaching staff.  He also brings the emotion to this story, telling us the story from the perspective of Ramos, which is important to look at in situations like this.

The immediate fallout from this entire situation is that it is a blow to the credibility of the Oregon recruiting, and is a really unfortunate to screw a young kid.  The Duck coaching staff is now unwelcome at Saint Bonaventure High School, which is not a plus for recruiting, as it is typically a strong school, with many alumni at BCS schools.

But more than anything else, this is an yet another indictment on the recruiting process.  Recruiting has been heavily debated in the blogosphere this offseason, especially when Brian over at MGoBlog called out the over-recruiting practices of Nick Saban, drawing the anger of many Alabama fans, and a healthy debate amoung other interested parties. 

And this situation is yet another example of the problems in recruiting. Could Oregon have kept their to Ramos, as Canzano suggest?  Yes, they probably could have, though it may have cost them down the line, and let's be honest, college football is a million dollar enterprise.  The education of young kids is still very important in my mind, but in the grand scheme of things, especially in the recruiting process, it falls to the wayside in the name of success.  By all accounts, this situation was a big accident, as having the commitments come at the same time, this early in the process is quite exceptional, but to compete in the BCS, Oregon needed to send out more offers than they knew they could accept, to stay competitive and get the best class possible.  This is not new, and everyone does this.

Where I applaud the coaching staff, is they could have let this go into February.  They could have rejected someone academically (as happens fairly frequently), but they took the hard choice, and ended this controversy now.  There are consequences, for sure, but at least this was done as soon as possible.  Ramos is now free to pursue other options, which he will most likely have, and that is great.

So, what can be done going forward?  Can Oregon, or any school for that matter, afford to keep every promise?  I don't think so, as millions of dollars, and taxpayer money is on the line.  Education is very important, and should be one of the most important things when a kid gets to school, but in this day and age, with scholarship limits and little room for error, no mistakes can be made.

To me, what this all boils down to is that line that is walked between success and "doing things the right way," for lack of a better term.  This is not an easy line to walk.  I do not think that the University of Oregon should do anything in the name of winning, and I do not think they have done that in their history.  In this case, they made a promise they couldn't keep, and owned up to that right off that bat, which is probably the best that could be hoped for.

These situations will not end moving forward.  Oregon may not fave them for some time, but every university will at some point, as this is just how college football works at this time, and I don't see that changing.  The key moving forward for the University is to do their best to not give up anything for succes.  There is no good that can come of the recruiting process as it is now, but I hope that all universities will make the best out of these bad situations when they come up.

Oregon 55, Stanford 31

Leaders:

Passing:

Dixon 367 | Ostrander 262

Rushing:

Stewart 160 | Kimble 119

Receiving:

Colvin 136 | Bradford 72

Game Thread

As we headed into our league opener against the Trees, we had every reason to feel confident, nay, cocky, about this one.  We had been rolling up the points, blowing everyone out on our schedule.  And Stanford, the worst team in the league, was easily the worst team on our schedule last year.

It took all of one play to completely confirm our thoughts.  As Stanford's secondary watched Cameron Colvin blast past them for 71 yards on the first play of the game, and we had a 7-0 lead ten seconds in, we knew that this game was over.  Two more touchdowns on easy drives, and a 21-3 lead at the end of the first had us ready to pack it in.

Stanford had other plans.

On their first play of the second quarter, career backup Anthony Kimble took one sixty yards untouched to the house.  That opened up a flurry of Stanford scores:  Kimble for another, Ostrander to Ladner, Ostrander to Bradford.  Stanford was moving the ball at will, and it was as if our defense wasn't even on the field.   Meanwhile, you would've though that Cody Kempt was manning the offense.  Two three and outs and a fumble lost by Dixon, another by J-Will, and compounded by a muffed punt return by Andiel Brown, was making things really easy for the Cardinal defense.  The Duck field goal going into halftime was a band-aid on the bullet wound, but the damage had been done.  Stanford may have only been up a touchdown, but the blitzkreig had done its damage to our psyche.

