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One other thing-I prefer 11 P4 teams. Ten for the lower tier P4 schools. It is time to vet the P4 beginning to end. Not after they get their feet wet with "preseason" games (unless they simply don't count those P4/G6 games in the record books-let's just call them pre-season games like we already know they are). Padding records in the Playoff era leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

If we want to preserve the old system it would look like this: 1) SEC gets to pay under the table. They attack anyone that does the same. UGA and Bama smoke everybody-especially their conference brethren. Every once in awhile, an LSU or Florida will arrive and steal the show. In the B1G, Ohio State keeps pace, but more sneaky. They pay players too, and blame Michigan for cheating when they lose. Since Chip blurred the lines and got caught, Phil and the Oregon Athletic Department have found every legal method to field a $75 Million team. USC is on their way to that very blueprint. Since NIL has arrived, players want to play so the corn fed Southern boys have sprinkled the nation with the depth they used to provide to Bama and Georgia (Ohio State, Michigan and Oregon). Kurt Cignetti one-upped everyone with outstanding scouting, and player development. Everybody is looking for proven experience now. The smart lower tier 4 star players are going to find the best G6 coaches and display their talents. Alas, Trinidad Chambliss-though going to a sister of the poor level school, balled out and proved Cignetti was on to something and NFL level scouting is now a priority at the P4 and G6 level. Parity is destroying the SEC's narrative. Within 2 seasons we will not see 7 SEC teams in the preseason Top 15. Furthermore, I believe fans are already getting used to the fact teams will have a much more difficult time winning 11 or 12 games-including bowl and playoff season. The argument for keeping the playoff at 12 is best for keeping any semblance of the old days. Choosing the field of 12 preserves the "my team is better than your team, so my school got robbed and your team is garbage" sentiment that has been a part of college football since us old geezers were in grade school. The argument for expanding to 24 teams and grabbing hundreds of millions of dollars makes much more sense for two reasons: 1) coaches will keep their jobs longer (great for continuity) as long as they reach the playoffs every 2-3 years and 2) it will completely confirm or destroy the SEC mantra they are the best conference in college football. They will usually field 6 teams, and those teams will have to produce results. What a 24 team playoff will do is bury the past. I believe NIL pretty much started digging the grave sites. Players were always preparing like pros without the money they get now. About half take school seriously enough to get a degree that will help them when they leave school. The elite players are mostly semi pro NFL prospects anyway. We all wanted to ignore this because it maintained an integrity we wanted to pretend was there. Believe me, I started college in 1980. I knew several players from UW and Oregon. They trained, practiced, lifted, studied the game, and spent 30 hours a week on FOOTBALL. Some complained loudly about scholarships being insufficient compensation for their time. Not to mention the stars never receiving money for jersey sales (and Ohio State's controversy over the same issue). Do I like NIL? No. Not the way it is structured. The schools are acting as silly as NFL owners and paying unproven kids gobs of money they should earn once they prove themselves. I hope NIL contracts are structured year to year now. But what I really despise is how kids are being exploited worse than when they weren't getting paid. Thousands of kids hit the portal every year and at least half are finding out they are about as valuable as a 7-11 clerk. And there goes their careers. Simply because they thought the grass was greener. And don't get me started on paying some QBs more than a million dollars. I'd say there are about 30 QBs close to or worth more-but I'm a hack wanna be coach. So who am I to judge. The playoffs should expand if they don't find a way to force the committee to be consistent, and at least appear to not cave to the networks for ratings sake. Miami and Notre Dame should have both been playing Tulane, Bama, Texas and JMU instead of having to hear from ND fans they got robbed-especially after Notre Dame gave up 41 points to no offense A&M. The Playoff Committee is a bane to society as far as I'm concerned. A 24 team playoff would rid us of their services. Justifiably. I prefer 12 with Play In Games. I doubt we get that.

wow! Did not expect that from Riley!

3-0 for our B1G brothers tonight, and now even with the MAC at 1 and 1. Purdue 44 - Indiana State 19 Michigan State 30 - Toledo 20 USC 39 - Fresno State 0 - And SC throttled down the O in the 2nd half.

