It's been a pretty crazy last 12 hours for the Oregon athletic department, with a report coming out that Oregon paid two men with ties to Oregon recruits a total of $28,000. We covered the main story last night, so if you missed that, check it out. Now to the fun part, reaction!
- The roundups by Matt Hinton and Spencer Hall are worth a read this morning. Both apply their usual reasonableness to this issue. Matt Hinton calls the odds on Oregon faces significant consequences "long." Spencer says that Lyles will be banished so that the NCAA can feel better about itself.
- For another good roundup, Ken Goe has a solid piece rounding up all major details of this story. The numbers have definitely been a bit jarring, but Oregon is standing firm that they have nothing to hide. And the best defense against the NCAA is swift response and strong a compliance office.
- Also worth a listen is the Solid Verbal Podcast on this topic, hosted by Oregon alum Dan Rubenstein, and him and Ty talk to Bryan Fischer of CBSSports.com.
- I feel dirty linking to this, because, it's SportsByBrooks, but here we go. He's claiming that the NCAA will soon be in Eugene, though this wasn't planned until after the Yahoo report came out, which is to be expected.
- And because we need to give equal opportunity to the haterz, here's a few links to the negative nancies: John Canzano, Gregg Doyel, George Schroeder.
- Since we can't talk only about sketchy recruiting practices, we can talk about our floundering basketball team. The Ducks have officially lost all the momentum they gained in the middle of the season, as they lost by 20 to ASU last night. Oregon couldn't hit anything, but it sounds like they didn't attack, and didn't create good shots, and also fell into a defensive malaise.
- The Oregon women lost as well, falling 75-66 at home. The Ducks overcame a 17-point first half deficit, but a 10-0 ASU run put the game away.
I'm sure we'll have lots to talk about throughout the day, so leave your opinions, thoughts, and any news updates in the comments. GO DUCKS!