I argued at the time, and I think evidence supports my claim, that the disastrous second quarter wasn't anything Stanford did.  The team simply lost their focus.  As did everyone else in the world, the Ducks thought this one was over.  And with #2 Cal coming to town the next week, it was only natural to start looking forward.  But Stanford, for all their faults, is still a Division 1 football team.  They have talent.  And as they wiped the floor with us in the second quarter, panic started to set in.  We'd been here before.  We'd had great starts, only to see them come crashing down at the first sign of adversity.  And this team's track record from the year before wasn't exactly inspiring.  None of us were in total freakout mode, but there was legitimate concern.  Our whole season was imperative on one question:

How would Oregon respond?

Fortunately, we didn't have to wait long to find out.  Oregon put down the sledgehammer quickly.  Three possessions, three touchdowns.  Game Over.  The Ducks would add ten more points in the fourth quarter, which just made it appear to be more of a blowout than it really was.

The defense was the really disappointing part of this game and, in many ways, it was their worst game of the season.  This wasn't like the Cal game, in which they were being made fools by a truly unique talent like DeSean Jackson.  This was truly mediocre players ripping off big gains.  And I remember a lot of it being little things like missed tackles--which would be more support for my lack of focus theory.  The second half shutout, however, was encouraging.

The offense, though, was the bright star again.  This may have been the best game of Dixon's Oregon career from a passing standpoint, with his 387 yards and four touchdowns.

It should be realized that, with the exception of the second quarter debaccle, this was another dominant performance.  If you take out that abberation, you get 52-3. 

Four games, four wins.

Crisis was averted and, (we hoped, a lesson was learned.  The next week,#2 Cal and College Gameday were coming to Autzen.

Our "Playstation" offense was on the map.

GO DUCKS!!!

--Dave (addictedtoquack@gmail.com)

Coming off our week two spanking of Michigan, we were all very excited about the potential for our season.  But there were also many reasons to be nervous.  First off, the opponent was Fresno State, the BCS killer.  They had gone 0-4 against us to this point, all very close games.  We were the one program that Pat Hill didn’t have on his win resume,  And this would be his last chance.  But lose, and you were hosed, because FSU always tanks their conference schedule. Couple that with a bit of a history for big letdowns after big wins (Michigan ’03, Oklahoma ’05), and I was anxiously awaiting for this day to pass.

And, as the Ducks would prove to me again and again, my nervousness was completely unfounded.

As BLAZERPROPHET so eloquently put it:

 “FSU is a quality team and we just flat out kicked their ass."

Here is the recap that I wrote at the time:

The Fresno game was a bit different than the other games Oregon played.  Against Houston, the team was still working out the wrinkles.  The defense looked fairly poor (although many of us, myself included, vastly underrated Houston's running attack), and the offense took awhile to get going.  But when the offense got going in the second half, the Ducks just blew them away.  Against Michigan, Oregon decided to put on a show and sling long passes and trick plays at will.  Fresno was a different kind of football--we're going to run all over you, and there's not a damn thing you can do about it.  And even a tough, physical team like FSU wan no match for Oregon running game.

There's not really even much to analyze about the run game.  The Ducks had 307 yards on 47 carries, for an average of 6.5 per.  They went inside and outside, and there were big holes everywhere.  With the notable exception of the last two plays of the first possession, the offensive line did a great job and there were just huge holes everywhere.  And I mean holes you could drive a truck through.  Usually, you don't notice offensive line play unless its really bad.  Well, I noticed this for being really good.  They dominated FSU's defense.  And, of course, if you give our RBs holes, they're going to exploit.  Stewart was awesome, going off for 165 yards on 17 carries, including an Autzen record 88 yard TD run, which was the first time at Oregon that he really just turned on the afterburners and blew away the defense.  Through three games, Oregon has had over 300 yards in every game, and is third in the nation in rushing.  Not too shabby.

