Boise State is a fine school with a football program that is consistently excellent. I have all the respect and admiration for them in the world.

Having said that, I never wanna see Oregon play the Broncos again. My GOODNESS, do those guys raise my blood pressure whenever they play the Ducks. I'm only 33 years old guys! THAT SHOULDN'T HAPPEN!

So, for the sake of my own sanity, keep the Broncos far, FAR away from Our Beloved Ducks.

Great team, though.

I do think there is probably a motivation issue that Oregon has difficulty matching.

What other opponents on the BSU 2026 schedule will have the motivation that the Broncos bring to the Oregon game? Perhaps Memphis but down a notch?

Now consider what games on the Oregon schedule will the Ducks have motivation for an all-out effort? There are at a minimum 4 games.

Despite the close games with BSU, or no matter the respect Oregon professes to have for BSU, I think it is just hard to crank it up at the level that BSU cranks it up for Oregon.

CJ, AMEN!

Agreed.

I feel the same about Iowa, don't ever want to play them again. They don't mind losing as long as they have a punchers chance against any team in the country, which is what their philosophies schematically give them.

I love when BSU is on the schedule. To me, watching a great football game is what it's all about. If some losses affect post season positioning or cause elimination all together then to me, you just weren't that team anyway and this just wasn't that year. I also think it's good for the team to get stress tested early to find the flaws in game plans, line ups and adjustments that can be improved on after they have been made obvious.

Hiding weaknesses in routes of lesser teams gives you none of that. Easy Ws against weak teams don't feel earned to me. OBD may fall in the rankings this week but they may also have the only win against a playoff team as well. I like that level of battle tested before heading into SUC territory in a few weeks. SUC on the other hand will be basking in the glory of routing a bunch of cupcakes before reality shows up.

I know which boat I'd prefer to be in.

Granted the last two BSU games have been very exciting, but there isn't much advantage to playing them. If we blow them out it's just expected, but if we win a close one it can actually hurt us. There's just not much to be gained, and if we lose then it could really hurt us down the road. A non-conference loss from a big time program wouldn't hurt us near as much.

BSU still gets no respect on the national stage and when we narrowly beat them, neither do we.

3 minutes ago, noDucknewby said:

Granted the last two BSU games have been very exciting, but there isn't much advantage to playing them. If we blow them out it's just expected, but if we win a close one it can actually hurt us. There's just not much to be gained, and if we lose then it could really hurt us down the road. A non-conference loss from a big time program wouldn't hurt us near as much.

BSU still gets no respect on the national stage and when we narrowly beat them, neither do we.

If we cant beat Boise St. then we sure cant beat Miami or Ohio St among 6 or 7 other teams.

29 minutes ago, 1Ducker1 said:

If we cant beat Boise St. then we sure cant beat Miami or Ohio St among 6 or 7 other teams.

Of course we can beat them, we just don't get much value out of the win.

12 minutes ago, noDucknewby said:

Of course we can beat them, we just don't get much value out of the win.

Maybe not in the rankings for now but we learned a lot about who we are now and what we need to be if were going to make the playoffs. We only dropped 4 spots which is probably just fine with DL.

19 minutes ago, 1Ducker1 said:

Maybe not in the rankings for now but we learned a lot about who we are now and what we need to be if were going to make the playoffs. We only dropped 4 spots which is probably just fine with DL.

As ridiculous as it is, the polls still count. Sure if we finish 12-0 or 11-1 this doesn't hurt us in the slightest. Hypothetically though, if we wind up a bubble team @ 10-2 with losses to tOSU and USC, then that narrow win can and will be used against us, especially if BSU winds up with 2 or 3 losses. I'm not saying it doesn't have value as a teachable moment for DL, but externally it's more of a liability.