Gambling is speculative at best, but if someone wanted to get rich quick last weekend, the opportunity was there. After Oregon and Alabama – the two winningest college football programs of the decade — both dropped their conference openers, they found themselves on an unfamiliar side of public opinion, or more specifically, of the Vegas odds-makers’ opinion. Oregon was a mere six-and-a-half point favorite over …
Others Receiving Votes: Toledo (68), Oregon (64) It was following a game against Utah in 2009 that the Ducks last found themselves voted off the AP Top 25 island, so it is only fitting that a game against Utah, mark their first return outside of it in six years. The 98 weeks in-between provided a glorious run of historical proportions …
Predicting a game is hard … ask any athletic director in college football, who are often required to anticipate the quality of their opponents as far as a decade ahead. Contrast that challenge with the fact that TV networks rarely make scheduling decisions sooner than 12 days before broadcast. The variables are myriad. From weather to attendance, to finance … …
In a tale of two games filled with back-and-forth uncertainty, there was one single moment when it appeared the dam holding back the tide of Oregon’s offense would crumble, that despite all the challenges the Ducks faced beforehand, the points and yards were about to flow downhill. That moment was punctuated by, arguably, the most miraculous plays Oregon made against …
Rarely is there an opportunity to outshine your predecessor when your predecessor is a Heisman Trophy winner. But freshly-minted Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams did just that on Saturday, demonstrating an ability that exceeds even that of Marcus Mariota: the ability to move the needle of public interest. Not only is Adams’s presence drawing national attention, but he’s showing he can move …
With only hours until the NFL Draft, let’s have an arbitrary ranking of the best landing spots for Marcus Mariota. (Is best a subjective term? Of course, but all rankings are subjective. In this case, let’s just go with the common definition of best: Most likely to lead to long-term success for his career by all obvious standards, championships over …
The Ducks were be back on the field Tuesday for the first time since their humbling loss in the National Championship Game on January 12th. Following that loss, many writers proclaimed Oregon’s chances at a future national title in the future dead, or at least significantly diminished. From Stewart Mandel of Fox Sports: “…in terms of winning a national championship, …
Worry, it’s what Oregon fans do. It’s what all fans do, really, but Oregon fans are specialists in it. The assumption is, if something bad happens, no matter how small, it will trigger a catastrophic outcome. If things go well for a while, it means something bad is just around the corner. They will ultimately be deprived of joy, for no logical …
Under the old system, this game doesn’t even happen. The BCS would have assembled a final of Alabama and Florida State, the current participants in a hypothetical bronze medal game (Wait, why isn’t there a third-place game?) instead of the finalists of Oregon and Ohio State. The Buckeyes don’t get in either under the old system, and the 2010 Rose …
Last week, I listed Florida State as the biggest villain Oregon has faced in recent memory. When their pairing with the Ducks was announced for the playoff, Oregon fans rejoiced at the ultimate matchup of good versus evil. As I sat down to write this week, I was fully prepared to crank up the hate machine and fire off a …
If you recorded the Heisman Trophy ceremony, and your recording ran long (a highly recommended practice, by the way, given that the ceremony always goes over in time), you would have caught the first few minutes of the ESPN documentary “The U Part 2“, a follow up to the 2009 documentary (obviously titled, “The U”) about the University of Miami …
I try to avoid award shows. In 2014, there is this device called “The Internet” that tells us who the winners of awards are around the time of their issuing. In fact, the fact that award shows still pull ratings in the internet age is one of the great achievements of television production and marketing. But this year is different. With Oregon …