The running game was so good, that Dixon didn't have to venture into the air too often.  But when he did he maintained his cool efficiency:  14/20, 139 yards, and two touchdowns.  He was still off on a few passes (he missed a deep ball to Williams, and threw behind Dickson over the middle causing Dickson to go down as he caught it), but his decision making has been so good that the few off throws have hardly mattered.

At this point, we know about the offense.  But the real shocker in this game has to be the play of the defense.  On 36 carries, the Bulldogs had a paltry 60 yards on the ground.  That's a 1.7 average.  Fresno was stuffed for loss time and time again.  This was probably aided by the Bulldogs having both starting guards out, but for the second game in a row, the Duck defense was able to get deep penetration into the Bulldog backfield, and Fresno running backs had nowhere to go.  I can't remember the last time Oregon had a game where they didn't allow a 100 yard rusher, but they broke that streak emphatically in this game.

The secondary gave up a few more big plays than we are used to seeing, but still came up big forcing two turnovers.  Walter Thurmond picked up a fumble for a score, then returned an interception to the 8.  As if our offense isn't good enough, the defense has been responsible for putting them in a lot of good situations this year.  Also, one of the biggest improvements from the Houston game to this game has been containing the QB.  Whereas against Houston when all the receivers were covered the QB scrambled for first downs, those are now coverage sacks.

That's really about it.  Everyone did their job.  We kicked their ass.

Only one injury note.  Jeremiah Johnson tweaked his hamstring.  He should be okay for next week, but if there's any doubts, I would hold him out of the Stanford game.  I like our chances against the Cardinal even without JJ, so there is no reason to rush him.

So now its onto league play.  Stanford could be a bit of a trap game.  But, then again, we said the same thing about Fresno.  If Oregon continues what they have been doing--getting better every game, running the ball, and not turn the ball over, they should beat the Cardinal by three touchdowns.  The margin for error gets smaller.  Let the run for the Roses begin!

Three games, three beatings.  And I was feeling awfully cocky at that point.  This team was looking like a juggernaut.  And visions of Roses--and even beyond--were dancing in my head.  It not only confirmed the Michigan result--but in many ways improved upon it.  This team was not content to be a flash in the pan.  They were going to bring it every game, and show no mercy.

And with Stanford coming the next week, we had every reason to expect a fourth straight pummeling.

GO DUCKS!!!

--Dave

ESPN is trying to determine whom is the face of the program.

My thoughts?  Likely Phil Knight, followed by Bellotti and Joey Harrington.  If you're talking within the UO community its Joey hands down, but Knight is the face that most nationally associate with Duck football.

Discuss.

--Dave

I want to talk a bit more about the BCS/Playoff issue.  Or, more specifically, state my thoughts in another way

About a week ago, after years of lobbying for a playoff, I announced that I had crossed over to the dark side, and was currently content with the BCS system.  I expected that most of you would be shocked, stunned, and disappointed with my decison, and many of you were.  I almost feel like a traitor.

Understand that I am not anti-playoff.  But I'm thinking in shades of gray here.  A playoff is an inevitability.  It may not happen in the next five years, but it will happen--likely well before my one year old son graduates from high school.  The consumer wants it, and the players want it.  The Tom Hansen's of the world will soon die off, and more rational thinking will prevail.  I'm having fun with the BCS, but I'm not going to stand up and protest when a playoff does come.  Its the natural order of things that it will.

That said, in spite of all my bitching the last few year, I've really come to the realization that I'm having so much fun with college football right now.  And, while the playoff will be thrilling and exciting (not to mention a whole lot more fair), there is a lot about college football that will be changed, and gone forever, when that playoff inevitably comes to fruition.  

