HDuck

"...playing at home as many games as possible" Even if the home team has to share "playoff ticket revenue," there would still likely be other $$$ benefits such as concessions, parking, logo wearable sales, and potentially $$$ for local businesses like hotels and restaurants and food suppliers that would likely be untouched.

Coach Kelly Graves plans to appoint Brielle Groen, currently the team's executive director, to a general manager type of role. more: https://247sports.com/college/oregon/article/kelly-graves-outlines-oregon-coaching-staff-plans-following-jerise-freeman-departure-285305894/

https://clutchpoints.com/ncaa-football/ncaa-football-news-acc-commissioner-reveals-espn-preferred-playoff-expansion-plan

"ESPN, who do not want ... their bowl game inventory diminished." Not sure why this piece of it doesn't get more attention in national media? With 24 CFP participants, it means more 5-7 record teams in bowls and lower TV ratings. I suspect ESPN is also concerned about programming inventory. If some of those bowl games they own go away, they have to find other stuff to put in those time slots, get advertisers, etc.

An interesting piece here about the future of college football. Could have some impacts on revenue share across the spectrum if some of the concepts can pass the legal tests. For those sensitive to the word "Trump" just try to read for the concepts. https://theamericansdigest.com/trump-administration-seeks-federal-intervention-in-ncaa-operations/

The NCAA softball bracket is out with 32 teams seeded 1-8 in four "pods." Every 1-4 in a pod, starts with a home venue regional. That's four regionals per pod (16 total) which then goes to 8 Super Regionals. If the Ducks as a 4 win their home venue regional, and so does the No. 1 in their pod, then the Ducks would have to travel to the No. 1 for a Super Regional. The Ducks have No. 1 ranked Oklahoma as the likely next step in the bracket for the Super Regional. With No. 1 Oklahoma as the apparent No. 3 overall seed that means the No. 4 Ducks were likely No. 14 overall. Overall: 12 SEC teams with 9 getting home regionals out of 16 possible regionals, and 6 could qualify based on seed for the 8 Super Regionals. 7 B1G teams, just 3 home regionals, and just 2 which could qualify for a Super. 8 ACC 7 Big12 No ACC or Big12 team could qualify to host a Super unless the SEC/B1G were bumped out in their part of the bracket. Oklahoma Softball's NCAA Tournament Seeding & Finish Since 2013 • 2013 – 1, WCWS Title • 2014 – 7, WCWS 2nd Round • 2015 – 11, Super Regional • 2016 – 3, WCWS Title • 2017 – 10, WCWS Title • 2018 – 4, WCWS Semifinal • 2019 – 1, WCWS Runner-up • 2021 – 1, WCWS Title • 2022 – 1, WCWS Title • 2023 – 1, WCWS Title • 2024 – 2, WCWS Title • 2025 – 2, WCWS Semifinal • 2026 – 3, TBD The Softball World Series is held 24 miles from the OU campus. The 2026 Tournament top 16 overall seeds with home regionals: 1-Alabama - lost to Texas in SEC Championship 2-Texas - SEC Tournament Champ 3-Oklahoma 4-Nebraska - B1G Tournament Champ 5-Arkansas 6-Florida 7-Tennessee 8-UCLA 9-Florida St - won ACC Tournament 10-Georgia 11-Texas Tech - lost to Ariz State in Big12 Championship 12-Duke 13-Okie State 14-Oregon 15-Tex A&M - will host Ariz State in the Regional 16-LSU

Last few years on Nov. 20 it has been mid-40's daytime, and dropping into the 30's at night. A pretty narrow range of low-high-low within the 24 hours.

Michigan: Has maintained a "no" stance on playing Friday nights. Ohio State & Penn State: Have expressed reluctance and largely avoided HOSTING, with Ohio State typically excluded from Friday night TV packages, though they face pressure to participate. Resistance to hosting based on size of stadium/crowd and logistic challenges in the area of the stadium on Friday nights. Iowa: While they have played on November Black Friday, they generally avoid other Friday home games due to the hospital's location next to the stadium, though they do play Friday road games. 2026 will play a Friday night at Washington. Comment from me...looking down the road I have no doubt UM, OSU, PSU will demand a bigger piece of B1G revenue shares. Perhaps the other 15 schools should make it contingent on them providing more flexibility in their schedules?

Northwestern, Washington and Illinois will have back-to-back Friday games.

Sep. 12 @ Oklahoma State Sep. 18 Portland St (no TV designated yet) Sep. 26 @ USC Nov. 14 Michigan Nov. 20 @ Michigan St on Fox Nov. 28 Washington Neither game has a designated starting time.

Their leverage? There is speculation that they would attempt a super $$ league with other similarly minded programs that want to take cream off the top current conferences such as Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Michigan, etc. The downside might be those select few ending up with more losses in an individual season than fans have come to expect.

Ole Miss is visiting Corvallis in 2030, so doubt they would want to make it two years in a row. As of this point, Ole Miss hasn't indicated they want to buy out of the game in Corvallis. Iowa State generally schedules one major opponent for non-conference. In 2029, they already have a road trip to Tulane. Texas Tech is visiting Eugene in 2033 if the schedule holds. For me, as I've advocated in the past, I would like to see Oregon establish a rotation with legacy Pac12 programs....UA, ASU, Cal, Stanford, Utah...rather than schedule Oregon State each season. So, if that list of 5 is accurate, it would be Stanford for me.

