Now that we know what the Beavs are all about, what’s the feeling about Purdue? These teams appear to be equally bad, so it comes down to the Beavs having a home edge and Purdue having a cohesive team and P5 talent edge.
I’ll take my chances on the latter, but this will probably be close and ugly.
26-24, Purdue on a missed game winning FG by the Beavs. How’s that for specific?
well, if it comes down to a FG, count on Hayes missing it.
But I think the Beavs win this one, and in a somewhat convincing fashion. There’s no game-changing talent on Purdue’s side; Reser makes difference with students in town. Beavs 24-10
Second!!
Oregon got credited with a blocked FG yesterday because Hayes kicked the ball so low it hit his own lineman in the back! Never seen that before.
Purdue looks terrible, so if we lose this one at home, it means the wheels have come off the bus.
Why do we care since we only have a high school team? I thought angry made it clear that we are wasting our time. How can the Beavs matchup talent wise with a Big10 team?
Purdue just got destroyed by ND pretty much the same as last years bowl game.
Maybe that is good for us. Perhaps Purdue is going to reeling and out of sorts coming into Reser. Perhaps they are focused and have a good scout to watch tape. If they have any idea of what they are doing, they will stack the box with 8 and stuff the run just like every other team for the rest of the year.
Beavs 28-Purdue 24
Purdue’s 66 points allowed against ND was apparently the most in the 137-year history of its football program.
OSU’s defensive performance against the Ducks was the worst since, what, Timmy’s Tots? (DC Tim Tisebar).
Bray said of the Duck domination “I think it’s just a game…you’re not always going to shut everybody out…there’s going to be games where you play well and games where you’re off. And today was one where you were off.”
Hmmm.
Who is going to deal with the hangover better and be motivated to not just talk, but execute?
BTW, Joe Freeman noted that there was a “Reser record crowd of 38,419” at the game. I presume that’s for the new stadium configuration? Didn’t a few crowds in the past hit about 43,000 or something similar?
Purdue allowed 66 AT HOME
In 2008, Beavs gave up 65 to UO. Wasn’t that in Reser?
Not relevant next Saturday, but what is historical and infrequent for some programs is more contemporary and frequent for OSU…
Yeah, the new stadium is a lower capacity.
Cal beat SDSU 31-10, and is 3-0. Heading to FSU next week for their first ACC conference game…
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/other/washington-state-shouts-down-college-football-s-hierarchy-with-apple-cup-win/ar-AA1qCdlY
Ha ha!
“To bring this trophy back to Pullman (250 miles east-southeast of Seattle), it’s gonna be in the third floor of the CFC (football building) if anybody wants to come out and see it. I think we might retire this trophy. I think it’s the Pac-12 trophy. I think that might stay in our place for a long time, and we’ll bring a new one next year, a little Big Ten/Pac-12, we’ll put the new score on it. So we might retire this one as the Pac-12 trophy and stay in Pullman.”
Surprising to nobody, the Dam Nation collective needs your support “more than ever”
How long can the grift of college athletics last?
I guess as long as there are enough dummies willing to blindly throw money their way. It’s not sustainable without a sugardaddy. The fanbase will continue to get more and more burned out and find other uses for their money.
Collectives are worse than politicians when it comes to begging for handouts.
https://x.com/DamNationNIL/status/1835358868999991477?t=gyx3J_dc_-FFAemSvBNaUQ&s=19
Haha!!! Agree!
It would be amazing if Nvidia would just send a $200 mil check to cover NIL for the next 4-5 years of recruiting cycles.
I dunno. I don’t like the sugar daddy route either… I think UO has a $1.6M QB and at least one WR at $1+M, correct?
If Huang could do it so OSU provided and managed 3-4 year NIL deals with academic performance standards, maybe…build a cohesive team and attract student athletes instead of annual-rent-a-players.
But he’d be better off buying a pro sports team and having an opportunity to make a profit. I can’t seem him pissing money away with NIL contributions.
I think it would be a nice kick in the teeth to NikeU if we had a billionaire invest in OSU athletes at such an outrageous rate to upset the entire applecart. Bring in as many 5 star guys as you need and actually win a national championship before nikeu. The best would be to do it how they have been attempting to do it for 20 years.
I think all that can morally be asked is an endowment for athletic scholarships, to lessen the burden of cost on the program.
NIL needs to be supported by businesses with marketing budgets, not by taxing the fans.
Btw, if the Pac 8 sponsors esports, as the MWC does, Nvidia could fund reasons to pay some NIL money.
It might not be for football, but it will be for something that can generate revenue for the AD. as well as setting up a structure where gamers are paid/compensated from the get-go.
Too much future money just sitting on the table for the taking. First to market creates the market.
He’d have to see it as a marketing opportunity for Nviida or his own personal interest.
Spot on!
“If there has been a better 60 hours in the history of Washington State athletics, we are unaware.
Thursday morning: Pac-12 expansion secures a home for the Cougars after 13 months adrift in the realignment game.
Saturday afternoon: One of the sweetest of Apple Cups, in which the Cougars outplayed Washington, out-coached Washington, out-smarted Washington, out-quarterbacked Washington and celebrated a 24-19 victory at Lumen Field.
In fact, let’s expand the timeframe to eight and include WSU’s beatdown of Texas Tech on Sept. 7 in what, at the time, seemed like an audition.
It seems like months ago, but as recently as last weekend, Washington State and Oregon State formed a two-team conference with a murky future.
Each matchup with a power conference opponent — Texas Tech from the Big 12 and Washington from the Big Ten — felt like a chance for the Cougars to prove they belonged.
But Thursday morning brought security, in the form of a four-school raid of the Mountain West. With the Pac-12 set to endure, the pressure for WSU (and Oregon State) to impress seemed to dissipate.
Then came a narrow victory over their rival — over the school that took a leading role in the collapse of the Pac-12 on Aug. 4, 2023. The Cougars were tougher, more physical, more creative and more resilient.
“Just a helluva win,” coach Jake Dickert said. “I’m really proud for Cougs everywhere. To come on this neutral field — it’s just awesome.”
….
The Cougars did not win the Apple Cup by themselves. They had plenty of help from Washington, which looked exactly like a team that has a new coach, overhauled starting lineup and one-way ticket to the middle of the Big Ten standings.
The Huskies committed 16 penalties and had two offsides penalties that allowed WSU to run out the clock in the final minute.
….
Four hours down Interstate 5, Oregon announced its arrival on the scene.
After two surprisingly poor performances against Idaho and Boise State, the Ducks looked like the team we expected to see all along — a team expected to contend for the Big Ten title and the national championship.
They were unstoppable on offense, immoveable on defense and decimated Oregon State 49-14 in a rivalry game that meant as much to the Beavers as the Apple Cup did to the Cougars.
….
The Beavers struggled to generate offense, which could quickly become a trend as opponents gain clarity on quarterback Gevani McCoy’s tendencies.
Put another way: We aren’t sure OSU has enough playmakers to reach the six-win mark that secures a bowl bid — even against a schedule loaded with Mountain West teams.”
https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/wsu-cougar-football/wsus-week-of-wins-washingtons-rotten-play-call-and-more-analysis/
I’m sure there’s been a better 60 hours in WSU athletics, but some fun hyperbole and reaction…WSU capitalized when it had an opportunity.
If we insist on continuing to play Oregon, I at least hope it doesn’t turn in to something like the Navy-Notre Dame rivalry where Navy was won something like 5 games in the last 50 years.
No worries. Fans here believe the Beavs win that game 40% of the time!
Needs to end. There is no upside to getting blown out all but guaranteed. The unrelated silver lining about yesterday was Washington losing — those were the biggest shit heads of all time during the conference disintegration.
You walk away till the new PAC is rebuilt and proven then you come back to Oregon from a position of relative strength. I’d prefer to just close the door but I’d accept that idea.
I just don’t see the upside.
Also the game must be in November.
Did somebody say something?
Opportunity for the Coaches to take an L and a good ole reality check and earn their chops as a staff.
Team looked like they took one look at the yucks and their fancy B1G logo on their jerseys and ran from the fight. Have to believe the Pac-12 announcement really impacted the team psychologically. Defensive scheme seemed like the coaches thought the team had NO CHANCE to be competitive.
Did the admin/staff all but promise them they’d end up in the B12 only to pull the rug?
I would appreciate if Barnes would cut it with the AD speak. College Football is broken and the Beavs have been relegated and gutted. That’s the reality. Stop trying to dress it up as something else. Embrace it. Call it what it is, suit up for the fight, and go to war.
Boise State has shown us all the way to thumb our nose at all of it and build a national brand regardless. OSU didn’t value any of that and instead rested on their P5 status. Call it what it is or it just comes off as inauthentic chicken-shit.
Embrace that this team has the talent level that would produce a 4-6 win team in the old Pac-12, fighting for the lowest tier bowl berth in a rebuilding year. If they want to make the kind of statement they’ve talked about and win 8+ games they’ll have to be ultra-competitive psychopaths that play as a team far beyond their talent level.
Show up angry (at ourselves) and dominate the ground game and beat Purdue by 14+ at home. Onto the next.
Build the f-ing dam.