A lot of it starts with the polls.  We all know that polls are a terrible way to determine who is a better team.  Its all subjective, too hard to move up if you start low, etc.  But, to me, this is where I have a lot of my fun with the game.  I love the debates.  I can spend hours during the week just talking about polls, who is better, etc.  We can bitch about who's overrated, underrated, why Ohio State is in the top two AGAIN despite us knowing that they're going to be destroyed in their bowl game.  And we'll come to no real conclusions, because delusional fans will always insist that their own team is better than everyone else's.  But, dammit, its a ton of fun.  I compare this to college basketball.  Nobody cares about the polls.  Nobody's is sitting here midweek debating whether Memphis or North Carolina should be ranked higher.  Because in basketball everything will be decided in the end.  And, while that is more fair and less frustrating, its not necessairly more fun (the playoff is a lot of fun, but more of the regular season is a snoozefest).

The BCS is also why I care about non-Duck games.  During college hoops season, I'm not sitting down for Duke-Carolina or Tennessee-Memphis.  Why the hell should I bother?  It won't really mean anything.  But I have to pay attention to those college football games.  I need to know the other teams to debate, but also because every game affects my team.  I want Cal to smash Tennessee because a stronger Pac-10 OOC makes it more likely that the Ducks crash the BCS.  But, while I start watching these games for purely selfish reasons, all of  sudden, I know these teams a bit, and I'm watching games that have nothing to do with the Ducks.  It gives me stories to root for, and that's the way my fandom works--I have to have a rooting interest, or I just don't care.  If everything is settled in the playoffs, I likely never tune into any regular season games not involving the Ducks (just like I don't watch NBA games that aren't the Trail Blazers, or MLB games not involving the M's--I just can't get into it).

A playoff is coming.  And, to be quite honest with you, the kids competiting out there deserve one.  And, one day, I will be ready for it.  Perhaps after I have another kid, and they're a bit older, and I just don't have the time in my week to debate college football or watch six games on a Saturday.  Then I'll be ready for the change.  But until then, and for purely selfish reasons, I'm having a blast with the current system (and if Oregon gets hosed again, I'll probably forget all this and go on a tirade.  People are hypocrates by nature).  Again, its not that I think that the BCS is the most fair or best system to determine a champion.  But it is fun.  And I admit to being very selfish.

Just wanted to clear that up.

GO DUCKS!!!

--Dave

With the recent stories out there regarding agents (OJ Mayo being the most recent, but also the Reggie Bush scandal of the last few years), as well as big stories regarding academics in college sports (the APR reports, and the loss of 8 scholarships by WSU, as well as our current situation with Derrick Jones that may cost us a scholarship), I wanted to take a few minutes to talk about these issues.

These issues may seem separate, but I think they are very interrelated, as they both poke holes in the idea that these kids are amateur student athletes.  The new age limit by the NBA, creating a ton of new 'one and done' kids, not only reeks of academic problems (as players at quarter schools likely won't complete their last term), but also opens up to agent abuse, with little punishment going toward the player.

Now, much can be made of the argument that college athletes should be paid.  Personally, I don't buy it.  They're getting a college education and living VERY well (I've worked in the Cas Center, I see all the perks these guys get).  You could make the argument that the football and basketball players bring in a ton of money, but the truth is that money is needed to subsidize every other sport on campus.  Especially seeing as you can't pay some athletes and not others, every athletic department in the country goes bankrupt if we pay players.

Now, that's neither here nor there.  The real questions are what can be done about these issues?

I've always thought that the academic issue should be a really easy one.  School. certainly have a lot to lose as far as loss of scholarships.  However, if a student athlete, with all the tutoring availiable to them, and people riding their asses to get things done, can't manage to pass their classes, that's on them, not the school.  By the time you get to college and you're an adult, its time to face some responsibility for your decisions.  Here is my solution:  when you sign your LOI, you also sign a promissary note.  If you don't graduate, you pay back all of your scholarship money.  This won't stop the OJ Mayos of the world.  But it may help stop a Derrick Jones or, even worse in my book, those guys who play all four years but then drop out a term or two before graduation.  Or the guys who are fringe draft pick from leaving early.  Its not enough of a punishment to wreck someone's life financially (hey, all of us normal people manage to pay back our student loans without going bankrupt), but does put the responsibility for academics even more on the student.  It should also be noted that I don't think that this should replace what the NCAA is currently doing with APR and scholarships.  I think that they should compliment each other.

