Sportsinteraction.com have some early Heisman Trophy odds. Sean Mannion is currently 10th, which seems a bit high to me. Mariotta is projected 2nd and Brett Hundley 6th, so the Pac-12 is well represented this year.

The Pac-12 championship odds look about right. +3300 to win the conference outright, and +1200 to win the North. Oregon is the favorite across the board. I think a nice long shot might be Arizona State and/or Washington.

Obviously it’s good for these schools and players to get away from the NCAA (worst. institution. ever.), but this is going to quickly result in paying players at the biggest schools in these power 5 conferences. This will be done under the guise of helping student athletes, equality, and other populist rhetoric, but the real story here is that the most powerful schools were threatened by the TV contacts over the last few years leveling out the playing field. Now they need new rules to override that. After all, they can’t have lowly OSU raking in 25mil a year, with which they might be able to compete for a conference title once a decade.

The timing of all this is no coincidence.

The NCAA were the old status-quo gatekeepers. Now the status quo is more disguised under “autonomy”, a pleasant word that makes it sound like everyone has a say and there is no overseer. But make no mistake, we are now guaranteed Ohio State, USC, et al will continue to buy their way into big games. Cool. I don’t know about you guys, but I am so drawn to this word “autonomy”. It really makes me think Oregon State has some power to make their own rules. /Sarc

Also, what does this do for education, which was already hyper-inflated (i.e. a Harvard student from 1950 is not nearly the same intelligence as one from 2014) to have dumb, multimillionaire jocks dominating campus with their cars, off campus mansions, etc. I’m a few years ahead of myself with that, but it is the direction we’re headed. Why? Good question. If equality was the actual goal, the way to make it happen is through scholarship reform. Such as (a) limiting the number of scholarships for top 25 programs (b) limiting how many athletes a school can sign from a given State/area, etc. Yes it punishes success, but if that success is founded on nothing more than serendipitous location, do we really care? Reducing scholarships for top teams makes them feel the pain of lower tier schools. But the goal is not parity; it’s to maintain the status quo. We know ESPN, the SEC, et al are all behind keeping things as is, and there is no better way than giving their conferences the ability to make rules.

Bill Snyder realizes this, as he ironically speaks about it on said ESPN.

You could say ESPN and boosters have now taken over for the NCAA.  I might not watch a single game this year. Last year I watched only OSU games and noting else, but I don’t want to support this train wreck of a sport in any way. The fan is now faced with a moral dilemma whether to support their team or support the machine. We cannot do the former without the latter.

Rivals has a bunch of free videos up:

https://oregonstate.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1667195

VanderVeen, Mamma Machado Day 3, Riley, etc. Just go through them all.

Looks like they’re trying to have Bolden replace Cooks. Haven’t heard anything great about Hunter Jarmon (this guy says he’s not elite). Depressing. Bolden is okay, but he lacks body control/has crazy legs. Depressing Larry Scott is beating out Hunt, too. Malcolm Marable in the dime package? No. This guy cannot see the field. Period.

Riley looks tired/old — hard to envision this guy innovating or doing anything great at this point.

Also, Ryan Nall getting looks at RB.

Some notes from Eggers

Issac clearly a bonehead, who has now put the team in jeopardy:

“The healing had stopped and (the break) had gotten a little worse,” the son of OSU defensive line coach Joe Seumalo says. “My fault, I think. I was so eager to get back quickly, I was doing a little too much on it.”

And more:

Worst-case scenario would be that the healing process is so slow, Seumalo chooses to redshirt.

“That possibility has crossed my mind, but I’ll cross that bridge if it comes,” he said. “I don’t really want to think of that right now.”

What an idiot “doing too much” on it…

And Riley on the line:

“It’s not that great right now,” Riley says. “I still have high hopes that by the time the season gets rolling, or shortly into it, that we’ll be good up front with a solid five starters, and then have the best depth we’ve had in a long time. This picture can change with the good health of Isaac and Grant.

Hope is not a strategy.

Bad planning by the coaches coupled with poor decisions by individuals make the odds of this all coming together miniscule.

This looks like yet another disaster for OSU’s offensive line. They have not been serviceable since the pre-Remmer line (2006/7?). I don’t know about you guys, but reading that report does not get me excited.

We’re putting together an AB fantasy football league.

The only rule is this: people who quit when their team is bad should not join.

If you are interested and uber competitive shoot me an email, and I will send you an invite.