Great post. I lived in Boise in 1992 when they were still D1-AA. The entire athletic department and administration had a widely known dream, often publicly stated that they would be in the PAC12 one day and compete for national championships at the D-1 level. That vision has come to pass but it took an entire school administration accepting that they needed to be as you say “ultra-competitive psychopaths “ to do it.
Can we expect anything close to that from OSU administration? It can’t be just a voice here and there, but a broad acceptance of what is needed going forward for OSU sports.
I’d say faculty resistance to the value of OSU sports success is a key reason that contributed to decades of failure and being left behind last year.
There must be a seismic shift within the tenured psyche of the institution or none of this will matter.
No one from the school promised anyone we’d be in the big12.
In fact, the coaches were likely consultants in helping to choose the new Pac 8.
“Team looked like they took one look at the yucks and their fancy B1G logo on their jerseys and ran from the fight. Have to believe the Pac-12 announcement really impacted the team psychologically. Defensive scheme seemed like the coaches thought the team had NO CHANCE to be competitive.”
They looked like Timmy’s Tots out there, I was surprised Bray allowed that.
UO athletes ere bigger, faster. Scheme (and execution) are key. The scheme sucked. Hayes ought to be on a short leash given his boss is a former D coordinator.
Despite beating former #22 UW, WSU still not in coaches top 25…
None of the grad assistants who submit votes will look beyond espns list of the 4 conferences. So WSU will need to keep making noise. They may crack top 25 at 6-0: The longer it takes to enter the top 25, the tougher it is to be in range of an at large bid. All by design
What was the last word on WR Clemons’ injury? Was he able to play in fall camp much? I can’t recall. Be nice if he and maybe Anderson start showing up and getting meaningful reps. They have to get the ball to someone besides Walker.
Reddicks has looked good.
It’s time for a dose of reality about the imagined competitiveness of the Civil War that has somehow been unalterably changed now that Oregon is in the Big 10, more money in Eugene that ever, etc.
So, studentbeaver, of all people, (reputed to be a Duck troll though it doesn’t matter) comes in here crying crocodile tears hoping OSU wins more than once a decade. Angry (with his snark about Beav fans expecting to win 40% of the time) and mammoth take the bait and chime in perpetuating the myth of a romanticized lost golden age of OSU competitiveness in the CW.
Let’s look at the facts. From the start of the modern era (which I will establish as 1995 when Mike Bellotti was hired; a Duck coach who went up against Mike Riley, the inadvertent “founder” of this blog) there have been 30 games played. OSU has won 9. I was never really good at math, but I think that’s a .300 winning percentage. But that rate is heavily weighted from the six wins that occurred between 1998 and 2007, meaning that in more recent era (for which Chip Kelly is the emblematic figure) OSU won 3 times between 2008 and 2023. That’s a .1875 winning percentage. (I don’t count the 2024 game because the quitter caucus has stipulated that it should never have been played.)
But that’s really only half the story because, whereas OSU when it won usually did so by 10 points or less, UO put up these markers during the supposed golden age of competitiveness that has now been relegated to the dustbin of history.
1996: 49-13
2005: 56-14
2008: 65-38
2011: 49-21
2012: 48-24
2014: 47-19
2017: 69-10
2018: 55-15
2023: 31-7
The quit caucus would have you believe the CW was worth playing all those years, but now it isn’t?
One more thing, do you think the Cougs feel the Apple Cup was worth playing this year?
As I said, I’m in favor of playing the game in the short term because of financial exigency and evaluating further, but enough of this idealization of a general competitiveness that for most of the last quarter century never really existed.
You can extrapolate that to the PAC 10/12… other than the Erickson blip, there’s been nothing consistently meaningful in terms of competitiveness with other league schools. WSU has done better.
My position on ending the game has nothing to do with competitive or lack there of.
That loser mentality shouldn’t be a part of it.
Only that they made a conscious decision to harm their own state’s economy, as well as abandoning relationships which were their only support when they were going to be relegated to the Big Sky in the 60s.
They owe it to us to fill the schedule while we rebuild the Pac. Once we have the Pac 8 back, they can fuck right off.
Because in the past they were in our conference. Of course, we had to play them. Now, why? Before we were on “equal” playing field so to speak (though that wasn’t always true as some of your points mention). I don’t think there was ever a golden age to romanticize. We’ve lost way more than not historically.
Yep. It is a rivalry in name only but has not really been competitive, I’m sad to say.
Sure, it’s always not been the most competitive or equal in terms of talent over the last few decades, but previously we had our p5 stays, and we were in the same conference. As you stated, even in the games that we won, it was still always pretty close, not many convincing wins in there.
Now, we’re at a clear multi level disadvantage to hole, one that I don’t think will be able to bridged any time soon. I’ll reserve judgement until we have even more of a sample size, but seeing how we’ve played so far, and how other non p5 teams played hole, one could make an argument that our talent level is about in line with top level FCS schools this year. The days of the rivalry having any semblance of possibly being competitive are over I feel.i think our possibly only shot of beating hole going forward is catching them during a coaching mixup whenever Lanning leaves.
If people want to keep the game on the schedule for money that’s fine, but if we’re keeping it to see competitive matchups, people will be upset
*Power 4 now
This is correct. If you want to see yearly bloodbaths for historical reasons, sure, but we’ll win about 5% of these moving forward. I never said things just to say them and was always a realist. With Riley, we could realistically do much better. At this point, the reality is, we are small time. Beaver fans seem to think the BSU model will work. I don’t think it will for various reasons. One main one is Chris Peterson built that, and he’s an all time historic coach. If we had a coaching staff with talent like that I might agree. We could always start rescheduling the game if that ever happens.
yep. Know your role. Welcome to being a Beaver fan.
It’s not accepting defeat. It’s knowing the deck is stacked against you. So why bother?
The new Pac-12 is nothing but a glorified Mountain West conference. Won’t be P4. We are losing status no matter who else gets added to it.
I wrote over 10 years ago OSU should drop out of the Pac-10/12 and join the MWC. I was blasted for it.
Aaaaaaaaaaand look where we are now?
Better start getting used to games against current MWC teams or find better things to do on fall Saturdays.
Can’t lie. I’ve barely watched any of these first 3 games. Been busy and just haven’t had much interest. There is no way this team or program will sniff the CFP ever.
On the bright side? I may be going to Reno next month and catch the game there in person.
The only real interest i have going forward is baseball. But I fully expect to be let down when the 2025 schedule comes out and the baseball program will slide back to Earth. It’s already happening.
College athletics is all about $ anymore. The same programs will be at the top year in and year out. Boring.
Apathy is real
UO is essentially a minor league professional football team. As in baseball, why would a triple AAA team like the Beavs want to play a regular season meaningful game against MLB???
Supposed to be a re-building year for the Ducks too, at least at QB and the O-line, and Beavs got curbed stomped. For fucks I don’t want to see this shit anymore. It’s a laughingstock!!
UO is getting dudes in the transfer portal like Gabriel that have been playing college football for 5+ years….UCF, Oklahoma…you fucking kidding me!?!?! Hell no Beavs should not play them anymore, it’s a joke what this sport has become. I’m not saying “no” forever…but we can expect this kindof bullshit for years to come.
College football needs to go to a relegation model like the premier soccer league, only way to keep ALL teams relevant and competitive. Money will still be a huge factor, but if they overhaul the transfer stuff and add player fees for making loans/trades on players, the players become a commodity that lower-level schools could train up and at least get paid, should higher division/conference come to “buy”. This is what Beav football has become, a stepping stone to something bigger — at least call it what it is and have a chance to go up the ranks into the upper divisions.
UO is just a college football team with college talent.
Yes, they have a bunch of mercs. But they’re college mercs. Every one of them would not be seeing any time on a pro field, because they’re just not that good/matured yet.
It’s also helpful when you can grab the dline and WRs without getting laundry on the field. But even if the refs showed up for the game, out D never did.
Money talks — if you build it, err I mean spend it, they will come.
These guys are closer to professionals than amateurs…not sure if you’ve been paying attention….look around!
They’re literally being paid. Nobody is pretending they’re amateurs–any of them.
There’s little separating them from other college football teams, except for a sound system implemented over three years by a competent hc and his staff. There’s a much wider gulf between them and the worst NFL team than there is between them and Nevada.
UO is not an NFL team or even a triple A team.
A closer analogy would be Oregon State baseball playing the Hillsboro Hops.
Pretending UO players are NFL caliber is laughable.
Well they probably have 5-10 NFL caliber guys in any given year, and the rest of the roster is legit D1 talent. OSU probably has 0 NFL players on this current roster, and the rest is closer to D2 level talent.
That is just nonsense.
Oregon State probably has 2-4 guys that will have NFL careers, UO probably has 7-10. But in both cases some aren’t nearly that level yet.
Oregon State baseball probably has 1-3 MLB careers, the Hillsboro Hops probably have 5-6.
The analogy is accurate. OSU talent is well above D2. Western Oregon is a D2 school, OSU would beat them by 100.
Well it’s called exaggeration to make a point. You must be the life of the party.
No, I understood. I just don’t find exaggeration to make a point useful to this discussion.
We get it, you’re bitter.
And I am quite fun at parties.
I’m 100% the opposite of bitter and don’t care at all. NCAA was ruined long ago, which I reported here in 2011 with the expansion. It was clear what was happening then.
“I’m 100% the opposite of bitter and don’t care at all”. Come on, Angry. Wasn’t the whole reason you started the site because you were angry about the administration?