Now, onto agent, or even booster money.  At least boosters are punished.  But athletes and agents get off scott free for this activity, while the schools incur all of the damages.  Now, I'm not feeling bad for those schools (USC), because they know damn well what's going on.  But it is a shame that OJ Mayo doesn't get punished, but his teammates that he's left behind do.  The fact of the matter is that the NBA is dependent on college basketball, even moreso with the age limit.  Although the Seattle situation proves that David Stern is just a little on the crazy side these days, I see no reason why he shouldn't support a proposal that says any player found to have taken money from an agent while an amateur is fined half a year's salary.  Think OJ will still take a flat screen TV if its going to cost him $2 mill?  Yeah, I don' t think so either.  And if Stern really pushed it, you think the player's union is going to fight it?  How is that going to look?  Besided, I'm not sure that players who are alumni of the other Pac-10 schools are going to be too sympathetic to OJ.  Even other SC alums are going to be upset that he got their school in trouble.  This solution would make the barriers too high for athletes to cross.

Finally, the NBA should simply prohibit teams from negotiating with agents who partake in such activities.  If they are going to cheat, take away their livelihood.

These steps wouldn't end cheating (someone is always going to try and break the rules), but I believe that they would significantly curttail it.

The ball's in your court, NCAA.  You can continue to do what you've done in the past (nothing), or you can grow a pair and actually do something.  The promissary note and pressuring the NBA would be a start.

GO DUCKS!!!

--Dave

Sorry for how long this one took--D

Oregon 39, Michigan 7
September 8, 2007
Michigan Stadium
Ann Arbor, Michigan

Leaders:

Oregon | Michigan
Passing:
Dixon 292 | Henne 172
Rushing:
Stewart: 111 | Hart 127
Receiving:
Paysinger 97 | Manningham 117

When we last left the season review, we were left very unsure about our season.  We were encouraged by the offense, but frustrated by the inconsistency.  And our defense surrendered more than a Frenchman at the sight of a German schoolboy.  And while I think many of us were cautiously optimistic, we were not excited about having Michigan on this particular week.  Michigan entered the season ranked #5 in the country, but opened up their season with an embarrassing home loss to 1-AA Appalachian State, who used a spread offense to eek out a win.  Many believed that there was no way Michigan was that bad--and was going to take it out on Oregon the next week.

And certainly, the game didn't start out as encouraging as we'd hoped.  To start off, our defense was every bit as bad as we feared it would be, taking about two minutes to march down to the Oregon 31.  But a well timed interception by Matthew Harper (and he would have a penchant for that this season) would keep the Wolverines out of the end zone.  Oregon rode a series of short passes down to the six yard line themselves, but when we had to settle for a field goal, you sensed that we let an opportunity slip by, and that it might hurt us later on.  And as Mike Hart sliced through our defense en route to a Michigan touchdown and a 7-3 Wolverine lead, your gut practiced wrenching because it was going to be one of those games.

Psych.

Brian Paysinger and Dennis Dixon squashed any fears with this bomb on the first play of Oregon's next possession:

Honestly, the game was over right there.  Chad Henne got hurt.  Mike Hart tried but couldn't make it happen.  And Oregon just imposed their will any way they wanted.  Long bomb to Jones.  Long bomb to Williams.  And we all know the signature play of the game, the one that would put Dennis Dixon on the map as a player to watch this season:

And what else can you really say at that point.  When you do something like that, there is nothing you can't do against that team.  It was the most dominant performance I've ever seen by an Oregon team--and we played like crap for most of the second half.  Sure, we've seen bigger margins.  But have we ever seen an opponent's psyche so completely destroyed as we'd seen in this game?  It was the most fun I've ever had watching a Duck game on TV--and it's not even close.  In the house of the most storied program in the sport, and absolutely took them to the woodshed.

