Despite losing to Stanford this past week, Oregon still has a legitimate shot to make the College Football Playoff this year. I know many of you may assume it’s time to pump the breaks on this notion, and as we have talked about at FishDuck for a fair bit now, the Oregon community buzz is falling away from the program …
CFB Drama: Is a 12 Team Playoff Coming Soon?
By the looks of it, a 12 Team Playoff is the preferred format for expanding the College Football Playoff. Currently it appears that the top twelve teams ranked by the playoff committee would make it into the playoff. This sounds good in theory but also raises further questions. What if the Champion of a Power-Five Conference isn’t ranked in the …
How Does Oregon’s 2021 Defense Stack Up Against 2014’s?
Oregon’s 2021 football team has the hype and personnel to make a run at the College Football Playoff and maybe even a National Championship. Last week, I looked at how this year’s offense stacked up against the 2014 team, and today we turn to the defense to compare 2021’s team to the last Oregon team to reach the Playoff and …
How Does Oregon’s Offense in 2021 Stack Up Against 2014?
2014 was the first year of the College Football Playoff, and Oregon was the first team to win a CFP semifinal game. The 2014 season was an incredible year for Oregon fans, as Marcus Mariota was the first Oregon player to win the Heisman, which he did while setting QB records — not only for Oregon but for the entire …
Duck DISRESPECT? CFP Committee Dismisses Oregon
This year’s initial College Football Playoff rankings were bound to be the strangest, for obvious reasons. In a year marred by uncertainty, it was anyone’s guess as to how the committee would weigh factors such as the number of games a team has played, strength of schedule and even games lost due to unavailable players. Although the Ducks were considered …
Can Oregon Realistically Make the Playoff?
Every year there are media darlings in college football. In 2010 it was Cam Newton, willing the Auburn Tigers to victory week in and week out. 2019 had Joe Burrow and his historically great passing season, and of course the media loves teams like Notre Dame and Texas every season, no matter how good they are. 2020 has a couple of candidates …
Oregon’s Path to the Playoff Is Riddled with Potholes
Oregon can make the College Football Playoff in 2020 despite a a shortened season. Their path, however, is narrow, and the Ducks will require help. What Oregon has control over is two things: win and win big. Oregon cannot afford to win games by only one score this year. If Mario Cristobal and company are serious about making the playoff, …
Can Oregon Break Up the Playoff Status Quo?
College football is getting less competitive. The playoff’s goal was to expand the number of teams that could compete for the national championship every year by widening the field from two to four. Not much of a playoff, and it seems even less so with a cast of four usual suspects: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and Oklahoma. These four teams …
A CFP Duck Dynasty? It’s Not So Crazy
Yes, I know. And I will happily embrace the name change you might be thinking of: Lou Farnsworth should now be known as “Homer Duck.” So with that preliminary bit of honesty settled, let’s look at the data, which actually gives objective support to my claims of a dynasty in this article’s title. I recently wrote about our chances of …
Would an Eight-Team Playoff Be All That Great?
“All we are saying, is give us a chance.” In 2025, the current agreement that governs the College Football Playoff (CFP) comes to a close. The final CFP National Championship under the existing format will be played in January 2026. Concurrent with the end of the Playoff, the lucrative ESPN Playoff media rights agreement also expires. Thereafter, the majority of …
Oregon ‘Natty Notions: Is This THE Year?
The National Championship. The CFP Trophy. The Holy Grail for every college football fanatic in the country. The pinnacle that us Ducklings have been oh so close to achieving twice (2010 and 2014), but have ultimately fallen short of. Oh, the horror of those last few minutes of the Auburn loss! My esteemed fellow FishDuck.com writers Mike West and Jon …
Time to Pac-Up: Should Oregon Follow the MONEY?
How do you fit five pegs into four holes? The obvious answer is, “You don’t.” You leave one out. AZcentral.com and SEC born-and-raised Andy Staples have another solution. You whittle one of the pegs down to nothing, pick up a few of the scraps and glom them onto one of the four remaining. Naturally, the one that gets carved up—according …