Log Haulin recently replied to this article.

Dan Lanning has no reason to distrust Oregon - USC must respond

"So Trojan wire is calling Oregon a rival. I don't really view them as a rival. Ducks don't play them often enough. They are unlikeable sure. But a rival?"

I think anytime you enjoy beating a team as much as ewe dub, it is a rivalry.

While my observation makes us uncomfortable, it may very well apply. When Washington was beating us year after year for decades, we looked at them as a rival, but they did not regard us as such. Only now do both sides view each other with intense rivalry.

USC fans are viewing Oregon the same way that Oregon viewed Washington during those frustrating years; they look up to us as a rival, we did not view them as a West Coast rival until they start beating us on a regular basis.

But their fans and their coaches sure make it fun to beat them!

1 hour ago, Steven A said:

Log Haulin recently replied to this article.

Dan Lanning has no reason to distrust Oregon - USC must respond

"So Trojan wire is calling Oregon a rival. I don't really view them as a rival. Ducks don't play them often enough. They are unlikeable sure. But a rival?"

SC is the biggest brand on the West Coast, and whether it's correct or not, SC is The West Coast football Blueblood and the only team other than Oregon in the Pacific and Mountain time zones with a Blue Chip Roster.

Now that SC has upped its recruiting game and portal-picking prowess, SC is Oregon's top West Coast competitor for talent, especially SoCal talent.

Outside of the Eastern time zone, SC is Oregon's B1Ggest challenger for a spot in the PO.

9/26/26 in LA is a program-defining game for SC and a game Dan Lanning knows he needs to win to continue Oregon's West Coast supremacy.

The number of eyeballs on the SC game will dwarf those for all other 2026 games, except the 11/7/26 game against Ohio State in Columbus, with a good chance that GameDay and Big Noon will be in town.

I think the game will kick off at 7:30 Eastern. The biggest SEC game on 9/26/26 is Texas at Tennessee, scheduled to be broadcast at Noon Eastern.

Current Odds - Oregon -5.5 - Over/Under 58.5

Great topic, thanks.

They became a rival as soon as we both joined the B1G imo.

Hopefully the B1G will recognize the opportunity here. To be true rival requires an annual match-up imo. It's hard to get the juices flowing playing every third year.

I have a ton of hate for Trojan. Especially after they tried to stick it to Oregon in the reshuffle. Cowards!

This fued is ripe to be a full blown "kick'em when they are down" rivalry. Hopefully the B1G powers will recognize this and schedule yearly.

I would love to stomp Trojan into the ground every November for sure.

Notre Dame is opening a new $100 million dollar football facility. USC officially opens their new gazillion facility August 5. The Oregon facility opened in 2018, as I recall.

Would USC spent that much, for that elaborate a facility, if Oregon hadn't been making recruiting in-roads in So. Cal?

27 minutes ago, Log Haulin said:

Hopefully the B1G will recognize the opportunity here. To be true rival requires an annual match-up imo. It's hard to get the juices flowing playing every third year.

I have a ton of hate for Trojan. Especially after they tried to stick it to Oregon in the reshuffle. Cowards!

This fued is ripe to be a full blown "kick'em when they are down" rivalry. Hopefully the B1G powers will recognize this and schedule yearly.

I would love to stomp Trojan into the ground every November for sure.

Agreed, LH. When the current scheduling format concludes in 2028, I hope that B1G HQ will have the four West Coast teams playing every season. If this means one more season to play every Big Ten opponent twice, so be it.

One fewer trip to the Central or Eastern time zone for the 'Pac-4' and one fewer B1G team having to trip West.

Always felt like USC was actively trying to avoid a regular slate of games with Oregon the last 15 years or so. They just didn't want to be embarrassed repeatedly. Seems like a great time to pull up this goodie again:

USC in LA is going to be a tough game. Despite the fact that it's easy to abhor them, they are getting better and better yearly. The arrogance of their fan base is further reason to despise them. I had a roommate from USC in law school...he lasted for less than a year.....thank God. What a piece of work.

I predict this is LR’s final year unfortunately.

6 hours ago, HDuck said:

Notre Dame is opening a new $100 million dollar football facility. USC officially opens their new gazillion facility August 5. The Oregon facility opened in 2018, as I recall.

Would USC spent that much, for that elaborate a facility, if Oregon hadn't been making recruiting in-roads in So. Cal?

