Jon Joseph

A look at OBD's CBB Men's schedule - Oregon Ducks On SIThree Takeaways From Oregon's Big Ten Schedule ReleaseThe Oregon Ducks' 2026-27 Big Ten basketball schedule was officially released on Tuesday. Following arguably their most frustrating year under coach Dana Altman

7/11 are numbers you want to see on a craps roll out, but no weddings, please, on 11/7. Oregon Ducks On SIOregon, Ohio State Headline Loaded Week 10 Schedule This...Week 10 of the 2026 college football season looks like it could be a loaded slate of big games including the Oregon Ducks going on the road to face the Ohio Sta

Thanks, NJ. Where's Georgia? When released by 247 Sports, Georgia will undoubtedly be among the top 5 in the composite team rankings. Players are being well compensated in Athens, mostly to stay on board and not out of the portal. It hasn't paid off in two out of the last three seasons, but I thought FSU would be on the list. Ditto USC and Michigan, the Ole Miss Basket-Weavers, and every CFB team with a Blue Chip roster. Do these numbers include $16 million, 80% of the allowed $20 million in revenue sharing, paid directly to football players? Who are not employees, right? I don't doubt that large sums of money are spent on CFB rosters, and the article is interesting, but is this more of a WAG than anything that can be verified? Looking at the ten teams on the list and a team's schedule, I think the following teams could miss out on a 2025-26 Playoff ROI, all from the SEC: Alabama, LSU, Tennessee, Texas A&M, and perhaps Texas? With nine conference games, if the SEC is as deep as the It Just Means More folks want us to believe, many SEC teams should have three or more losses in 2025. Five SEC teams on the list, and Sankey doesn't want to go to 24? I think he changes his position, or there will be a palace revolt in Birmingham.

Thanks, Eric, I'm in your what's the damage with 24 corner. Yes, if the NCAA and not a media company managed the FBS playoff, CFB would have been at 24 or more decades ago. The D2, D3, and FCS POs play only the champ game at a neutral site. Under the Petitti/Big Ten proposal, the first two rounds of the PO would be played on campus. Teams seeded No. 9 through No. 16 would host a 1st round game. The 1st round would be equivalent to CBB's play-in round. The top-seeded eight teams that receive a 1st-round bye would host a 2nd round game. The bye would be no longer than ten days. The season would begin on what is now Week 0. There would be no conference champ games unless flex-scheduled into the regular season. All teams would have two off weeks during the season. The season would conclude two weeks earlier than under the current system. It is estimated that a 24-team PO will bring in $600 million to over $1 billion additional dollars. ESPN would lose its PO broadcast monopoly with Fox, CBS, NBC, and others entering the bidding. Perhaps, we could then have a PO committee that, like the CBB committee, does its business in the light of day. The additional money would help sustain a Power 4 instead of a super-conference that would 'disenfranchise' millions of college football fans. A 24-team PO would neuter the subjectivity of the CFB PO committee. No team that deserved a spot in the field, Texas, BYU, Notre Dame, Utah, and UVA, USC, for example, would be left out. When Tony first proposed a 24-team PO, among the guffaws directed in his direction was the laughter over his comment that a four-loss Big Ten team would be worthy of a PO spot. Last season, 8-4 Iowa defeated a 10-2 Vanderbilt team. Two-loss Vandy was one of the SEC teams, besides the five in the field that Greg Sankey argued should be in the PO. Five teams in the field? How about no SEC team in the champ game in 2024 and 2025? Tony responded to the 24-team pushback. The automatic qualifier criteria have been dropped. The Big Ten now proposes a format with 23 at-large teams, with a spot reserved for a G6 team if not ranked in the top 24. Today, the Big Ten proposal has the support of the ACC, B12, and Notre Dame. The SEC is the lone holdout. Why? Because Sankey is carrying ESPN's PO broadcast monopoly water. ESPN wants no more than 16 teams in the field. Going to 24 will let other broadcast bidders in the door and also weaken ESPN's bowl season broadcast hegemony. The natives are restless in Dixie. With the SEC going to nine conference games in anticipation of a 16-team field, which the Big Ten blocked, numerous SEC ADs and coaches support a 24-team field. Keep an eye on this month's SEC meetings in Florida. The once vilified Tony Petitti played the long game. Tony is about to become the smartest guy in the room. Either you leverage the CFB postseason game inventory by expanding the field, sell the inventory via a private equity or private capital deal, or go to a Super Conference with many ACC and B12 teams left behind, and less money for the G6. But what about tradition? What, if any, college football tradition other than the games themselves is left? The NCAA lost its college football monopoly in the 1980s. It's been every team and conference for itself since, and the move to 24 is the next inevitable step. As proposed by Tony Petitti, as early as next season, I believe the PO field will expand to at least 16 teams for two seasons to accommodate scheduling changes and then expand to 24. This will not kill the regular season. Millions more CFB fans will have a dog in the PO postseason hunt. Coach, it's always great to read your Forum takes.