Bitter – (of people or their feelings or behavior): “angry, hurt, or resentful because of one’s bad experiences or a sense of unjust treatment.”
It’s the definition, lol.
No, I started the site because we could have done much better than Riley. Riley didn’t treat me unjustly, triggering a feeling of bitterness. It was frustration. That was also 15 years ago, and things change, and I’m not at all bitter because I slowly planned for this after the 2011 Utah/Colorado move and detached from caring about this game. I don’t know if that is bitter or smart, but I really don’t care. Anyway, I wrote about it at the time in 2011 how it would be the end of the conference and OSU would be in the MWC. I think Whiskey and I were the only ones who saw it.
No one said they ARE NFL….they are pro, getting paid, and have mentorship, facilities and PTs like they do in the NFL….UOs players are millions of dollars ahead of “schedule” of a typical college kid — hell these kids aren’t even on campus anymore most of the time!!! Call it what it is — semi-pro/pro minor leagues for the NFL, it isnt college football anymore for the top 20 teams w millions in funding that orders of magnitude more than the average college team. It will spiral out of control.
Also they have produced first round picks 5 of the past 6 seasons. 3 of them were top 10.
The separation of talent has already begun. I didn’t mind the challenge of playing a better little sister when the talent gap was closer, UO prone to the re-build year like every one else, but now there is no re-build year — they just open the wallet a bit more and get 5 year guys at the most important QB position. It IS laughable and getting worse by the day. It’s why Idaho doesn’t play BSU anymore….what the fuck is the point (other than money) in getting blown out by 30+, 40+ every year, and it will get worse. Look at the scoreboards, scores are 50-0, 66-10, 45-0 (Temple, Illinois, FBS teams getting rolled every week) – not even close. The upper echelon teams looking like semi-pro/pro minor league teams killing 1st/2nd year college kids with 4/5/6 year journeyman players or NFL level skill players. It’s apples and oranges for talent level going forward.
I don’t want to play any of the 10 defectors. Ever Again.
They destroyed over 100 years for money.
Fuck them all in the neck. With a pitchfork. Then bend them over and buttfuck them with the handle
Remind me not to piss you off….
Coaches always say about poor performance that it is a great teaching tool for their players. This time it’s a great teaching tool for the coaches.
I hate to say this, but the defensive scheme in the last game reminds me of something in the Anderpants era. Remember when Ryan Nall had a breakout game, and the next week we were facing Utah? Anderpants said ahead of the game that the Utah defensive line was pretty much NFL-caliber. And Nall barely touched the ball that week. We gave in before the game started. Thanks, Ander-P!
Earlier that year, after Anderpants was talking up our team, there was a chance to put his actions where his mouth was. Fourth-and-short, well into the opponents’ territory. What did he do? Certainly not trust his players. Punted away, when he could have proved that he believed in them. That’s why I wasn’t involved in the controversy with Smith and his fourth-down attempts. I cheered them, at least at first. By doing that, he showed his players again and again that he believed in them.
Last Saturday we needed to see our players “flying,” as our coaches like to say. With the defensive game plan, they weren’t allowed to get off the ground.
I do believe this coaching group will learn from this moment. They’ll rise above that thin, lingering whiff of Anderpants, and let this team be the athletes they are. Go for it, Beavs!
Yeah.
Boise played downhill and took chances from every direction. We let them take their game to us.
One of those schemes works.
In retrospect it seems like the most viable option would have been to load the box and hope the corners can get their hands on the receivers long enough to disrupt any potential timing routes.
Or simply just mug ’em and accept the 10 yard penalty.
Load the box and take your chances is always the best approach if you want to have a shot in that type of game and it is what we all were expecting I think.
The more conservative approach of forcing them to execute without any pressure and drive the field 80 yards at a time is a fool’s errand and only wears down an undersized defense.
I would guess the conservative approach is employed so that you don’t get bat-raced on big plays. But in the end you still got bat-raced and it was a slow demoralizing defeat rather than a show of guts and gamboling grittiness. Once it was clear that the d-line wasn’t going to touch Gabriel with 4 guys, a drastic change of approach needed to happen, but the game was already out of hand.
False Starts, penalties and a missed field goal set the tone on the first offensive drive, anyway. Mentally it was game over before it had started.
any updates anywhere on Van Wells or Jacob Strand? OLine is losing bodies left and right, unfortunately.
Hedberg reporting that Wells and Clemons are both playing on Sat
Yea Bray said in presser that Thomas, Clemons, and wells all practiced on Sunday and are expected to play vs Purdue.
I guess he meant Skyler Thomas as it looks like Noble is out with a longer term injury. Brutal.
Reality sets in on Saturday. The Civil War is an aberration on the schedule. There are about 10 schools right now who have the facilities, staff and salary resources to dominate roster building. None of those teams are on PAC2’s schedule from here on out.
From here on out it is all about football… coaching and execution. OSU will have a few dogfights ahead of them, but all the games are winnable.
QB play and the run game are enough to cruise to a competitive 10 point win against Purdue.
i dont like when state schools play aga one other ie ark ark st next year ark st will get their football game they have wanted for at least 40 years because of the city of little rock Arkansas capital city also beggd for it
think new mexico and n mex st
i just hope the razorbacks are ready for that game because if not arkansas will lose more in state kids to be honest only around 2 to 5 are good enrough on a p4 level
Updated 2-deep:
https://x.com/Ryan_Harlan7/status/1835792215639236843
does anybody know what happens with the CFP money if Washington State wins out and gets a playoff bid this season?
It’s very possible given their remaining schedule. Toughest remaining game is at Boise State, which isn’t a gimmie by any means.
In past years, if a conference team received a playoff bid (See UW last year) the Bowl payout was split evenly among the conference members.
By that measure, if either WSU or OSU make the playoffs, both schools would benefit, and the payout could be pretty significant being split only 2 ways.
I read somewhere, the Pac12 received $11.7M for UW’s appearance last year. Not sure how that distribution works out now that they have 14 teams playing, but it must still be significant, given how there are seeds and byes in the CFP.
Regardless, if the season is coming down to the Cougs being undefeated when the Beavs and Cougs meet, it makes more sense to the conference financially for OSU to concede that game to WSU. (another sign of a well planned system, where teams have a financial benefit to lose games)
Wash st has no shot at the playoff unless Memphis or AAC champ loses twice and Boise has to lose 2 more games boise piayed nike even @ nike other than that sure
College football has always stood out more than any other major recognized sport I can think of in terms of having a lack of parity. It’s not uncommon to see teams only lose once or twice over the course of many years. Multiple teams have had multi year home win streaks. It is just extremely difficult for less talented/lower funded programs to win in the sport. In many other sports, it’s not necessarily uncommon for what is likely the best overall team to not win the title (think ‘98 Braves, 2007 Patriots, some March madness winners, 2017 Beav baseball etc, etc). Even though they play a few more games, the parity in the NFL is so much more apparent. It’s pretty uncommon compared to college football to see a team lose by more than 2 scores, and even the best teams have 4-6 losses come playoff time. There’s almost always some random small college no one has ever heard of in the elite 8 or at least sweet 16. Something I notice when an elite college football team is on upset alert is that I never actually believe they are in danger of losing until it happens. Legit, large, upsets are so rare in the grand scheme of things for the sport. There are no years in recent memory that come to mind in which I can say that I think the best team did not win a national title in college football.
There are a not-insignificant number of college football teams who legitimately only have 1-2 games a year on their regular season schedule that they have any real shot at losing. I guess what I am stating as my point here is that when it comes to college football, it’s a dying sport. It is not sustainable for fan interest in its current form and it would surprise me if it crumbles and is rebuilt into an NFL minor league type feeder system in the next 15-20 years. I think we as the Beavs need to know our place in all of this at this point. Unless Huang starts ponying up, our NIL money, the schools money, and all of our complaints will make no difference I think it’s time to start questioning why so much time and effort is still being put into this. This is a sport in which mostly 17-21 year old AMATEURS are the focus.
Why is 150 million being spent on a perfectly functioning stadium for what it is meant for? A stadium that gets used about 10-15 days a year? Why are these students getting paid with no restrictions or caps to essentially be hired gun free agents for the highest bidder? Why do these AMATEUR teams need staffs of 100+ people with a good chunk of them making many times more than the average American? Why and how has it gotten to the point that Trent Bray makes nearly $40,000 a week, and we were getting ready to pay his predecessor three times that, just to coach a team of teenagers that could never even have a realistic chance at sniffing a national title? Why is it that if one of these amateur coaches are terrible at their job, they can’t be fired or else their employer (US) has to pay them millions of dollars of salary after the fact? Why is the sport seemingly 50% commercials now?
These are all questions that continue to swirl around in my head as I slowly lose interest in the sport of college football and college athletics in general. It’s out of control. The best we can do as the Beavs at this point is to enjoy it for what it should be and what we can actually accomplish which is winning small time regional rivalries and enjoying the traditions that come with them on a local scale, and stop worrying about keeping up with the Jones’. That ship has sailed.
Great post Student!
You’re not a student of the history of the sport, if you think the talent level between the top FBS teams and FCS teams haven’t become much closer over time, let alone the conditioning on the FBS level being somewhat maxed out in utility. This is why schools create wasted spaces for window dressing. Spending on the tools and facilities necessary for a functioning team on the college level is maxed out.
