"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." - Lao Tzu
Onto the Quack:
- So apparently they are expanding the college football playoffs from 2 teams to 4 in 2014. Let there be no mistake about it, this was not done to "bring fairness" or "create a system where the best teams have a chance of winning a title." This was a response to the dismantling of the AQ status conferences by realignment and a move to maximize the profits from a college football postseason. Ultimately, this may be a move in the right direction, but then again, if you step out of a bucket of flesh eating fire ants into a pit of human waste, I guess that's a move in the right direction too. Congrats college football.
- Not everything was solved with the playoff change yesterday. There are still a bunch of questions regarding locations, revenue, and most important the selection committee that need to be ironed out. If you thought the NBA conspiracies were great, wait until a more popular team (cough... Notre Dame...cough) makes it into the playoffs over a less popular team. Oh, and the subtleties of seeding and game locations should not be overlooked. The pandering, campaigning and arguments are only going to get much worse. Much, much worse.
- Two Oregon golfers received PING All-American honors yesterday. Daniel Miernicki and Eugene Wong were awarded with their second honors of their careers by the National Golf Coaches Association.
- For how stout the Pac was last year at the QB and WR position, it looks like this year that strength has moved to the RB position. A team like Oregon that lost it's greatest rusher of all time, looks to only be reloading and not rebuilding. Other teams like Stanford, Utah, Cal, and ASU all have stud RBs coming back. Then there is Oregon State.
- Have I told you lately how ridiculous the 9 game conference schedule is for the Pac? Well, apparently it is creating a problem with the out of conference scheduling too. The recent agreement between the Pac 12 and BIG TEN is facing some logistical challenges considering there just isn't room to fit the games in and teams will face brutal lineups if they do. Here's to hoping some sort of "strength of schedule" calculation is taken into account with the future playoff committee. /HoldsBreath
- Lastly, Tuesday Night Talks will be aired on Thursday this week. I have a special guest with the initials T and M in them. That's right, Matt Takimoto will be joining me to discuss, playoffs, Oregon sports and many off topic issues. Join us at 9pm tomorrow night and keep an eye out for a post with the details on how to join in.
Not a lot of quack in the dead period, but still plenty to talk about. Feel free to continue to espouse the wonders of playing a multitude of tough games in the comments, I'll just throw out this little straw man. What are you going to do when 3 SEC teams get into the playoff over a 10-2 Pac team that had a tougher SOS than all 3? With the new situation, that is a real possibility.