Foxy, what's up? It's only noon. Ohio State vs. Texas kickoff time shows everything that's wrong with FOX

Brothers and sisters, can I get an Amen? How about a Lilies of the Field Amen? AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, AMEN!

We've Got a Grudge! 🤬 On3With Ole Miss catching strays from Lane Kiffin and Steve...Lane Kiffin's Vanity Fair comments about Ole Miss ignited an SEC firestorm before a single game of the 2026 season has been played.%

Greg? https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/acc-24-team-college-football-playoff-expansion/?ftag=SNL-04-10aaa0b&ET_CID=550333&ET_RID=52482716

Right back at ya, Sark! The photo of the Ole Miss AD was taken after tailgating in The Grove from 9 AM until heading to the game at 7 PM. BTW, Keith, Dabo thinks you suck cider through a straw, and your football program ain't Golding. On3Ole Miss AD Keith Carter responds to Steve Sarkisian's vi....

Thanks, Gat. I believe there are a few grudge match games down in Dixie, South Bend, Stillwater, and Bloomington this season. 9/19/26 - Lane's first LSU SEC game has Lane and his Tigers heading to Oxford town. The game will kick off at 7:30 Eastern, giving the folks in The Grove plenty of time to imbibe more than a hot toddy or two. Back, way back, in the 1960's, I watched the National Guard being deployed in Oxford. But if deployed to Faulkner-Town again this year, will it be to protect or arrest Lame Kitten? Possibly to arrest him for his own protection? When he returned to Tennessee as Ole Miss's coach, among other things, folks tossed batteries at Kiffin. On 9/19, an artillery battery could be directed toward Kiff. Charlie Weis, Jr. will not be calling this game on the sidelines. He may be in Baton Rouge calling the game on Zoom. Steve Sarkisian recognizes that the Ole Miss Rebels moniker has been set aside. In a recent article in USA Today, Sark referred to Ole Miss as the Basket Weavers. A lower institution of learning where a major in Basket Weaving is a student-athlete's best friend. Fortunately for Sark, he will not have to brave the slings and arrows of Basket Weaver fans in Oxford. On 10/24/26, Ole Miss visits the Longhorns in Austin. Ole Miss jefe Pete Golding and his troop of Mensa Mississippians will be fired up to tear down the Golden Archie. Back to Lane. Last season on the way to a title, er, pink slip, Brian Kelly won the Battle of Death Valleys in Clemson, South Carolina. On September 5th at 7:30 Eastern, there will be a Death Valley rematch in Red Stick. This is Lane's opening LSU game that will be played in front of the Gov of Louisiana and thousands of other reasonable, forgiving Tigers fans. And the first game of Dabo Swinney's hoped-for redemption season after having more players drafted in 2026, nine, than games won in 2025, seven. 10/17/26, sees the Florida Gators under a new coach straight out of the G5 (now the G6, thank you, Beavis), hoping to chomp Bevo in Austin. Sark blames the PO committee, with good cause, for showing his Horns the PO bench in 2025, but it was an upset loss in The Swamp that was the unkindest, self-inflicted, PO cut of all. On 11/7/26, the Miami Hurricanes travel to South Bend with Baby J at wide receiver, and TD J looking down, not in forgiveness, but praying for payback. How would you feel if you had to spend January in South Bend instead of Orlando? 10/17/26, The Ohio State University at Indiana. Think you might be testy if a team you were 82-11-5 against a group of Hosers, er, Hoosiers, that Rose up (😁) to end a 12-game winning streak and knock the capital T out of The. 9/12/26 - Our Beloved Ducks at Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma. After you give the Mullet a haircut and demolish his team on his way out the door, 69-3, Stillwater hatred runs deep. The Cowboys are 52-12 in Boone Pickens Stadium, and behind a relocated cast of Mean Green characters, including a QB who threw for the most yards in CFB in 2025 and 34 TDs, will be looking to pick a fight with OBD; a fight in front of 60,000-plus crazed fans. Can Mean Green morph into Mean Orange? Thanks, Gat, for the terrific post. It feels so good to diss Kiff. On 9/26, here's hoping your Gators will Swamp Lane.