Not every FBS or especially FCS schools are maxed out. But the disparity in talent is a lot less than even that used to be.
It’s almost like we’ve all advanced medically and benefitted from it unequally.
It might be closer in general… but that 0regon TE looked like he was a different species compared to our defenders.
We had defenders?
Same same as last year, when our team just didn’t show up. Ferguson is good, but he’s not good enough to not be covered, something we just did, because.
I could have disrupted their D better than our D scheme did. It was pretty ridiculous.
What is the meaning of life??
Well, it’s nothing really special. Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in, and try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.
Don’t avoid good fats. Avoid sugar and refined carbs.
For the time being are WSU and OSU the sole schools involved with further expansion? Do the other 4 schools have any say?
Will BSU and CSU add baseball programs as part of PAC12 membership?
I have to think that baseball is an important factor in adding new schools. Particularly, if the PAC2 are doing all the picking.
Speaking if expansion, Pete Thamel is reporting the Pac12 and Memphis are close to finalizing a deal for the 7th spot.
https://x.com/spencer_901/status/1835825818527797405?t=-KZS-lDNaPXTDrOyg7g4pQ&s=19
Seems like the money would have to be pretty good for Memphis to sign up for travel from the central timezone.
Also, sounds like Airforce to the AAC is getting close to becoming reality.
Nevermind, got suped by a fake account disguised as Pete Thamel.
Though Elon out an end to fake accounts unless they were listed as parodies?
I love America
Elon doesn’t write code.
Elmo has fucked that platform
Tulane would be a good baseball school to add. They seem like an inevitability given all the smoke at this point. That would seemingly trigger adding other “eastern” schools to fill out the rest. Maybe Stanford would drop the pretense and rejoin if we added a school like Tulane?
Barnes and co. may not have any other reasonable choices to maintain their “prioritization of limited travel.” Doesn’t seem like the money is there to add more MWC teams and UNLV is the only one that really makes any modicum of sense (as an aside, I can’t believe this is the first time they have ever been ranked in the top 25).
I for one will be disappointed if we can’t add Tulane.
The more teams from the southeast, the better.
I’d rather see the team playing the Quacks every once in a while. Like Utah/Utah St or Colorado/Colorado St. Hopefully in years when the Beavs have an uptick in talent. Realignment screwed any real reason to play them. Grain of salt, but there is a lot of buzz out there about Memphis becoming the 7th team.
All the talk of a new PAC being MWC 2.0 is a bit of an exaggeration.
Average Sagarin ratings for the Big 12: 37
Average Sagarin ratings for the old 12-team PAC: 43
Average Sagarin ratings for the 2-team PAC: 48
Average Sagarin ratings for the ACC: 51
Average Sagarin ratings for the new 8-team PAC (including Memphis and Tulane): 64
Average Sagarin ratings for the MWC: 98
If you go back a few years, these rankings are pretty consistent within a +/- 10 range. If you add Cal and Stanford to the new PAC, depending on the year it’s either a neutral or a negative impact.
The other interesting thing is that Tulane and Memphis are the only 2 G5 schools this works with. Any other school if you take their ranking from the last 3 years would be a net negative to the existing 6-team PAC.
Now to basketball!
Average Sagarin ratings for the Big 12: 29
Average Sagarin ratings for the old 12-team PAC: 80
Average Sagarin ratings for the ACC: 83
Average Sagarin ratings for the new 8-team PAC (including Memphis and Tulane): 87
Average Sagarin ratings for the MWC: 94
Average Sagarin ratings for the WCC: 120
Average Sagarin ratings for the 2-team PAC: 124
Basically, the new conference is a lateral move from the old PAC (and the ACC, I might add) and a clear step up from the WCC. Of course there are plenty of other options besides Memphis and Tulane, but they seem to present the best basketball/football combination of those options.
The hilarious thing here is that you could consider the new PAC a “power conference” in basketball based on this and OSU is the lowest ranked team in the conference.
Just looking at last season, adding Cal and Stanford is a net negative in basketball.
Till we get our own version of Deion when The Glove takes the gig in 2025-26!
Pretty sure Tinkle’s contract runs through 26-27
Hasn’t there been some talk that the buyout will be low enough after this year to fire him? I remember that conversation but might be misremembering.
We’re spending a LOT of money on building a conference, though…
Canzano has a paywall story up today about the Pac having meetings this week, to discuss adding Tulane/Memphis.
I tend to lean towards the Pac not adding either school and this being a smokescreen, similar to all of the Pac to Big12/ACC talk that occurred just before they announced the addition of the 4 MWC teams. The fact that Tulane/Memphis are being talked about by so many media members makes it seem to obvious. Teresa Gould doesn’t operate that way.
Just depends on the PAC’s feeling about Calford’s return. They are the obvious first choice, but if they don’t want to come, there are no options that meet both the on-field success and regional footprint criteria.
So the question is: do you prioritize teams that are close by and hope they can become more successful (unlikely) or stretch budgets and travel time by adding schools farther east? Do you get ambitious or stay conservative and hope other events break your way in the future?
The only way Cal/Stanford could join us is if the ACC collapses. That’s putting alot of faith in things breaking your way if the Pac wants to hold out on them. Last I read, the ACC and FSU/Clemson were talking about negotiating a revenue share agreement to have those schools stay in the ACC.
Time isn’t exactly on the Pac12’s side. they’ll need to get things lined up to hit that magic “8” number by 2026, so I don’t see them playing a game of chicken with Cal/Stanford, but more likely adding 2 schools to get over the hump and possibly add the bay area schools later.
I’ve also seen people floating the idea of adding Memph/Tulan as well as 4 more regional to those 2 (like UTSA/UTEP?) do help build an east/west division with in the Pac12 and keep travel as regional as possible.
https://allsportsdiscussion.com/2024/09/16/clemson-and-fsu-staying-in-acc-its-not-so-far-fetched-anymore/
I think tulane and Memphis are good additions if it happens. Grabing the best of the rest is the only way to attempt to stay relevant, but I also think most of these moves are a stop-gap for the almost curtain future realignment. Especially if it involves a super group of 64ish teams regionally aligned. You would basically be in the group that would be used for the final additions to fill out that league.
Agree. The TX schools don’t seem to give you much, though. Rice seems like they have potential, but that also seems like a steep hill to climb. UTSA and TX State are upstarts that aren’t going to give you credibility and don’t give you interesting TV inventory.
I don’t buy the “make travel more manageable” argument when you’re making over half the existing members (if you assume we have 8) travel halfway across the country to TX.
Rice is the only TX school that makes sense in my opinion. I get they aren’t great but they are in Houston and have great academics.
Personally, I think adding Memphis, Tulane, and Rice is a the best play to potentially getting Stanford back if the ACC implodes. Finding a way to make Gonzaga 10 for basketball would be ideal.
They need to more teams to get to 8. They had to know who they likely were targeting before adding the 4 mwc teams.
I think Memphis and Tulane are coming. I just don’t see who are better options and if they can get them they will. UNLV maybe? Who else?
UTSA, NORTH TEXAS OR RICE, all those schools are in Texas and gets you into that market.
UTSA and North Texas don’t move the needle. I’ve mentioned Rice before.
Tickets purchased and room booked last night
Whiskey will be in da house October 12 in Reno
With or without the pitchfork???
Undecided at the moment
Beavergopher, saw a cbssports article mentioning not to overlook the Hoosiers and that they have played very well. I saw you posted about them and how good their coach is.
You’re going to the Ukulele Festival? Cool!
Some nuggets from Eggers latest:
BASEBALL:
I asked Barnes about baseball’s status at Oregon State moving forward. I didn’t quite understand his response, which included this: “We have an opportunity to move … from an independent situation to where we can add national high-caliber games to a core conference schedule. …”
Not for Beaver baseball in the Mountain West. The Beavers are simply in a much higher class. And a full conference schedule would bring down their RPI. I think the Beavers would fit well in the Big West, which had two programs (Cal Santa Barbara and Cal Irvine) in last year’s NCAA Tournament, but also a pair of 35-win teams (Cal Poly and Hawaii) as well as traditional power Cal State Fullerton.
WBB:
The Beavers and Ducks will not play each other in women’s basketball. I think OSU coach Scott Rueck has earned the autonomy to make that decision on his own.
MBB:
It is worth pointing out that the Mountain West has been stronger than the Pac-12 in men’s basketball in recent years. Last season, San Diego State, Boise State, Colorado State, Utah State, Nevada, UNLV and New Mexico all had 20-win seasons. Six of those teams advanced to the NCAA Tournament; the Pac-12 had four.
The Zags fit nicely competitively and geographically. If they could be persuaded, that would be a no-brainer to me. But Barnes said having a football program is a requirement to joining the Pac-12. In the case of Gonzaga, a national basketball brand and a regional university, I think that’s a mistake.
https://www.kerryeggers.com/stories/on-the-pac-6-beaver-baseball-and-the-deaths-of-traci-rose-barry-adams-and-bob-robinson
I have a feeling that Barne’s comments about football only were for right now. Until they get to at least 8-9 schools. I could see Gonzaga joining after the whole situation with football is figured out
On a more positive note, we got the bees through the season. Super strong colony. Harvested only 3 frames from the super figuring since they’re a year 1 hive I’ll let them keep the rest. Best honey ever. Now the difficult process of getting these girls through CO winters.
i can’t remember if i saw this on your blog or somewhere else, but have you seen these indoor behive walls that people have installed in their houses?