Perhaps Sankey doesn't really care all that much....16 or 24? He may prefer a "groundswell" decision rather than having his name singularly associated for the SEC decision? Not related, but read a column recently which re-capped Yorkmark taking the Big12 to market early in late 2022 and made a pretty logical argument that the move was almost singularly the death blow to the old Pac12. It was an interesting piece about Yormark. Wish I had the link. Doesn't get much recognition from Beavs & Cougs partisans, but Yormark's moves on Colorado and Arizona immediately before the UO/UW decision also was a factor.

Analysis of public data indicates Notre Dame would receive more as a member of the B1G. USC explored Independent status with a singular media contract before bolting to the B1G. It didn't pencil $$ to try to emulate ND. Texas's Longhorn Network fizzled despite ESPN's effort to promote it. That's 3 big brand names which should cause tOSU a thought provoking pause. The media groups have been primarily interested in package deals for the value. OSU would likely have less risk, and more stable income over time, by trying to leverage a bigger slice from the B1G.

Well, I believe the current B1G media contract runs through the 2030 season and the members granted rights to the conference? There is credible speculation that by 2029 Ohio State will be demanding a bigger piece of the B1G pie as part of the new agreement beginning in 2031. It remains to be seen how many "tiers" of value there will be within the B1G. UW and UO do not receive the 100% media share values until 2030. When the new agreement begins 2031, it is doubtful whether either will have equivalent shares to Ohio State. But, they both better be working their competitive butts off in the next 3 years to be positioned in the total revenue (media plus) second tier in what may be a 3-tier/4-tier arrangement. The fiscal year payments for 2024-25 just announced had OSU at $91.5M, Penn St at $88.9M while most members shares were in the $76-79M category. That was due primarily to CFP participation that flowed to those two. Oregon's share of total revenues was about $48M. It should be higher when the 2026 fiscal year is released due to the annual escalation in partial media shares and UO's participation in the CFP this past season. Taking 2025 as an example, if your program is in the $76M category, how much less are you willing to receive to make OSU, UM and PSU happy starting in 2031?

"Cornhuskers and Oregon tied for second in the conference with six losses each at the moment." Ducks softball win on Saturday at UCLA secured the No. 2 conference seed for the Ducks, even if they do lose to UCLA on Sunday and end up tied. Ducks softball has now been in the Big Ten for two full regular seasons. The Ducks have 8 conference opponents each season, and they are 16-0 in the 2 or 3 game series matchups. Oregon won the B1G regular season last year. Nebraska won it this year.

Tex Tech backups Will Hammond – injured, missed Spring, ready for Week 1 Lloyd Jones III – redshirt freshman, appeared one game last season Kirk Francis – experienced transfer from Tulsa Stephen Cannon – true freshman Holden Phillips – second season for preferred walk-on

Maybe Pritchard gave him a call....

Think about this....the new 76 qualifiers includes women's teams also. Aside from the top 8, and that's stretching it, the field is already too large when it comes to competitive games and possibility of reaching the Women's Final Four.

One for the trivia hounds.... Nebraska has not had a top 50 pick since 2011. There have been just 6 second rounders since, but none as high as No. 50. Folks, that's Big Red. The Huskers. Nebraska. Here's the total drafted for each current B1G program in the last 10 seasons. My guess is that if Oregon had been a member of the B1G, more would have been drafted. Probably not enough to move up one slot, but more.

One of the latest proposals before construction indicated 40,000 sq ft of building(s) in addition to the covered field. The original east end proposal doesn't have enough space for 40,000 sq ft; so, that description must also include the north side which I referenced in my earlier comment that appears to have been added since. Athletic dept info says: Weight rooms, locker rooms, student-athlete lounges overlooking the field and multi-purpose event spaces in that 40,000. I assume somewhere in that is also storage for practice related equipment. Or, space for other equipment if the "dome" is used as a multi-use facility. Oh, and then there is this proposal too: https://lookouteugene-springfield.com/story/ducks/2026/01/29/how-big-is-that-o-uo-football-plan-calls-for-eye-popping-o-sign/

Walking the perimeter on Saturday, the whole length of the north side (next to MLK/Centennial) is a two-story building. Assume it has to be offices, meeting rooms, not just equipment storage. As Waddler noted, I don't recall any of that in the original drawings.

Felt the size and athleticism of Moore, Raiola, Smith with run/pass option plays on the perimeter could create 2026 problems for opposing defenses. Not so much from Thomas. Line play difficult to make a judgement with players split between two squads. If the "official attendance" was 46,500 that surpasses any other Spring Game this season. https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/ohio-state-oklahoma-spring-game-043637822.html

St. Mary's Lewis is committing to Texas. Visited Oregon a week ago, I believe.

Short bio’s: https://www.oregonlive.com/staff/afentres/ https://www.oregonlive.com/staff/RyanClarke/ https://www.oregonlive.com/staff/JamesCrepea/ P.S. Clarke who now has the Ducks beat is a Sun Devil married to a Beaver. Maybe they could do a movie remake of War of the Roses.