Thank you, Charles. Among this season's grudge match games, don't miss Miami at Notre Dame on 11/7, the same day the Ducks visit Ohio State. The Notre Dame schedule shows the Miami game kicking off at 7:30 PM Eastern, which means the Ducks vs. Bucks game is likely to be a High Noon kickoff on Fox. 🤬 Miami against Notre Dame will be the only game between these two Blue Chip Roster teams featuring an opponent with a Blue Chip Roster. And the game could determine which of the two has a 1st-round PO bye. Hopefully, in 2026, the CFB PO committee will pay more than lip service attention to the strength of schedule. Beat Boise!

Thank you, NJ. Here's more on Dan's historic promotions. EssentiallySportsDan Lanning Makes History With Front-Office Move That’s N...Dan Lanning quietly made college football history at Oregon with a front-office move that has never been seen before at any Power 4 program.

CBS Sports looks at things post-spring down Dixie way - https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/sec-overreactions-spring-2026-season-alabama-lsu-cfp/

It's fun to diss Ole Miss -👌👍😍 Sark, don't go to Oxford for a kiss. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/48751879/texas-steve-sarkisian-rips-ole-miss-academic-standards

OK, he's part of the problem, but it's not a problem Steve Sarkisian created. I posted this article under Steven A's post about Nebraska players losing their appeal of the College Sports Commission rejection of NIL transactions. Thank you, Steven. Sark's take is a more holistic view of the CFB mess from the coach of the program with the most profitable athletic department, a coach at a school with top drawer academics. Steve doesn't think much of the academics at Ole Miss. Do the Rebels have a basket-weaving major? Then again, in his final season of eligibility at USC, Matt Leinart's sole class was Ballroom Dancing. Sark is spot on in so many respects. Including why join a settlement agreement when you did not plan to follow its terms? One point with which I wholly agree, the College Football Playoff Committee promised to pay rapt attention to a team's strength of schedule; they lied. Let the venting begin: https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2026/05/12/texas-football-steve-sarkisian-rips-cfp-selection-committee-ncaa-ole-miss-rules-24-team-playoff/90033796007/?utm_source=usatoday-sports-strada&utm_

I'm made as Hades, and I'm going to bend over and take it up the tailpipe! Sark, full of sound and fury, signifying ??? If you're part of the problem, can you be part of the solution? https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/sec/2026/05/12/texas-football-steve-sarkisian-rips-cfp-selection-committee-ncaa-ole-miss-rules-24-team-playoff/90033796007/?utm_source=usatoday-sports-strada&utm_medium=email&utm_campai

It was the worst of times. It was the best of times. Oregon Ducks On SIBest and Worst Case Scenarios for Oregon, Dan Lanning Nex...The Oregon Ducks enter the 2026 college football as one of the favorites to win the national championship. Here are the best and worst cases scenarios for coach

Week 2 - Fox High Noon for the Sooners at Michigan 🤬. Millions more football fans will watch Ohio State at Texas in Week 2 on ABC at Prime Time - Maize n BrewKickoff time announced for Michigan Football vs OklahomaJUST IN: Michigan vs Oklahoma kickoff time has been announced.

Thank you, Charles, for another terrific editing job. I think it is appropriate to find another article of mine perfectly positioned as a missing link. 😁 Great news about 'dressed up and somewhere to go' articles being available on The Forum. From time to time, I will most likely darken your editing door. You can run, but you can't 🦆🦆🦆. On January 1, 2027, the Rose Bowl will host a 2nd-round quarterfinal playoff game featuring the Big Ten champ. This season, we'll witness a Big Ten Run for the Roses, likely to be determined by a photo finish. (I'm sorry, Gonzaga, but the opponent will not be this season's Pac-12 champ 🙃.) Speaking of the Pac-12, Beat Boise!