Kindof cool. Like an ant farm where you can watch their activity from inside. Probably helps keep them warm in the winter too
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u0To_ZHIPo
Put’em in your house. That’s should be warm enough for them.
Insulate the hives, and don’t forget to also do the floor.
Bees will huddle for warmth and slow their metabolisms in the winter to lessen their consumption of stores. A remote thermometer will show you a pretty steady warmth within the hive. They need to feel the actual change in seasons to emerge from that state productively in the spring.
I think there are studies on insulation benefitting colonies in warm weather, as well.
Congratulations! From what plants is the nectar coming from? Doesn’t matter. It’s all good – spring tree blossoms especially.
1
dUs
I just found this for Tulane and Memphis
SKIP TO MAIN CONTENT
Footballscoop home
Footballscoop home
HOME
NEWS
The Pac-12 is targeting Memphis, Tulane among expansion rebirth
The Pac-12 just recently announced it was seizing four members from Mountain West
JOHN BRICE6 HOURS AGO
The Pac-12 has been the 2-Pac essentially for the past year, as every 2023-24 member of the conference jettisoned the league for either the Big Ten or Big 12 conferences with the exceptions of Oregon State and Washington State — though not for lack of trying.
But from the ashes, the league is trying to pull itself back together. It became the temporary 6-Pac Conference last week when it announced it would accept Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State and San Diego State into its membership ranks beginning July 1, 2025.
0:19
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0:29
Georgia governor clears path for Georgia, Georgia Tech and all state athletes to be paid
So, is having State in an institution’s name a de facto requirement for joining the revamped league?
Not necessarily. Myriad reports indicate that both the University of Memphis (formerly Memphis State) and Tulane are being targeted as the potential seventh and eighth members of the Pac-12.
John Canzano, a well-respected West Coast journalist who has covered the Pac-12 extensively, reported Tuesday that the Pac-12 meeting was expected to take place midweek this week.
Sources confirmed to FootballScoop that Memphis officials are keenly interested in an opportunity to join the Pac-12 and exit their current conference membership in the American Athletic Conference, of
I like that half of their “article” is rehashing old “2-pac” and “6-pack” jokes. Then the next paragraph is copy/paste of Canzano’s headline. And the last paragraph is “we confirmed part of what Canzano said”
Thanks for throwing that all together, footballpoop.
Probably all put together by AI.
Well respected journalist LOL.
I say they add Utah after Memphis Tulane and try get some teams like Arizona state
ASU is stuck.
Utah has options, but financials probably can’t meet what they currently have.
Yeah it’s kinda just copy of stuff
why did the lie for Purdue game go down when they got 3 starters back for the game
why did the lie for Purdue game go down when they got 3 starters back for the game that’s so stupid
Beavs get three keys back too. Notably Wells at C, a big reason for the fiasco last Saturday was the nike guys got their #1 C back and the Beavs were without theirs.
https://archive.ph/MJYRs
That and the Beavs were less talented at every position.
Yeah, “big reason” was an overstatement; probably accounted for less than 10-15 points.
But, still believe the nike team vs BSU wasn’t near the squad the pushed the Beavs around.
That said, looks like BSU and Cal may be the stiffest tests going forward.
Don’t forget Air Force. A schedule that once looked lean now is tougher than expected
Wazzu is gonna be tough
How would you know?
I honestly think it was more a situation where the ducks were pushed more in their opening games. I think they played better teams and were pushed and it forced them to play with more urgency and fire and were beginning to understand that they weren’t going to be handed anything. The Beavs didn’t seem to have that urgency or fire and it showed.
The line is only dependent on how bettors are acting.
More people are betting on Purdue than OSU, which should be expected in a situation where one state allows sports betting, and the other does not.
I think Purdue got blown out and it was never really a game. Oregon State was in it at halftime and the Ducks just came out and kept it going and made the adjustments necessary on defense. We did not. Notre Dame isn’t exactly an offensive juggernaut either. I think the Beavs have a bounce back game here in a big way.
Purdue looks slow.
This won’t be popular here.
Regarding college sports: Major League Baseball has minor leagues. A talented guy can go to single A or higher right out of high school. The state he attends college in doesn’t have to pay for his “education.” College baseball is very entertaining despite having some players choose to develop through the professional system. College football and basketball would better off if the NFL and NBA would have minor leagues because universities (tax payers) would not have to subsidize salaries for coaches, bonds for stadiums, basketball coliseums, etc. With NIL we have entered a totally ridiculous time where the rich just get richer because the rich make the rules. Big markets are all that matter.
Maybe student athletes should be students.
The money isn’t the biggest problem, the free transfer portal and blatant tampering with no consequences are more of an issue. The decision making resting with people whose interests aren’t aligned with fans is the real problem. When the media has as much control as they do, it’s all about maintaining the narrative and not about maintaining a competitive sport. This manipulates the polls, refereeing, CFP selections, rules…it’s all-pervasive.
All the NIL complaining is a bit of a smokescreen from a competitive standpoint. How much is NIL helping Florida, Notre Dame, FSU, Auburn, LSU, Texas A&M etc.? If you want to complain about something financial, complain about the concentration of wealth in the US that’s enabling individual megadonors.
Here are the top 10 schools by donations in the last 15 years:
1. Nike
2. Texas A&M
3. Texas
4. Florida
5. Georgia
6. OK St
7. LSU
8. Oklahoma
9. Auburn
10. FSU
7 of these 10 aren’t legitimate national contenders.
Minor league sports aren’t fun to follow because it isn’t about winning. Think the transfer portal sucks? Try having your best players called up with only a moment’s notice.
Woah, Bama’s not there? Interesting.
They are #12.
Money helps, but good coaching is more important!
They don’t need donations with their cut of the SEC tv rights and a 100k stadium
Also, the NIL money is legitimately helping people get ahead using their football talents, which wasn’t a given in the past. This is objectively good. A lot of these guys would get left behind in a minor league system because they’d be cast aside for not being NFL prototypes.
Also, the new stadiums, etc. at big programs are largely being funded by donors, not the university. In some cases where power conference schools are competitively bad, public schools have made the choice to keep up with the Joneses with public money (e.g. Rutgers, Cal, UCONN, UCF). That’s hardly universal, though. I guarantee you more public money would be spent on stadiums if we had both minor league and college football. Pro sports stadiums are the poster child for taxpayer grift.
according to Daschel OSU just signed a home and home with Wake Forest. WF comes to Corvallis in 2025, and OSU goes to WF in 2029.
https://x.com/nickdaschel/status/1836428246138917183
Funny because Wake just cancelled a game with Ole Miss next season and Lane Kiffin was bitching about it to to the media yesterday.
Surprised they would pass on SEC non-con money to travel clear to Corvallis
We’re poaching the SEC’s patsy P4 games.
Bold.
Read up on the cancellation of the previously scheduled Wake/OleMiss game. It was scheduled for Sept 12th, 2025. the buyout cost was contracted as either $750K or $1M, depending on the timing of the cancellation. If it was more than a year prior, then the cost is the lower of those 2 totals. But if Wake cancelled after Sept 12th 2024, it would go up. My guess is they got in just under that wire last week.
Still, that’s pretty nuts that they’d pay that much to get out of a game to travel to Corvallis for a replacement game. It just doesn’t add up, unless that return trip by OSU is really worth all the effort?
They’re essentially paying $750k to avoid getting stomped on a more visible stage, if they lose at all. And they get a commitment for a future home game or to recoup their losses, should it be canceled.
It looks like the CW is helping broker an ACC/PAC12 scheduling agreement for next season. We’re going to MAIMI!!! …or Miami at Wazzu?
I gotta believe CW is pretty heavily involved in the expansion talks as well. Betting the have the outline of a deal already in place.
Aren’t they used to getting stomped on a visible stage?
Seems like it would be better to get stomped by an SEC team on ESPN vs getting stomped by the Beavs on the CW
I also wonder if it’s tied to baseball scheduling. There are a lot of incentives in just RPI for both ADs that it could have some value in negotiations.
It’s a little funny.
In the past, we would have these home and homes with G5 schools with a second-year coach on the rise, and we would always visit there first. I remember getting stomped at Louisville and Cincinnati while Riley was still trying to find our identity.
Maybe we get to do that to someone else for a while.
Was going to say something similar about the minor league experience. Have watched alot of Beaver Baseball as well as Hillsboro Hops the past decade. I enjoy the Hops game experience, but it’s only for fun. It’s impossible to really get invested in the team because the roster flips every year, plus guys come and go all season without any warning.
With Beaver Baseball, there’s been some carry over every year and you get to really watch guys develop, like Bazzana/Adley. And the college fans are much more into watching every play of the game while the Hops fans are just there to have a good time at the ballpark.
Very different experiences.
Sorry for posting so much this morning. Lots of small news items to sort through.
The Athletic had a lengthy article on the Pac12/MW/AAC movement. Found a Wyoming blogger who put together a brief cliff notes version.