Wait until they realize that the NEW facility will be able to be seen from space. Sorry Spoiled Children, innovation is the name of the game now.

Rivalries require hate that goes both ways...

Yeah USC is a rival.

Washington is a rival.

Oregon State has been losing rival status for awhile because as Duck fans we don't hate them as much as Beavs hate us.

2 hours ago, FG Lumber said:

USC in LA is going to be a tough game. Despite the fact that it's easy to abhor them, they are getting better and better yearly. The arrogance of their fan base is further reason to despise them. I had a roommate from USC in law school...he lasted for less than a year.....thank God. What a piece of work.

Good call. In 2025, SC did not lose a home game, including wins over Iowa and Michigan.

Three road losses came at Illinois, Notre Dame, in a torrential rainstorm, and at Oregon, 27 to 42, but only 13 to 14 in the 2nd half.

With Notre Dame off the schedule and even with a home game vs Ohio State, the game against Oregon is job No. 1 for Riley and company.

IMHO the fact that we didn't want USC restoring their recruiting prowess indicated we consider the them a rival.

They haven't defeated us in years, but we sure our time of hate on them.

USC just lost its starting offensive center for the year. Actually in a weird way this may be good news for them. The backup may be better.

2 hours ago, fred flintstone said:

USC just lost its starting offensive center for the year. Actually in a weird way this may be good news for them. The backup may be better.

No matter the opponent, I hate to see CFB players injured. By far, the worst part of the game.

Why do you think the back up could be better? Thanks.

Obviously, no one likes injuries. In fact, I'd rather beat a team's best.

Killian was a walk on who was under sized. He gave it his all with what he had. Very heady player.

He was sub par to average at pass blocking and average at run blocking. Unfortunately his best games were against poor teams. Against the elite he broke down.

Not sure who will be plugged in (I know the names but there are several) yet none of them I consider to be good, probably the same or slightly better. What this may do is make their depth of experienced players thin because the leading candidate is a starting guard.

People have argued for years about "new blood" powers like Oregon being a true rival to "bluebloods" like USC or Ohio State. I'd argue that Oregon is one of the top two or three opponents on those programs schedule any year. Some also say that you can have only one real rival. But that's nonsense.

Florida has four rivals that they used to have to play every year. Those being Georgia, Tennessee, LSU, and FSU. Miami is also a rival, but that game has never been played yearly. Miami also hates Florida way more than Florida hates Miami imo. We can't call them little brother like Oregon can to Oregon State though. It's just fun to get under their skin and remind them that they have us on their mind constantly. I cheer for anybody playing them,outside our other rivals of course,so yeah it's a rivalry.

I'd ask my friends here if you think it's possible to have more than one rival, and if so, who are they? I'd guess it would be Washington, Oregon State, USC, and probably Ohio State as a new one, now that you are conference mates. Is Indiana a possible one, or will it take more years of them being a B1G heavyweight?

USC has Notre Dame, UCLA, and Oregon imo. They might say Michigan and Ohio State as well. Just because they view themselves in the same class system, and all those past Rose Bowl matchups.

Edited Friday at 02:04 PM3 days by GatOrlando

Great thread!

In the new world order as it stands today UW/USC/UCLA should be our conference rivals (imo) that we play every year, throw in Beavis for now. This is assuming a stable landscape, that doesn’t exist imo.

If we keep beating Beavis by 30+ every year (and we will imo), there’s a real chance that game goes away on an annual basis. I personally don’t think any other B1G will have the time needed to elevate to a true rival…too many to pick from and the history just isn’t there imo. I’m sure we will hate tOSU etc eventually if nothing changed with alignment. But how do you pick between tOSU, Michigan, PSU? I don’t think any of them, will ever think of us as a rival, let’s not do the one sided rival thing 😆

The rub, I think there will still be a massive realignment before we become full share members of the B1G. In a super league nothing really would differentiate tOSU from Alabama as far as rivals are concerned. I don’t think we will have the decades needed to make any traditional B1G members into true rivals.

Edited Friday at 04:49 PM2 days by JabbaNoBargain

Terrific post, Gat, thank you.

Washington is public enemy No. 1. Oregon State is a baseball rival but does not have the money to assemble the talent to compete against Oregon in other sports.

Today's mega conferences without divisions make it difficult to play Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc., enough to create a true rivalry. In the Big Ten, the Oregon football team misses eight conference members every season. And it's football that delivers rivalries.