We still weren't exactly sure what we had after this game.  Were we really good?  Was Michigan really bad?  Both?  I still couldn't believe that we would be national title contenders at this point, but I had a lot more confidence that we were going to be really good.  I was only concerned about the trap.  A decent Fresno team, who was desperate for a win against us was next.  Remember what happened after the Michigan game in 2003?  I was just hoping that history didn't repeat itself........

(What I'm about to say is not likely to be popular.  It may seem seem like a devolution to some, but I feel enlightened by it)

As you've undoubtedly heard, a plus-one playoff format was rejected by the conference commissioners last weekend.  With all the fan calls for a playoff system like we have in EVERY other sport, you may be thinking that the commissioners dropped the ball by not giving the consumers what they want.

Me?  I breathed a sigh of relief.

For years, I've advocated for a playoff.  I've advocated on this blog many times that I wanted a playoff.  As a lifelong Duck fan, there is no doubt in my mind we win the 2001 national championship with a playoff.  But although I know that my newfound views won't exactly be popular among many of the Duck faithful, I have indeed crossed over to the dark side.

Its not as if one day I just woke up and decided that I don't want a playoff anymore.  It was a process, and I remember some of the steps distinctly.  Its also not as if I've stopped believing that a playoff is the fairest way to determine that it is.  It undoubtedly is.  And the players probably deserve one.  But, asking what's fair and what's the best thing for college football and, more specifically, the college football fan, is much different.

I started having these thoughts early on last football season.  I'm sitting there watching the Cal-Tennessee game in week one.  And I started thinking to myself:  why the hell am I watching Cal-Tennessee.  If it's a basketball game, there is no way I'm watching Cal-Tennessee.  Yet I watched every minute of that game.  And I watched Oregon State-Cincinnati. And USC-Nebraska.  Oh, and not just Pac-10 games.  I watched West Virginia-Rutgers.  And Oklahoma-Missouri.  And basically football every minute of every Saturday all fall.

I thought about it during the Cal-Tenn game, but didn't really think much more about it until the NCAA tournament, which is my favorite weekend of the year.  I love the NCAA Tournament.  As a sporting event, it is perfect.  But it also made me realize a reality--I didn't watch a single college basketball game not involving the Ducks all year.  I'll watch every Duck basketball game that I can because I'm a die hard, but I won't watch other teams until the tournament.  

And it has nothing to do with football vs. basketball, because I like the sport of basketball a hell of a lot more than I do football.  But the regular season games in basketball matter very little compared to football.  In football, so many games affect the championship picture that I feel I can't miss anything.  The games are too compelling, the drama too much.  The first game of the season can have a profound effect on the national championship.

I've really found that college football is bigger than just the games themselves.  Part of the fun of the game is the rankings, and the unknowns, and the debates.  In basketball, nobody gives a damn if their team is in the top ten six weeks into the season.  In football, your team damn well better be.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that college basketball isn't the same as college football.  I've already said that I love the tournament.  Also, I'm not sure my wife would stick around if I put as much time into the college basketball season as I did the college football season.  But I've also come to realize that its okay for one sport to be different.  And, guess what America, most of the evidence says that you do, too.  You ever see a college basketball game get the ratings that a football game does?

With a playoff, I don't care about Cal-Tennessee.  I don't care about any team other than Oregon.  I watch the Duck game, then mow the lawn and clean out the garage.  Because, while the playoff would be great, there would just be no reason to watch the other weeks.
The drama would be gone.  

Saturdays in Autumn are an all day party.  The Duck game may be the steak, but the potato and the salad and the bread make the dining experience all that much better.  You won't watch half as much college football that you do now if there were a playoff.

Yes, I know that I have just joined the Empire.  But I think that Saturdays are worth saving.  I can't watch a baseball game not involving the Mariners.  Nor NBA games not involving the Trail Blazers.  But in college football, I must see it all.  

Commissioners Hansen and Delany--thank you for saving my Saturdays.

[Ducking flying tomatoes aimed at head]

GO DUCKS!!!

--Dave