“Pac-12: Targeting Tulane and Memphis, also looking at UTSA, North Texas, USF and Texas State. If they can’t get these school will circle back to AFA and UNLV.
AFA also in talks with the AAC.”
Something that never gets mentioned is the cost of poaching AAC schools. Does anybody know if they have a buyout fee, or are they at the end of their media deal and essentially free agents?
The last round of exits all settled at about $16m each. These payments are typically contracted as ten-year payouts. So each of those schools will pay $1.6m a year… if not negotiated for longer.
“Conference bylaws require only a $10 million payment if schools give an exit notice of at least 27 months in advance of their departure.”
https://www.nola.com/sports/tulane/report-pac-12-to-discuss-inviting-tulane-memphis/article_30fa7cc6-753f-11ef-813d-9ba7303f913b.html
We’re beyond that. I think it jumps to $17m until one year’s notice. Then I don’t know what it is, because everyone was well before that deadline.
That list after Tulane/Memphis worries me.
USF is the only program I find interesting but it is just too far away. Really hope they rethink them.
I have very little interest in the Texas schools and no interest in Florida. The Texas schools have done nothing to warrant a move up. Tulane and Memphis have been successful for the last several years and are well-funded.
I guess it probably just boils down to acquisition cost at this point. If they need numbers, they’ll get numbers.
I am interest in Rice but none of the others.
UNLV interests me as well but I think 4 MWC teams is enough at first. So if they aren’t taking Rice I’d prefer to stay at 8. Of course I am wondering how much Memphis and Tulane are using their leverage to get more eastern schools. USF would spoil this for me, I’d lose interest.
UNT and USF are huge and well-respected research institutions. USF is building a new football stadium on campus. UNT’s facilities just need some paint and upgrades.
UTSA has spent a lot on the research side, and now they’re spending on athletics. But they don’t need to worry about a football stadium, because the city gives them a good deal on renting the Alamo Dome, which has to show continued use to satisfy the businesses who rely on the increased traffic, or they don’t get the money to maintain it… or at least people start grumbling about it.
TSU would instantly be the new Wazzu of the Pac–that team that struggles to pay for nice things but rises every couple years to bite some football ass. But they’re a large amount of warm bodies who would fill out future subscription numbers, if they became travel partners with UTSA. Also, you won’t find better brisket than you will in San Marcos.
Travel partners in the Pac 8:
OSU/Wazzu
BSU/CSU
SDSU/FSU
Memphis/Tulane
Pac 10:
Tulane/USF
Memphis/UNT
Pac 12:
Add the other two
UNT has a highly regarded jazz program, too. I don’t really care how they are as colleges. That doesn’t seem to matter to anyone other than Stanford. Do we benefit from being associated athletically with higher caliber universities? I doubt it.
What matters here is who can bring the prestige and leverage to generate media revenue.
UNT quietly draws attention because they are so respected. Just because they’re overshadowed doesn’t mean they’re insignificant.
I would worry more about the two southern schools in Texas. It seems recency bias overshadows the cultural commitment to both students and athletics. But it does look like UTSA has changed a lot in the last decade.
I would take all six as football only, and they can grab UT Arlington and Stetson or Wichita State or whoever and form their own Olympic sports conference.
I’d argue Rice is the only TX left with any kind of prestige just based on the program being around for over a century plus being in the Southwest Conference which was a power conference. Rice and Tulane are the last schools left with any power conference history.
If you asked random people to name college football programs in Texas I bet Rice gets named before all the other options. Houston and SMU should’ve been added before the PAC collapsed, too late now so that leaves Rice in my opinion. Obviously the schools know more than me but I don’t see the value of NT, UTSA, or TS. Rice at least allows you to be you’re ready to bounce and try get Stanford if the ACC implodes.
I’d happily trade out TSU for Rice. It would make a lot more sense, especially with the other two public schools. Other than UT, Rice had nothing in common with any SWC schools, except it punched out a bunch of engineers and accountants for the energy sector every year. UNT and UTSA are much more aligned with Rice than they are with TSU.
Their facility situation is TBD. They’ve spent a lot on academics and student housing recently, and there’s noise about re-doing the stadium somehow. So we’ll see. They may not care enough about football at this point to waste their time with whatever it’s becoming.
SMU is considered a rival to Rice, so is Houston.
I oppose going over 9 football schools right now so I don’t want more than 1 TX school.
Perhaps not as high in consideration given the array of factors involved, but still of interest: how our recruiting footprint in football, and by extension, other sports, regionally aligns with the schools under consideration.
Tulane and Memphis are the two names I recognize immediately as being “football” schools.
PFF unit comparisons
Offense looks like a toss up. Purdue has a small sample size, but their defense and offense both failed pretty miserably against ND. They rate out as an even worse tackling team than the Beavs.
Offense
Passing- adv Purdue
Pass blocking- adv OSU
Receivers- adv Purdue
Rushing- adv OSU
Run blocking- even
Defense
Run defense- adv OSU
Pass rush- adv OSU
Secondary- adv OSU
https://osubeavers.com/news/2024/9/18/oregon-state-announces-future-football-games-versus-wake-forest
I like it
It seems like WSU/OSU are simply reaching out to the schools who have made a recent commitment towards competitive football programs and are relatively located in bigger markets. I think it assures the idea of Memphis, and Tulane being next in line.
UNLV has some questions and not much success.
Rice has no success but a history and deep pockets.
USF is too far, and is committed to football but not there yet.
Wyoming is in the exact situation OSU/WSU were in, just on the short straw side of finding a place and left out.
Gonzaga would be ideal for added bball content and tv deals.
I think they bring in Tulane, Memphis for next year, and bring Gonzaga in as non-football to complement the basketball resume for the media rights deal. Then it is a toss-up for Rice or UNLV.
Rice gets you into Texas and another school near Tulane/Memphis/CSU side of the conference.
UNLV locks you into the Las Vegas market and a growing metro area with a national brand for Basketball.
My guess is the Texas markets aren’t as desirable if you aren’t getting a rabid fanbase with a history of winning. I think they figure out how to get UNLV and leave Texas out altogether for now.
It would be PAC10 with a 9 game round robin football schedule plus an even 10 teams for basketball and other key sports. It will be a strong basketball conference and a best of the rest football conference, with Tulane as the lone private school to keep records confidential.
But if we get UTSA, I’m going to have to insist their game be sponsored by Sea World.
lol… their game with SDSU*
RE your Wyoming comment……They would be a prime candidate to drop down to FCS. Why not play for championships every year? I wouldn’t be surprised to see quite a few more schools making that move. It’s worked out great for Idaho for example.
Kind of feels like the exact opposite may end up happening. Lots of smoke about FCS schools out west looking to move up.
ESPN/Fox can’t prevent other TV networks from investing. This whole PAC deal feels like CW making its move into being a serious sports network (ala Fox in the 90’s).
TNT also just lost the NBA.
I think any predictions about FBS 2030+ are probably wrong.
And this all assumes Congress doesn’t eventually get more involved.
It’s all about financial projections. I’m not sure what those FCS schools gain by going FBS when their AD’s are heavily subsidized by the school. Is being in the MWC really going to generate more interest and drive meaningfully higher revenues? The current outlook for MWC’s media contract isn’t great, unless the sport is still counting on increasingly higher media spend (which seems doubtful given the discussion around the last cycle).
The individual values aren’t all that need to be calculated.
The thing about a conference is the general interest of all fanbases in all the other teams. So we’ll tune into Tulane against anyone, even the Texas schools, if they come along. Fresno and SDSU fans will do the same. The viewership goes up for everyone. Then we howl like bitches in heat about how they only get these high numbers because of us, and we should get more money, and maybe we run away to another conference where nothing like that exists… or something.
That would suck because Wyoming’s beaten Missouri and Texas Tech at home the past few seasons. 2024 is just a down year for them with Bohl leaving.
They played Texas really tough, too, produced Josh Allen, and Jake Dickert came from Bohl’s staff.
Bohl was a really inspired coaching hire. The new HC seems to have been a stability hire and, from the drop off they’re already having, doesn’t seem like he’ll be there long. Wyo has a strong history, but as the only university in the smallest state with little in the way of recruiting appeal, it’s hard to see them excelling in the new era of football without another brilliant coaching hire.
Wyoming was Josh Allen’s only offer after jr/cc college.
Scott Barnes has stated football is a requirement for Pac members.
So unless, minds get changed Gonzaga not happenening.
my guess it that when Barnes said that he meant until they get to enough teams with football to make a conference (8-10). after that I wouldn’t be surprised to see them try for Gonzaga. Why not capitalize on the basketball side of things?
Some tidbits and musings from the Athletic about the pac12 realignment. Some good info that was floated here and a few new takes. Thought everyone might like it.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5776229/2024/09/18/pac-12-aac-mountain-west-realignment/
Yogi Roth podcast on YT interview with Teresa Gould. A non-answer answer at the end about the next phase. But she gives some interesting insights about the mechanics and emotions involved with realignment decisions/announcements. Interesting that former athletes from the 10 dearly departed schools were thanking her and cheering for us.
From a Tulane source, who knows how true it is:
PAC- 12 Realignment, what we know:
– PAC-12 has discussed membership with Tulane, Memphis and UTSA.
– There is mutual interest and talks are ongoing with all 3 schools.
– The main issue is money, the initial offer was low to UTSA.