Playing Ohio State twice in 2024 and Indiana twice last season was the exception and not the rule. (One game would have been enough 🤬)

The Big Ten has been around for a long time, as evidenced by all of the trophy games in football. But many of these trophy games are no longer annual events.

Teams no longer battle to send the top team to one of the precious few bowl games. Have a successful season in today's SEC or the B1G, and you're one of three to five teams playing for a title.

Even in a more regional conference like the SEC, 16 teams have made a difference. Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012; Georgia has yet to play a game in College Station.

With mega conferences, NIL, unregulated free agency, and conferences extending coast to coast, college football is very different from when I grew up watching the one game broadcast on Saturday while anxiously awaiting the New Year's Day football four-game bonanza.

The economics of football changed dramatically when the NCAA lost its broadcast monopoly, compounded by SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, who convinced the other conferences that college football needed one true champion. Capitalism and NFL-Lite happened.

I miss a lot about the 'good old days,' but I do not want to go back to watching one college game on the weekend.

Best of luck to the Gators and Coach Sumrall.

A quick Friday graphic. Interesting to think about how preserving some long standing rivalries hasn't remotely popped up.

Edited Friday at 06:35 PM2 days by JabbaNoBargain

College football archenemies for every power-conference team - ESPN

ESPN pegged USC as Oregon's archnemesis, which personally feels way off the mark.

But their pick for UW? Chef's kiss.

I would love for USC to become a rival. They have played some dirty pool in the conf realignment. Their shenanigans trying to crush Oregon in smokey back room deals is disgusting.

I just don't see them as a rivalry game at this point. Trojan has spent the better part of 2 decades whining about Oregon. And Duck fans have spent the the time laughing at Trojan.

The B1G should stoke the flames and schedule them every year late. Until then, for me, it falls short of a rivalry

Edited Friday at 09:20 PM2 days by Log Haulin

1 hour ago, Vanducky said:

But their pick for UW? Chef's kiss.

Pretty sure Jerry Allen has an opinion something is going to happen on this play.

On 8/7/2026 at 10:03 AM, Jon Joseph said:

Terrific post, Gat, thank you.

Washington is public enemy No. 1. Oregon State is a baseball rival but does not have the money to assemble the talent to compete against Oregon in other sports.

Today's mega conferences without divisions make it difficult to play Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State, etc., enough to create a true rivalry. In the Big Ten, the Oregon football team misses eight conference members every season. And it's football that delivers rivalries.

Playing Ohio State twice in 2024 and Indiana twice last season was the exception and not the rule. (One game would have been enough 🤬)

The Big Ten has been around for a long time, as evidenced by all of the trophy games in football. But many of these trophy games are no longer annual events.

Teams no longer battle to send the top team to one of the precious few bowl games. Have a successful season in today's SEC or the B1G, and you're one of three to five teams playing for a title.

Even in a more regional conference like the SEC, 16 teams have made a difference. Texas A&M joined the SEC in 2012; Georgia has yet to play a game in College Station.

With mega conferences, NIL, unregulated free agency, and conferences extending coast to coast, college football is very different from when I grew up watching the one game broadcast on Saturday while anxiously awaiting the New Year's Day football four-game bonanza.

The economics of football changed dramatically when the NCAA lost its broadcast monopoly, compounded by SEC commissioner Roy Kramer, who convinced the other conferences that college football needed one true champion. Capitalism and NFL-Lite happened.

I miss a lot about the 'good old days,' but I do not want to go back to watching one college game on the weekend.

Best of luck to the Gators and Coach Sumrall.

I look at Oregon-Washington as natural rivals. You both are the only P4 members is the great Northwest. You both have a strong history in football, they have one claimed National Title, and a recent National Championship game appearance. Oregon has two National Title game appearances, a B1G Title, and won two playoff games last year. It remains to be seen what Fisch will do at Washington , but I think they deserved a top 25 ranking this preseason, after posting 8 wins last year. Williams is going to be a problem this year imo.

Oregon vs Washington needs to be played on the same weekend as Michigan-Ohio State, Iowa-Nebraska, and UCLA-USC. There should be a tripleheader on Fox that weekend.

I don't want anyone to take what I am about to say as "shade" or criticism of their respective position on their opinions. So here it goes. I feel we are downplaying just how much of a rival we actually are to USC and vice versa. I can definitely say the next time we lose to USC, massive dread will follow that loss because we ALL foresee what the may mean long term.