There's battle lines being drawn, And nobody's right if everybody's wrong. 🤑

CBS Sports post-spring B1G reactions - take the over 😁 https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/big-ten-overreactions-spring-indiana-west-coast-cfp/

Didn't I tell you to Stop Talking about me! 🤬

Thanks, NJ, for another terrific post. Lloyd's take will make the folks in Austin happy, but ... Lloyd is taking a shallow look at the 2026 schedule with no in-depth analysis. CBS rates Oregon's 2026 schedule the 11th most difficult in the nation, so it's not for the faint-hearted. But strength-of-schedule has to be balanced out by a team's strength-of-roster and coaching. For an opposing POV, 247 Sports' Ducks Territory has OBD going 11-1, with the only loss on the road at Ohio State. Other than Lloyd's, few, if any, projections have Oregon losing more than two games in 2026. Oregon's finishing stretch in November is as difficult as any team's in the nation, no doubt. But setting this aside for the moment, what does November have to do with the first eight games? Oregon will have a significant roster advantage in every game it plays in September and October except for the game in LA vs. USC. Yes, SC has upped its recruiting and NIL game, but it still has the same head coach who has floundered in the more difficult Big Ten conference. A conference where he has more than just the Texas Longhorns to compete against. Unlike Riley, OBD has been a B1G road warrior under Dan Lanning. Games at North Texas West, a/k/a Oklahoma State, and Illinois, with the Illini coming off a bye week, will not be easy but will, IMO, be victories. Returning to November and a four-game finishing stretch of an eight-game grind, the second time B1G HQ has handed OBD 8 without a break in three years, begs the following questions. Where will OBD be on the injury front? Is there enough depth to handle this gauntlet? What will the weather be in Columbus and East Lansing in November? But the opposition has to answer the same questions. Ohio State's schedule before the Oregon game is taxing to say the least, and even with its recruiting chops, can Ohio State replace all of the studs on defense who left for the NFL? (And no-showed vs. Miami.) Is the Michigan QB the real deal? Even if he has greatly improved, who is he going to throw the ball to? Michigan plays four games straight before visiting Autzen, including back-to-back games vs. Indiana and Penn State. Why does Michigan State have to be better? The roster is no better than last season. ESPN ranks Michigan State last in the Big Ten in off-season improvement. In the same category, OBD is ranked second behind Indiana. UW will be a challenge, but I like Oregon's chances in Autzen. And UW will be traveling to Eugene, coming off a home game vs Indiana. Will UW be fired up or beat down? Ohio State? On 10/31, the week before traveling to Ohio State, OBD plays Northwestern in Eugene. On 10/31, Ohio State plays USC in LA. Both teams will be making a three-time zone trip back east, with Ohio State playing back-to-back B1G-time opponents. So, yeah, it's low-hanging clickbait that's warranted without a deeper dive into the schedule and without a look at the quality of Oregon's 2026 roster. With 18 new starters in 2025, Dan Lanning took Oregon to an 11-1 regular season finish. What's Dan going to do with a veteran roster? With the help of the football gods keeping the injury bugs away, I see 10-2 as the floor for the 2026 team, with 12-0 as the ceiling. The opening game. Boise's SP+ is the top in the G6, No. 39, 6.8 index - OBD is ranked 2nd, 28.3 index, by SP+ behind No. 1 Ohio State. Oregon will be a double-digit favorite in the home opener. Beat Boise!

Thanks again, Charles, for the superb editing job, and thank you, Mr. Smith, for all you do for the Forum and the kind comment. Like everything in life, it is what it is, but where would Notre Dame finish if the Irish played Ohio State or Georgia's schedule? Possibly back on the postseason sideline; this time not by choice. Beat Boise! (SP+ 39, and the highest-ranked G6 team.)

Oh, my! One less day to prepare for a White Out. 😁😍🤣 And here I thought that the nag's name was 'Traveler?' Whine On! https://trojanswire.usatoday.com/story/sports/college/trojans/football/2026/05/10/usc-disadvantage-against-penn-state-fox-schedule/90019940007/?utm_source=smg-trojanswire-strada&utm_medium=email&utm