– Some administrators have been pushing to wait for the ACC/Big-12.
– Another potential roadblock is the travel time and costs.
– Schools want that covered in the agreement.
– The PAC-12 wants to get this done quickly, in the next few weeks.
– Tulane has been working with a consulting firm to explore opportunities in other conferences including PAC-12.
– Tulane has a board meeting tomorrow.
– The AAC is trying to bring in Air Force, not just as a replacement but to bring in more TV money.
– AAC and other conferences are pursuing MWC schools.
I can live with UTSA as long as they stop at 9. Still think Rice is the better option but UTSA is probably the next best TX option so I like this.
Get it done.
UTSA is desirable for the money they’re putting into baseball alone. We can find a lot of talent in these new areas, as well as where we traditionally recruit. And those three won’t be slouches.
I like UTSA at less than 100% share. San Antonio would be a good market to be in at a discount.
It doesn’t seem realistic to try to get anyone at partial share right now. Maybe a lot of the AAC/MWC schools see the final window closing for “access to big-time football” and this is their last shot and they jump at a partial share. Not sure about it though.
Rice has money but has poor facilities and no sports passion or enthusiasm surrounding its programs, or national brand. i don’t think Rice is a serious option when compared to the schools already invited in, unless they foot their own bill like SMU and underwrite some budget aspects to bring everyone else into the fold. Rice doesn’t command any market share in their own region, let alone nationally.
UTSA, Texas St, and North Texas all may have bigger investments into their football programs by comparison to Rice, which is why they are more likely for Texas, at least one of them will likely be brought in. No idea which. But Memphis, Tulane, and. Texas school gets you to 9 for football.
If all 7 new members join in the same mindset of “all in” on football programs, like Boise St was about 20 years ago, then this could be a really compelling conference with a lot of new appeal for student athletes. NIL money will still be a factor for the schools, but all would be in the same boat in many respects.
Once the football group is settled, then you can pursue Gonzaga, St Mary’s and maybe Creighton/Whichita St for added basketball, sports membership.
It would be a very good basketball conference and a top 5 football conference.
There is no reason to go get any basketball school beyond Gonzaga.
10 schools gives you an 18 game basketball schedule, Gonzaga is the only basketball school that could add value. The rest would cost the conference money.
The money maker for most basketball programs is tournament appearances. St. Mary’s would definitely help in that regard.
I think any schools beyond Gonzaga and 9 football schools will dilute the value of a TV deal more than St. Mary’s can make up with tournament credits.
Gonzaga would likely pay for itself with added value to the TV deal.
UTSA has to see the writing on the wall for the AAC. They’re constantly losing their best members and ESPN can apparently open the contract at some point in the agreement and renegotiate. Everyone in the AAC is definitely taking a hard look at their options right now.
If UTSA believes the PAC will grow in value then partial shares and future certainty will make more sense than uncertainty in the AAC. It’s the same situation Calford were facing.
I actually think the travel concerns are pretty ridiculous.
Let’s compare OSU to Memphis travel under this alignment. Lets assume both play Tulane, Fresno State, and Colorado State on the road plus Memphis comes to Corvallis and OSU goes to San Antonio
Oregon State total miles 2534+ 686 + 1190 + 2091 = 6501
Memphis total miles 395 + 1917 + 1148 + 2264 = 5724
I think sometimes people in the South like to pretend the west isn’t gigantic. The P2 schools will be traveling as many or more miles under this 9 team alignment.
It’s a differential thing. Travel in the PAC vs. their current travel in AAC. They’re surely arguing that the media value is diluted by additional travel expense.
That clearly wasn’t argued by the 10 traitors (or at least their argument fell on deaf ears). I guess it depends on your options.
Exactly. It depends on your options and values. The early traitors valued the “prestige” of the big conferences. The others valued relative stability.
What do the new PAC hopefuls want?
Feel like this move is about valuing being in a conference that get the CFP bid. If they expect concessions beyond what is reasonable the PAC should shift its focus to UNLV and Air Force. It wouldn’t be as impressive of an alignment and wouldn’t cut the head off of what’s left of the AAC but it would be the better football conference still.
Agree. The prize for conferences outside of the SEC/Big10/ACC/Big12 is to get a team into the playoffs for that guaranteed playoff payment. Those opportunities are very limited if you’re not in the other 4 conferences.
The 5 highest ranked conference champions get an auto bid. The Pac wants to be the 5th best conference overall(or better) so they’re guaranteed that extra revenue.
It’s like the guaranteed NY6 bowl game revenue has been replaced with this new system, so conferences need to align themselves to get in on that guaranteed revenue, or they’ll fall behind quickly.
As always, the system is designed to let the rich keep getting richer with little opportunity for the little guys to spoil the fun.
PAC 12 Commissioner Teresa Gould states that in Phase 2, the PAC will “swing for the fences,” and selected teams will be the “cherry on the ice cream to ?????? ?? ???.”
Pretty sure that means Tulane and Memphis.
Can’t imagine any scenario where a P4 school joins. The whole big 12 getting 30 mill. Everybody in ACC getting more except Calfurd who get about $10M and SMU who gets $0. But the grant of right locks them in for the foreseeable future.
OK I’ve imagined one.
After looking at Cal and Stanford, appears the grant of rights requires at least 3 times your annual ACC payout to get out. That would be roughly $30M for the Bay area schools and basically $0 for SMU. Not sure Stanford is motivated to leave though they could find that type of money in the couch cushions. Cal would need help. Let’s imagine Stanford has buyers remorse and the PAC 12 can help Cal with the $30M, then there’s a scenario where SMU might jump with them. That also opens the door to picking of some actual P5 teams to bump the TV deal to a level that would justify their move. Utah, ASU, UA?
I’d say the chances of this happening are greater than zero but not by much.
Jesus, please tell me Tulane, Memphis and some directional Texas schools is not “swinging for the fences “.
Swing and a miss?
Notre Dame.
Imagine…
“Sources close to the situation” also say they expect Gonzaga to be a target in “phase 3.”
Kind of a random question, but does Mike Parker still do that weekly Beaver Sports show at Buffalo Wild Wings where they bring on a coach and a player each week? They stopped doing during COVID obviously, but I’ve never heard it advertised on KEJO. Always thought those weekly sports shows were how they funneled some extra cash to coaches. Give the athletes a decent free meal.
No.
Story of a new stupid NIL gimmick UTSA is unveling this weekend. They call it a “Flash Give”.
Essentially, any time UTSA scores a touchdown, they’re going to put 3 QR codes on their jumbo screen. Each QR code links to a UTSA NIL collective(cause I guess they need 3?)
Here’s the awesome part. Fans are encouraged to scan one of the barcodes…..and then give money away to the collective. That’s it. Cashing in on that endorphine rush.
https://goutsa.com/news/2024/09/19/utsa-athletics-introduces-nil-flash-give-following-touchdowns
Next they’ll be passing collection plates down the rows
New story says the PAC’s future direction hinges on Memphis. USF and Tulane won’t go without them and Memphis may wait for an ACC offer for if/when FSU and Clemson leave. The backup option for the PAC would be continuing to raid the MWC for UNLV and Air Force.
Interesting tidbit is the PAC is projecting $12-15M per team deal based on network projections. This is 2x what MWC teams were getting (and about half what Big 12 teams get). Also, UTSA and Rice have partial shares in the AAC right now so they may demand less to join the PAC.
I believe expanding to a national footprint is what Gould was referring to when she said “swinging for the fences.”
Oh, also this PAC deal is projected to be worth more than what Calford are getting from the ACC.
In case ya didn’t know it, Daschel reports:
Oregon State paid Oregon a $300,000 appearance fee for Saturday’s game in Reser Stadium. In 2025, Oregon pays OSU $300,000 to play at Autzen Stadium. Beyond 2025 is a discussion the two schools will have at some point this fall, according to Barnes.
Barnes should cancel that meeting.
Based on only the swing for the fences quote from Theresa Gould, here is my guess for Phase 2, Phase 3 and Phase 4:
Phase 2-
(swing for the fences): Sounds like they are hoping to pull a surprise move which sounds like either getting ND or poaching a current conference among the P4, or possibly creating a set of teams as an eastern pod near the Mississippi/Texas region
A)Negotiate with Notre Dame to join,
B) Welcome back Cal and Stanford or not given their poor athletic fan interest
C) Poach the Big12- likely teams from the western half of Big12- Ok St, Texas Tech, TCU, Utah, BYU
D) Poach the BIG10- Indiana, Minnesota, Iowa, Purdue, Wisconsin, Northwestern, unlikely but some teams may see the lure of a better route to the playoffs outside of the crowded BIG10
E) Poach SEC teams- Arkansas, Miss St, Ole Miss, Texas A&M, it doesn’t make financial sense but maybe a pod of them is in the works
Fall back plan for Phase 2:
Bring in Memphis and Tulane stay at 8 for now.
