Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Ordinarily, when a reputable football news source publishes bowl projections or preseason rankings, you’d say the predictions were “released.” This past week, Athlon Sports published its preseason Top-25 and final four lists, and there’s no way these things were released, not even with a locked-on ankle bracelet. Athlon tabbed Ohio State, Auburn, Alabama and Baylor as its preseason …
Mike Merrell’s Three and Out A recent article posted on obnug.com declared that the Pac-12 could make a “butt load of money by dumping Wazzou [sic].” It’s an idea that has some merit. There’s no way the Cougars could be bringing in their share of revenues – although that doesn’t stop them from taking their share of the pie. But there …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out A long time ago I was presented with a riddle that involved a war in the Middle East and went something like this: You take a hand-held calculator and add up or multiply this and that representing the numbers of opposing forces, tanks, aircraft, etc. Based upon the numbers given, you come up with 14,215,469. Then you …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out When Texas A&M’s Pat Henry complained about Oregon’s “unfair advantage” in hosting the NCAA Championships through 2021, he inadvertently called attention to the changing landscape of college athlete recruiting. Why Henry’s complaint is really about his position in the changing landscape of recruiting — rather than the advantage once on the track — is the subject of this …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Texas A&M track coach Pat Henry thinks that Oregon has an unfair advantage at the NCAA Track & Field Championships, according to a Saturday article by Oregonlive’s Andrew Greif. Henry, it seems, thinks that the home field advantage works to Oregon’s favor — and he’s right. But Henry misses the boat when he jumps from “advantage” to …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out In a gag-me-with-a-spoon move coming from two time zones away, ESPN’s Adam Rittenburg dished up an unappetizing morsel about the professionalism of Jim Mora and the UCLA football program. Mora, it seems, runs his organization like an NFL team. Since Rittenburg went to Northwestern and is currently rumored to be living just outside Chicago, he is a good …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Every school has its irritating fans, and the Ducks are certainly no exception. Stanford has its offensive band that — due to some transgressions — got banned from traveling to away games next season. And when it comes to irritating, USC’s band and the only song it knows are hard to beat. But when it comes to …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out Most college team mascots were chosen long before Title IX came along, and naturally no thought was given to the possibility that women might someday bear the name on the battlefields. So when Title IX created intercollegiate women’s sports, the dilemma of what to do about team mascots came with it. Somebody got the bright idea to …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out In a move certain to offend all college football fans who haven’t been advised to sell when their IQs reach 50, Athlon Sports’ Steven Lassan labeled ASU’s Todd Graham (77-41) the best head football coach in the Pac-12. If that wasn’t gray matter-challenged enough, he relegated Oregon’s Mark Helfrich to the bottom half. It’s time for Lassan …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out My first direct contact with a big-time football coach came in fall of 1966 when John Robinson — then an assistant at Oregon — blessed us incoming freshmen swimmers with a pep talk. It was all about what a great athletic family the Ducks were. With a fist waving in the air, Robinson declared that when you …
Mike Merrell’s Three-and-Out No. I first wrote the above one-word article on August 26, 2013 and it has been sitting unpublished in the FishDuck.com archives ever since. Though only one word long, the article proved to be spot-on for 2013, and as it happened, 2014 as well. Why 2015 will join those two years and the nine before them, and …
Mike Merrell’sThree-and-Out While the national pundits make a bit of an about face on the Mariota vs. Winston draft pick issue, it’s not a bad time to take a look at some of the little things that maybe shouldn’t be so little in the convoluted relationship among athletics, universities and fans. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ top draft choice, baby-talk athletes …