I get it. But think of it as a 16-team PO with 8 on-campus play-in games contested on what would have been conference championship game weekend. And the top 8 seeds playing on-campus games instead of sitting around for close to a month with their fans required to travel to a 2nd-round bowl game site. Eight meaningful play-in games instead of the teams meeting in nothing-burger bowl games with many players sitting out. Millions more CFB fans would be invested in the postseason, and millions more dollars would be distributed to the ACC and B12 programs, which might hold off further conference consolidation and NFL-Lite.

How our new offensive and defensive coordinators call, and adjust, to the game. Go Ducks!

Penny, calling Sky. (To get this, you also have to remember Roy Rogers and a Jeep called Nelly Bell. 😁) Compared to Notre Dame traveling to LA to play SC back in Knute Rockne's day, it's a piece of cake. BSU should have taken the BUS.

Call me old-fashioned (or just old works) but I still think the 24-team format is basically a money grab that will produce some really lousy first- and maybe second-round games. There ain't 16 teams capable of hoisting the natty in any given year, let alone 24.

THIS is how Sankey saves face and gets behind Petitti's 23-team PO. He has to be able to claim a measure of victory in the PO wars. Three years ago, Sankey was the CFB commissioner on top, and Petitti's PO format would destroy CFB. Today? Sankey is on his own except for his friends in Bristol, CT. In successful businesses, the best strategy and tactics and not the loudest mouths, win the day. Speak softly, Tony, and carry a B1G stick.

Ducks go 12-0 in regular season Winn the Natty 31-18 For season average 38.5 points on offense For season average 16.7 points on defense Number one in the country in sacks

Team buses arrived at Eugene hotel at 8:56 p.m.

Ok... So I had to look it up. Driving from Boise to Eugene is 7 hours and 40 minutes ... About. The plane trip is 1:40 minutes... Then Eugene to Portland is 30-50 minutes but with all the other delays let's just rack that up to an hour. So plane time wise let's say 2 hours for Eugene and 1 hour to diver to Portland, including getting from campus to the Boise airport. So we are at 3 hours. Normally Eugene to Oregon is 2 hours... So 4 hours round trip. But but but... It's a Friday night with some rain and these are busses we're talking about and not cars. So the waiting and travel from PDX to Eugene is probably closer to 5 hours. Whole travel total is probably around 8 hours for them today. They might as have driven from BSU to Eugene.

No Guts, No Airmail. 🙃

Mensah (Miami through portal) went 26/29 386 yds with 5 TDs. against Stanford tonight in three and one-half quarters. Whew! Watch out for Mensah and Mario. Miami is favored to win the ACC Title with a relatively easy schedule this season. Our Ducks may encounter The U in a hurricane late in the season.

Offensive tackles and inside linebackers are where my focus will be. Hoping to see smooth sideline operations with new Coordinators. Dante's growth in reading and reacting to defensive shifts. I am comfortably calm despite losing Lupoi and Stein.

It's a League game, Smokey.

The Oregonian: The flight was diverted to Portland due to heavy rains around the Eugene Airport, which is undergoing construction on its larger (wider?), West runway.

Buses departed PDX around 6:45 pm. So, 9:00 pm still the estimate...but it if Friday traffic.

Oof... That's painful. Glad it's not me and not my Ducks!

I want to see us get to the qb. Playing a containment strategy is very risky with a 5th year qb.

Home field advantage begins at the airport 🛩️

DUCKS 42-17 2 4 269

I'm hoping Gaitlin is on a mission after a mission and that opposing DBs will have to assume the position. 😁

I think 48-8, with a trend of only losing to Champs is pretty elite in its own right. Just a matter of time now. I think Hampton will have some control, its got to align with Lannings vision, for sure. Hampton is a big reason Oregon has the juice to win the whole thing this year. Been with Lanning from the start. 7 returning starters, 8 if you include Koi. 2 deep playing above the line winning football. We will see, but that has been the narrative.

Apparently, the flight left Boise about 2:23 MT and was scheduled to arrive in Eugene approx 2:30 PT. The flight did not land. There was rain in Eugene at that time and the Sun Country charter flight pilots circled Eugene waiting for a weather break. After a period of time, they decided to divert to Portland. The flight landed in Portland, but rather than attempt to fly back to Eugene a decision was made to bus to Eugene on Friday evening. But, the contracted buses were in Eugene. So, the team waited in Portland for the buses to arrive. Last estimate I read would put the team in Eugene sometime around 9:00 pm or a bit thereafter. All my notes are based on a BSU beat writer's Twitter/X account.