Phase 3;
Add Gonzaga as non football
Check with Utah, Cal and Stanford after a year to see if they would return
My ideal would be a combination of ND + a mid-western pod formed from the poaching of SEC/Big10/Big12 and the conference would be forward thinking and not simply reactive etc. A megamedia deal with CW/TNT/Apple/Amazon including streaming and PAC12 production
Something like this:
WSU/OSU
SDSU/Fresno St
Boise St/Colorado St
Tulane/Memphis
ND
Gonzaga
Phase 4:
Schools with recent history of success, fan support, and national brand but neglected as less than by the big brand elites:
OK St, Utah, BYU, Arkansas, Texas A&M, Iowa St, Iowa, TCU
Teams with little hope of breaking through in their current conferences that may want greener pastures:
Indiana, Purdue, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Vanderbilt, Miss St, Texas Tech,
Go for 1,3,or 5 of these school and see if they bite, to try and fill out the midwest/Texas end of the new conference footprint. I kind of think Utah/BYU might be the starting point. Then appeal to Arkansas, TCU, Texas Tech with the old Southwest conference appeal.
It may be all pie in the sky, but I can’t stop thinking of the dominoes falling if Notre Dame committed to join the PAC12. It would certainly be a swing for the fences and upset all of the current structures including a dismissal of what PAC12 get in a media deal. ND instantly creates interest for others to reevaluate where they are sitting and whether the PAC would be worth a look. Cal/Stanford would likely reconsider as well, so they may need 2 spots, but I’m not sure the parameters of intense fan interest and great football facilities is met by Stanford or Cal. They may not get to rejoin.
Pretty sure her swing for the fences is going national. There’s no reason for any current P4 teams to leave for half the money (or less) from their current deals. This isn’t about on the field competitiveness for these programs anymore. It’s purely about money.
Notre Dame’s schedule is 75% locked in for eternity due to their traditional rivalry scheduling agreements.
The forward thinking play is to create a conference that is clearly better than the current G5 so you get recognized as a power conference of sorts. The money isn’t there to lure anyone “big.” This is about finding the visionary schools with the will and the means to BECOME big.
Swinging for the fences is Memphis/Tulane and getting more CFP money. Don’t overthink this.
Yeah.
I was more interested in her comments about her seeing current realignment decisions being made without consideration for what the future will be, “three, five, or even eight,” years down the road.
Still zero people out there understanding that owning a network has a shit ton of value in that future. They will all be tied to providers who are not in positions of strength, compared to the techs. And they’ll be without the means to be nimble for several years.
If so she should really re-think her choice of words.
You are on the right track but it’s going to be hard to lure away schools with no media rights. It would be interesting if we could get notre dame as a scheduling partner away from the ACC. That would be big.
I feel like Lucy’s holding out the football again here with all this noise about Memphis/Tulane/etc.
Yahoo Sports has the Pac12 estimating $12-$15m per school for a TV deal.
It all seems so optimistic – feels like a LOTB situation to me. Maybe I’m just traumatized like all Beaver fans, but I won’t believe any of it until it happens.
Memphis seems like a great candidate for the ACC if FSU can figure out how to get out. Tulane isn’t such a wonderful get without Memphis. And I feel like there’s no chance that USF will actually commit to joining the PACIFIC 12 conference – too far to travel.
Feels like they’ll all say no, we’ll have to scramble and back fill with UNLV, Nevada, Wyoming and UTSA or something, and then we’ll be back to basically merging with the Mountain West again.
I’m hoping I’m wrong, but all the rhetoric seems too good to be true right now.
If Memphis/Tulane fail they won’t take more than 2 more MWC schools and would still be in better position than a full merger.
USF wouldn’t be a big loss. Memphis and Tulane are the real prizes. Build the rest in TX or the MWC footprint.
I hate the idea of USF, Memphis being in a western conference tracks with America’s geography (Western Conference of NBA and PCL in AAA baseball). USF being in a western conference does not.
This is college re alignment now days. Throw geography out the window
I’d prefer the PAC not participate in that.
Here’s the Yahoo article that explains why we’re all waiting on Memphis https://sports.yahoo.com/go-west-the-next-wave-of-realignment-is-in-memphis-hands-135625431.html
I’d bet that ESPN and Yornak are talking over how much it would take to bait Memphis to hold-ff on PAC12 because they will get an ESPN approved invite to the Big12. If these AAC schools are just negotiating for leverage to get into the Big12, then what do you do?
Begging Memphis doesn’t equal swinging for the fences in my book.
She said the amount of schools reaching out has been overwhelming and they have had a tough time keeping up with all of the communication/responses. I hope that isn’t hyperbole, and that it isn’t just a bunch of MWC, Sun Belt, AAC and WAC schools hoping for a life-line on PAC12’s dime.
If they are just using the PAC to get into the Big 12 you take Air Force and UNLV instead.
idk…
The talk about our GOR lining up with the Big XIIIIII TV deal in 2031 seems a lot coincidental… as is the talk of UCONN joining them as football only until then… when their Olympics also join… as is the talk of Zags and some eastern teams who also provide some value joining us… as is the Big XIIIIII deal with Raycom and us having a TV network… and now there’s talk of the ACC GOR being shortened and all of that coming to a head around 2030.
Way too many coincidences.
The problem is I can see numerous paths being viable conspiracies, which means there are a lot more behind the scenes.
A 5 year GOR seems reasonable for everyone really.
Do we really wanna be locked in longer if Bray builds a regular playoff team and Oregon fades to the middle of the B1G and who knows what value OSU has to the next TV deal? And if we stink, or the TV deals is bad, teams are going to bail either way.
Hey beavrecruiting, any idea of what recruits are in for the game? I see probably the biggest one of them all, Neyans for baseball is. Would love it if the staff could convince him to skip mlb for now ?
There’s only 1 official visitor I’m aware of and a bunch of unofficials.
3* CB David Madison is the official.
There’s a big “5*” kid that the recruiting sites will try to trick you into subscribing to learn about.
Dont do it, he’s a class of 2027 kid (current HS Soph)
Forgot his name already, but not really important
Weird idea floating around now that Hawaii is interesting as a target because of extreme betting interest and an additional time zone slot.
Any takers?
It’s possible as an additional benefit. They would only get a partial share, because they have a deal to broadcast their home games regionally, and they would be football only, with their Olympics staying in the Big West. They currently don’t get a vote in the MWC, because of that same status there.
But national telecasts and brokering marquee noncon home games for distribution could easily be a thing. Hawai’i has had some big name schools visit in the last decade. We could make it a Week 0 thing that some blue blood kicks off the season in Hawai’i.
And Zags would fill in the Olympics side, which makes sense as a travel partner and destination for Olympics. Flying into Spokane just to drive to and from Pullman and fly out again isn’t worth it. Zags as their travel partners makes even more sense than UW.
The best way to include Hawaii is a 6 game scheduling alliance like ND has with the ACC which gives them half a schedule so they can go Independent in football.
Navy, Army, and Air Force should be Independents too.
College football needs more independents.
Only positives I see:
Recruiting trips/pipeline
Road games for fans
Chance to play an extra home game to cover travel costs every other year.
That extra time zone slot just means more chance you’ll be starting games after 8:00 PST. The population isnt big enough to move the needle. On par with Montana.
I hope the defense shows up tomorrow. I’m still traumatized by that horrible “ keep the play in front of you” defense. Please, please play aggressive! Would love to see a few different type of blitzes to help our anemic pass rush.
Purdue doesn’t exactly have burners at receiver. Think we’ll be fine tomorrow.
Man, I hope so. One of the worst game olans I’ve seen in awhile. I hope the coaches can restore my confidence in them.
For a moment there, I thought we lost Mike Riley!
https://x.com/KEZI9/status/1836888027286638942?t=uJ8wS0YdqPj0b-JB1e4QHw&s=19
“A man is dead after being hit by a semi truck while riding his bike in the slow lane on Interstate 5 early in the morning on September 9, Oregon State Police said.”
Nebraska’s got a pretty good team/coaches. I like their offense. Real good freshman QB!
If Brett Bilema was wearing orange he would look like Dee Andros, The Great Pumpkin! He’s a big ol’ boy!!
Wow! Andros was 9-2 against the Ducks!
Nebraska finds a way to choke away a game again lol
How in the hell does Washington state find a great quarterback year after year?
It all started with Sonny Sixkiller. An Oregon kid
Oops , he went to UW. My bad
SJSU has rallied to lead Wazzu 31-24
High difference in penalties
Huge
Little brother struggling against SJSU tonight
It’s like they watched the Beavs D against the yucks and went full “hold my beer”.
Except they have a kicker? SJSU has 4 recievers better than what I’ve seen on OSU so far this year.
Wazzu kicker shanks a PAT but nails a 52 yard FG as time expires?
OT on the Palouse
Holy crap what a terrible decision by Mateer. Only need a FG and instead forces a late throw that gets picked.
Heading to 2OT
This is some next level “Coug’n it” tonight!
Good lord I dunno if you can even call that a “win”.
There’s another w in the win column, no one will remember how at the end of the season
Dickert is the man, post game interview admits to being out coached
Most get out coached by Niumatalolo, so hard to dog him on that
That was a really fun game to watch
SJSU looked pretty good already in year 1 under Coach Niumatalolo.
I was sortof expecting a triple option run team and instead they were slinging it all over the place. Really impressive that he can switch styles and still be effective
Yeah, I keep seeing some of these Mountain West scores and now wonder if the Beavs can beat them. Passive defense and a plodding offense is not a winning philosphy.
Game thread up early, and it’s a doozy.
Did WAZZU “Coug It” or do they have to lose for it to count as an official “Coug?”
“