Four day work weeks are pretty awesome. And some quack is pretty great too:
- Kris has an article at CollegeBaseball360 where he gives us Horton's take on the NCAA selection committee. While Horton doesn't focus much on Oregon, he does rail a good deal against the NCAA selection committee's east coast bias, calling the selections of three Big East teams and three Sun Belt teams "ridiculous." Horton blames weak scheduling from east coast teams, who schedule "Molly Putts University" at home to get inflated records before conference play. So, just like football then.
- Jim Beseda of OregonLive has a recap of Oregon's baseball season. The main story of the season will be unmet expectations. But with such a young team, those ended up being quite inflated. Hopefully we'll look back on this season in a couple of years and see it as a year of growth for the young Ducks.
- Ted Miller takes a look at Oregon's schedule in his series on Pac-12 teams. While Oregon's schedule is favorable compared to other Pac-12 teams, there is no easy schedule in the Pac-12.
- Looking for some Pac-12 football previews? Phil Steele has two teams in his Top 30 countdown. USC comes in at #17 and Stanford comes in at #16. FWIW, ASU came in at #22. (Warning, links are to PDF's) Steele seems higher on USC than most other pundits, and lower on Stanford. While Steele has taken his lumps around here for doubting the Ducks in 2009, it's nice to see a bit of analysis other than "OMG Andrew Luck!!!"
- Justin Hopkins from Duck Territory has a Pac-12 (free) recruiting roundup. Oregon seems to be in pretty good shape so far. The real story in the Pac-12 is USC, who already has nine commitments, despite looming NCAA sanctions.
- In some NCAA news, it looks like the NCAA President Mark Emmert is looking into expanding athlete stipends so that they cover the full cost of attendance. Currently, scholarships fall a couple thousand dollars short per year of what the federal government deems the cost of attendance. Hopefully this can get passed. We've discussed this topic quite a bit this offseason, and this type of proposal would be a great middle ground between the current mess of a system and actual pay-for-play.
Got an opinion on where USC or Stanford should be ranked? The NCAA increasing player stipends? Leave your opinions, and any other quack, in the comments. GO DUCKS!