The last time USC was "relevant" they not only dominated us, it took the SEC taking them down for us to truly gain a foothold on becoming the West Coast's powerhouse. I see a lot of "taking USC for granted" in the Oregon fanbase that I consider misguided. We all want Lincoln Riley to remain the HC in LA. What does that tell you? We don't want real threats to our claim to pre-eminence is what it tells me. That smells like rivalry to me because we definitely know we will be fighting not only Ohio State and Indiana, but we will have a dogfight on our hands for talent should USC even sniff a 10-2 record on a regular basis.

We will have sleepless nights because we absolutely know USC is far more a threat to us than the Fuskies would be (as recent history has shown). I also recall a great amount of nervousness last fall during the game because USC wasn't folding like a good "non rival" should. We wanted to attribute it to lack of execution, and sure, the refs sure helped USC's WRs out too much. But USC forced OBD to take the game from them. And while we have dominated both the Fuskies and USC as of late-that means nothing whatsoever this year.

USC is re-emerging. They are an imminent threat we pretend to brush off. That is exactly how a program loses its edge, and I am glad is only the fan base that doesn't take the Trojans seriously. In my opinion, whether we acknowledge it or not-USC is a rival. They are regularly taking recruits from us in California now. That is not a fluke. That will continue. And if one hasn't been paying attention, UCLA is also encroaching on our "backyard". Yes, USC is a rival. We just don't want the thought of what that actually means. We will need to win a title sometime in the next 3-5 years. If not, that so called "has been" is going to use that very handily to convince recruits we are a pretender. And we won't be laughing much about that.

2 minutes ago, Mike West said:

... And we won't be laughing much about that.

That's not aimed at you LogHaulin. I am referring to the fact too many Oregon fans have buried just how dominant USC was till the SEC made sure the Reggie Bush issue was something only they could get away with. Pete Carrol's teams were out of reach for us-and we were assembling a great deal of talent. And quite frankly, we have never fielded a team with that kind of talent. Ever. USC is still the standard for what a West Coast Power should truly look like. The Fuskies couldn't have defeated Carroll's team with ANY of their elite teams. Not a single one.

So in this guy's eyes, all the talk about USC being a joke is hotty totty New Money acting like the Rockefellers never graced the earth. Until we put teams like that 2003 to 2005 group on the field, we are just snowflakes in a blizzard. In my opinion, USC deserves some of that arrogance. Especially since nobody on the West Coast has etched themselves in history like that very era has.

Don’t disagree, in fact I posted I consider them a rival in this thread…but it’s been 16 years since PC escaped, and they haven’t made any version of the playoff since. That’s the joke imo, the OG Blueblood of west coast football hasn’t made the playoffs in a full generation. USC is fairly unique, they could get back fast in a big way, like few others could.

Until they breakthrough with the right coach, they’re kind of giving off Nebraska vibes until proven otherwise 😆

Thanks, Mike, for terrific insights on OBD's biggest threat to West Coast dominance, USC.

In addition to the SEC, I'd add the NCAA to the group that took down SC, plus the lack of respect for the Pac-12 that kept sending Oklahoma teams with records similar to SC's to lose title games to SEC teams.

AD Jen Cohen and GM Chad Bowen have aligned the football program from the top down, and the boosters finally realize that SC cannot get by on reputation alone.

The recruiting effort and NIL are both well funded, and Riley was told to get off his posterior and reach out to SoCal high school coaches and to focus recruiting on California. He has done this while maintaining a national recruiting reach.

You have to have more than reputation today. You have to have and spend money. They 'get this' in Columbus and Austin; Ohio State and Texas, after floundering in Texas's case, are among the largest spenders on football every season.

And it's not just the recruiting effort that's better aligned in South Central; the new practice facilities are state of the art. And Los Angeles is still a draw, especially for college-age recruits.

After three warm-up games, the Week 4 game in LA is a program-defining moment for a team that was undefeated at home last season, including impressive wins over Iowa and Michigan.

This season, Oregon, Washington, and Ohio State visit LA. Two tough road games at Penn State and Indiana. With this schedule,10-2 SC is a PO lock.

I respect SC for ignoring the Trojans being reamed for interrupting the Notre Dame series and winning the argument that the series would not resume unless ND was willing to play earlier in the season.

There are two programs in the Mountain and Pacific time zones with Blue Chip rosters, OBD and USC. Oregon will have a talent advantage vs UW every season, but not SC.