Per Rivals.com, after finishing sixth in the nation for the 2024 recruiting cycle, the Ducks are sitting eighth in the 2024 transfer portal rankings. Oregon has brought in some top talent at key positions.
Seven players have been added to the roster: quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma) and Dante Moore (UCLA), receiver Evan Stewart (Texas A&M), defensive tackles Derrick Harmon (Michigan State) and Jamaree Caldwell (Houston), cornerback Jabbar Muhammad (Washington) and safety Peyton Woodyard (Alabama).
By bringing in highly-ranked Power 4 talent at key positions, the Ducks are nailing it. The Ducks are entering the Big Ten with their most talented team ever.
UCLA’s $40 Million Mistake
$40 million; keep this number in mind.
As I read about UCLA’s $10 million a year “Calimony” payment to the Cal Bears, the Led Zeppelin classic “Living Loving Maid (She’s Just A Women)” came to mind as I replaced “alimony” with “Calimony” and sang the memorable line “Calimony, Calimony paying your bills…”
John Canzano commented on how UCLA will now have to pay Cal $10 million annually in the name of “Calimony.” UCLA’s media rights deal in the Big Ten is around $65 million. Had UCLA stayed in the Pac-12 (with USC still leaving), the Pac-12 most likely would have distributed around $40 million per school.
Some might say UCLA could have leveraged its LA market to get a bigger slice of the pie — though honestly, I do not believe UCLA has the brains nor onions to make that play without being led by the nose by their big brother, USC.
Ducks waddling around the field after the spring game. (Photo by Steven Chan)
On top of the Calimony, moving to the Big Ten will increase traveling expenses by $10 million a year and another roughly $5 million in food, diet, nutritional services, mental health services, and academic services. So, $65 million minus an additional $25 million in expenses is $40 million.
Let that sink in for a moment.
All that extra travel, headache, heartache, and getting their brains bashed in by better competition…. all for nothing.
OSU/WSU’s $7 Million Mistake
Well, it is not a mistake. After talking real money above, I’m just making fun of their puny, shoulder-shrugging, “who cares” payout. It is all they could get. In short, I’m clowning their ass.
$7 million is the approximate amount that OSU and WSU will each receive from their media deals with Fox and the CW this upcoming football season.
Speaking of Beavs and Cougs
The two schools have been developing relationships with the ACC and the Big 12 in case one of those two conferences develops an appetite for a West Coast division to include Stanford and Cal and possibly others.
As the other power conferences stretch across the country, I cannot help but think that the still “regional” SEC is kicking back and loving every hot and humid minute of it, smugly thinking, “Look at these clowns.”
Well, the other conferences will be winning in at least one major category: frequent flyer miles.
Darren Perkins
Spokane, WA
Top photo credit: Steven Chan
Natalie Liebhaber, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in technology in SLC, Utah.
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Darren Perkins is a sales professional and 1997 Oregon graduate. After finishing school, he escaped the rain and moved to sunny Southern California where he studied screenwriting for two years at UCLA. Darren grew up in Eugene and in 1980, at the tender age of five, he attended his first Oregon football game. His lasting memory from that experience was an enthusiastic Don Essig announcing to the crowd: “Reggie Ogburn, completes a pass to… Reggie Ogburn.” Captivated by such a thrilling play, Darren’s been hooked on Oregon football ever since. Currently living in Spokane, Darren enjoys flaunting his yellow and green superiority complex over friends and family in Cougar country.