Solar

"Keep in mind, this isn't actual roster spending. However, it's a figure based on what the roster is worth in the current market." So this is just a measure of the externally evaluated talent level of the full roster, nothing more. So when considering depth, we have the 5th most talented roster in the country. Let's see what Lanning and the rest of the staff does with this.

If all of the playoff games were home games, then the regular season games matter A TON. Not only are you gunning for a bye, but also for playing against the lowest seeds possible AND playing at home as many games as possible.

CFN error band for a toss up game is huge. It'll get interesting if there ends up being four 10-2 teams in the B1G. My wish is we play well enough to make the playoffs, but poor enough to miss the CCG. We need a 9th game in a row without a bye against the 2nd best team in the B1G like a duck needs it's feathers trimmed.

Nope, He didn't give the effort to write a coherent article let alone provide any rationale. It's like step 1, starting playing games, step 2, trust me bro, step 3 they lost a bunch of games. Not bothering responding to this. Of course anything is possible, but good grief, not worth writing about.

It's great to finally get the #1 QB Recruit, but you can see in rankings history that QBs are NOT being valued the way they used to be out of HS. Rating services are getting the memo from NIL valuations and 11 out of 12 playoff teams running with a transfer QB...

Raiola was dropping dimes. Looked like true 5 star. I didn't enough good from Smith Jr. to make me think he ever will be the guy. Defense was clearly better than the offense as shown in the final score. Offensive linebeing the worst I can remember in spring game history was the reason for the discrepancy. Very little in the way of rushing lanes or QB protection. Hopefully it's because of chemistry issue with mixing them up, and quality of defensive linemen, and not a sign of impending poor play and lack of depth. I am nervous about special teams, as that unit had the most turnover from last season. And do we really have just one field goal kicker? I think Dan goes and gets another one in the portal after the game.

It may be a mess, but I'll never understand why it took the judicial system 100 years to figure out the Sherman Anti Trust act was being violated. No amount of pendulum swinging wild, wild west and hand wringing will ever overcome that history. Players should share in the profits and should be able to unionize to guarantee it and participate in developing a level playing field across each sport. No executive order, legislation or other rich people method of enforcing their will should stand in the way of that goal.

Yeah, this isn't really politics, there's just not much a president or anybody else can do. You offer non-revenue sports for non monetary reasons or you don't offer it at all. The players of the sports that generate the revenue get paid for playing. It's demand driven are a meritocracy with the supply of that product that creates the demand. It's the legal system we have in this country applied to a corner case with high visibility.

It depends on how long the layoff is. Most NFL teams that are division champs will sit their players the last game of the season if they can manage it, and it doesn't seem to harm them much to have the bye week during wild card weekend, so 2 total weeks between games is okay. The problem is when everyone has 3-4 weeks off, and the winner of the first rounds knocks the rust off while the higher seeded team is still rusty is when it gets bad. Separately, if we pay attention to trends, about 75% of playoff teams are contenders due to NIL and the draw to make the playoffs. I don't think going to 24 will change the ratio that much after a few years to adjust. But the dilution of talent will continue to affect the "elite", and every additional round makes it roughly 50% less likely we'll win a Natty. 25% chance with 4 team playoff, 7.5% chance with the 12 team playoff and 3.75% chance with a 24 team playoff. 24 is nearly 25, as in "25 ranked teams" that we consider the threshold for being relevant. So all relevant teams except 1 are in the tournament. Seems to line up. All that being said I think 16 is probably best as a Duck fan that appreciates more level competition.

That's more like it. Thanks!

Disappointing article. Our fastest guys are all basically 11 second sprinters (except Moore)? I hope they missed more than just Gatlin. What about LB Jackson? There has to be others missed.

I think that the larger the field the lower the probability we win a Natty under Dan Lanning. If the playoffs stayed at 4 teams, we would be basically guaranteed to win a Natty in the next 3-5 years. But it didn't. The field expanded requiring more near 50:50 probability games to be won cutting your odds in half with every additional game. And then there is NIL combined with the expanded playoffs that is levelling the playing field by spreading out the player and coaching talent. No matter the size of the playoff field, about 2/3-3/4 of that number of teams has a chance to win given enough years for boosters to adjust. It's just probabilities, and we can be in that conversation every year as contenders, but as one of 8+ that could win it all. I think we are going to win a whole lot of games next year and I plan on enjoying every single one, but I've decided the probabilities of winning a Natty are so poor I'm not going to get wrapped around the axle about it.

Brandon Finney? I assume he was left off the list because he was already an All American, but it would be quite the disappointment if he doesn't have a "monster second season" next year.

All respect and gratitude to 30Duck. He will be missed here and 100 times more to those closest to him, I am sure.

We are ranked high enough. We'll have to see how our offensive line is same as every year, and see if there are any freshman surprises like last year to help us along. I think the 2025 season was peak depth for this team. It's all downhill from here as the expanding playoff and NIL continue to redistribute talent to a broader number of teams. So injuries will have greater impact to our team as well.